Tobacco Harvest Sets in Wet, Cool Summer Could Hurt Weight

Source from:  www.courierpress.com 08/31/2009

Barry Ellis of Poplar Grove, Ky., maneuvers his trailer near the freshly cut dark tobacco he and his brother, Josh Ellis, grew this season. The tobacco this year was taller than normal, creating challenges for the farmers in hanging and curing the broad-leafed plant. An old saying comes to mind for Western Kentucky tobacco farmer Joseph T. Elliott as he assesses his 70-acre burley tobacco crop this year. "They used to say: A wet year will starve you to death and a dry year will worry you to death," said the Philpot, Ky., farmer. This year falls somewhere in between. Tobacco farmer Josh Ellis loads freshly spiked dark tobacco onto a transport rack in Poplar Grove, Ky., on Thursday afternoon. Ellis and his brother, Barry, grew 11 acres of tobacco this season. DENNY SIMMONS / Courier & Press Meliton Morales sharpens his tobacco knife with a file before heading back to work after the eight-man crew finished lunch Thursday afternoon. "After everything, this year's crop has been pretty fair," he said. And Elliott has a lot of years of burley farming to compare this year's crop to. "I'm 70 years old, and I've been farming tobacco my entire life. I was born in it," he said. "And I've never missed a year." Elliott and his crew of 10 workers have recently cut nearly a third of his burley crop. The yellow-leafed tobacco typically is harvested in late August and early September and is used principally in cigarettes. Since the demise of the Depression-era quota system for tobacco, each farmer now has a contract to grow a set number of pounds of leaf for a manufacturer. But Elliot said the pounds harvested per acre often vary from year to year, depending on how wet or dry the season has been. This year's rather wet and cool summer has produced heavy, wet tobacco that Elliot anticipates will lose much weight once it is hung and dried in the barns. "With this crop, we expect to get on the lower side of 2,500 pounds per acre," he said. Last year, Elliot said, his burley harvest was "one of the best he's ever seen." The warmer weather brought perfect conditions for the tobacco to grow, and the relatively dry spring allowed the tobacco plants to establish a firm root system, he said. "Right now, the tobacco is a pretty good size," he said. "It's going to be a real usable crop, but it's just a little bit wetter than we'd like." Greg Henson, McLean County University of Kentucky Extension agent for agriculture and natural resources, said depending on the individual farmer and contractor, burley tobacco prices this year may run at $1.80 to $1.90 per pound. That's up from the average price last year; however, Henson said, it isn't "especially high" because farmers paid much higher prices for materials and resources this year. Enditem