Kentucky: State's Tobacco Farmers Look to the Future

Source from:  Louisville (KY) Courier-Journal 10/14/2004

So many tobacco-buyout proposals have gone up in political smoke in recent years that some Kentucky farmers could hardly believe this week's news. A $10.14billion buyout of the existing poundage quotas had been approved. Holders of quotas would be paid $7 a pound during the next 10 years — based on 2002 quotas — and growers of leased crops would be paid $3 a pound. "Most of them are very skeptical still, and saying, `We'll believe it when we get the checks,'" said Joyce Smith, who works in the office at the Southern States Cooperative in Springfield. Soon after Monday's announcement, the topic of conversation among Kentucky farmers shifted from the long-belabored question of whether there would ever be a buyout, to what will happen when government price supports and marketing quotas on burley and flue-cured tobacco are dropped next year. A matter of trust "The companies are going to deal with the farmers that they can trust — and they know who they are," said James Barton of Scott County, who along with his brother, Robert, is growing 185 acres of burley this year. "Raising burley tobacco is actually a little more of an art than a science," Barton said. "The growers that companies have been getting good consistent tobacco from over the years, they're going to want all they can get from them. But now some of the ones that have been messing around with them are going to be on the bottom of the list." Barton anticipates that tobacco companies may tell growers what varieties to plant and how the crops should be handled for a premium price. "It's going to change the market tremendously," said Bruce Wade, a 25-year-old Mercer County farmer who is raising 110,000 pounds of burley this year. "I think it's excellent for the person who wants to quit growing tobacco, difficult for the person who's planning on starting to grow tobacco, and for the people in the middle it's sort of mediocre." Wallace Sheperson, who owns B&S Farm Supply in the Mercer County community of Mayo, finds himself in the middle of the buyout as both a farmer and businessman. Decisions to come "I've got 30 acres of tobacco, but a lot of it's leased," Sheperson said. He doesn't know how the buyout will affect his business or his farming operation, and doesn't yet know whether he will continue to raise the 30 acres of tobacco or try to grow other crops. "I've got some real good land over on the river ... and I could start raising alfalfa hay real easy, but everybody else in the country would be raising it then," Sheperson said. Al Pedigo, 48, of Allen County, who grows 80 acres of burley, said approval of the buyout will help many Kentucky farmers make better decisions about the future. He will use part of the buyout money to pay off some farm debts and improve his cattle herd, but will continue to raise tobacco. "I'm just glad it's behind us," he said. "This has kind of driven our whole thought process the last four or five years. I really think it's an overall positive step for agriculture in Kentucky. We were looking at continued quota cuts and lower demand. The flue-cured growers were looking at a cut of 25 to 30 percent, and that would have been really hard for them." Enditem