USA: Tobacco Takes Beating

Source from:  The Wilson Daily Times 07/10/2012

The more time Art Bradley spends riding around Edgecombe County, the more crops he find that were either destroyed or damaged during Sunday's storm. "It is pretty severe in places," said Bradley, who is director of the Edgecombe County Cooperative Extension Service. As of Tuesday morning, Bradley estimated roughly 600 acres of tobacco in Edgecombe County were destroyed by the storm, another 1,200 acres of tobacco was damaged by wind or hail and another 600 acres of tobacco was moderately damaged meaning farmers are trying to stand the stalks back up in the field. The tobacco that was destroyed was destroyed by both wind and hail. Driving through Edgecombe County, it's easy to spot the tobacco that took a beating. Hail left multiple, large holes behind in leaves. In some fields it looks like someone took their hands and pushed the leaves on about one-third of the stalk downward snapping their stems, leaving the leaves dangling from the stalk. "Tobacco took the brunt of it from a crops standpoint," Bradley said. Bradley said he's not sure about meteorological terms but he knows the destruction in the area from Sharpsburg to Pinetops and around Bulluck Elementary School back to the Wilson County line experienced damage "as bad as any hurricane we've had in this area." Bradley said trees are down, roofs are off houses, a barn fell and killed two cows and roofs were partially blown off two chicken houses. "We had a wide swath of destruction through that area," he said. Crops were damaged at varying levels outside of Tarboro and in the northern part of Edgecombe County near Leggett. Bradley said most of the tobacco affected by the storm had been topped already. "We don't have a whole lot harvested yet," he said. The tobacco up above Tarboro was less mature and still had blooms in it. But Bradley said hail broke stalks there in some instances. There was scattered hail damage to tobacco across Wilson County, according to Norman Harrell, Wilson County agriculture extension agent. "Probably a greater concern was the wind damage that we had," Harrell said. "There is some tobacco twisted around, blown over." Leaves were also broken and blown off the plants. Harrell said damage on the northern and eastern side of the county was a little worse. Much of the damage was concentrated along the Wilson and Edgecombe county line from Sharpsburg toward Macclesfield. "The streak in Edgecombe was greater, wider and worse than in Wilson," Harrell said. One problem farmers are running into is the fact that tobacco stalks are snapping when workers try to stand up the stalks. That's because while Sunday's storm brought wind, it didn't bring us much rain so the ground isn't wet. Since Sunday, farmers have been busy assessing the damage, talking to insurance agents, and trying to set up the tobacco blown over. Gerald Tyner, who farms in the Town Creek community with his two sons, is among the farmers dealing with damaged tobacco. Harrell spoke with Tyner on Monday. Harrell said the Tyners have been probably impacted as much as anybody in the storm. The Tyners are having workers walk across all 400 acres of their tobacco. Harrell said not all of the tobacco was blown down but the stalks that were leaned over need to be straightened. Straight stalks are key when it comes to harvest since farmers today use automated tobacco harvesters. Farmers also have to be able to get sprayers into the field to spray for suckers in tobacco. Bradley said managing suckers from now on and keeping them from taking over the tobacco crop will be difficult in addition to trying to harvest the crop. Setting up tobacco stalks means farmers will have to invest more money, which cuts into profits. Bradley said decisions have to be made regarding crop insurance. Some growers also carry wind and hail insurance in addition to regular crop insurance. Growers statewide have planted 154,000 acres of flue-cured tobacco, according to figures released June 29 by the N.C. Department of Agriculture. In Edgecombe County, 7,360 acres of tobacco were harvested yielding 7.6 million pounds of tobacco in 2011. In Wilson County, 9,000 acres of tobacco were harvested yielding 15.5 million pounds of tobacco in 2011, state figures show. "We've had a lot of challenges," Bradley said of tobacco this year. "A lot of rainfall in May set us backwards both from root damage due to too much water and we had some leaching of nitrogen that delayed the crop." We had rainfall early in the season then it turned hot and dry. "A lot of the tobacco was at a point where it looked like it was going to make a crop," Bradley said. "Now, we've had this. It has been a difficult season so far." Bradley pointed out that farmers lost their tobacco crop last year to Hurricane Irene. "We really needed a good year this year," Bradley said. Harrell estimates rainfall in Wilson County on Sunday at around three-tenths of an inch. But as Harrell describes it, farmers whose crops were not impacted by the storm did get the "blessing" of the rainfall. The one and one-half inches of rain received in Wilson County last week was critical, Harrell said. Then the extreme heat arrived so what rain did fall Sunday was needed. Harrell estimates 80 to 90 percent of the county still needs a good rain for the crops. Tobacco is at different stages right now. Harrell said some tobacco harvesting started 10 to 14 days ago. Some of this year's crop is already out of the curing barn. More growers expect to start harvesting this week and Harrell said most will be harvesting by next week. "A lot of tobacco is ready to be harvested," Harrell said. Enditem