Tobacco Trade Leaves Farmers Racing the Clock

Source from:  courierpress.com 09/16/2008

Big, green grasshoppers and small, black crickets hop from leaf to leaf trying to find cover as the slow-moving tractors made their way down the long rows of tobacco. Two crews of eight migrant workers hurry alongside the tobacco wagons the tractors pulled in hopes of getting the last of the burley off the ground and hung to cure in a nearby Stanley, Ky., barn. Massive black clouds in the west crept ever closer, and the workers quickened their pace to make sure Becky and Marty Mitchell's crop didn't get caught in the rain. "A lot of other people have already housed their tobacco," Becky Mitchell said. Their crops were among the last to be cut since a group of area farmers all use the same crews, and the Mitchells apparently were the last in line. "You just have to wait your turn," she said. Tobacco farming has changed quite a bit in the past few years, with many small growers dropping out of the business. The farmers who've stuck with it now are contracting to sell their leaf directly to the big tobacco companies. Long gone are the many tobacco warehouses in Owensboro and Henderson, Ky. And instead of five-acre operations, many tobacco farmers are planting plots of 20 to 50 acres. With two rows of tobacco loaded onto the trailer, a worker harpoons the ends of each row with a stake to anchor the tobacco in place for the trip to the barn. "Agua," tractor driver Denny Grant shouts, signaling break time. "Agua," members of the crew respond before gathering around the orange cooler, filling up 20-ounce cups, drinking their fill, relaxing a bit and then getting back to the last half-acre of the six-acre plot. So far, they were winning their race with the impending rain. Enditem