Person County's Tobacco Totals Expected to Drop off Drastically

Source from:  By PHYLISS BOATWRIGHT,C-T Staff Writer 03/07/2005

As spring draws nearer, some optimistic farmers in Person County have begun seeding tobacco plants in greenhouses, although the amount of tobacco to be grown this year is drastically less than in years past. Additionally, a new kind of leaf will be grown this year. Derek Day, director of the Person County Extension Service, said this week that he had no concrete figures on how many farmers planned to continue growing tobacco in the wake of federal legislation that did away with the decades-old tobacco quota system. But if he had to guess, Day said, he would estimate that this year's crop would amount to about 60 percent of the tobacco grown last year, a figure that was about 50 percent of what was grown just a few years ago. Day said many growers this year did not receive a contract to grow tobacco from one of "the majors," or big tobacco companies. Those who are not on contract, he said, are waiting to see how much leaf they may be able to grow for U.S. Flue Cure Tobacco Growers which is now manufacturing cigarettes in the former Vector plant in Timberlake. "There are more (growers) who would like to stay in" the growing of flue cured tobacco, Day said, "and some who'd like to be on a bigger scale," but because of the contract situation, many are forced to wait and see if they can grow and if so, just how much they will be able to sell. And many growers, Day said, are planning to stay in the business one more year just to see if they can compete and make a living doing what they have always done. "If they can't," he said, "they'll do something else." A group of Person County growers is looking at alternative crops, Day said, which include burley tobacco. With the quota system gone, there are no more restrictions on where burley can be grown, and some farmers here plan to switch to that leaf type, which they can sell in Danville, Va. Day said there is a deficit of burley tobacco for sale, unlike flue cured, of which there is no shortage. He expects a little over 100 acres of burley to be planted here in 2005. With the new type leaf, however, will come a whole new way of doing things for the growers. Day said burley growing will essentially be like "going back to the 1950s." The leaf has a much longer curing season — from September until the end of November whereas flue cured tobacco is planted in May, harvested and cured in September and "it's over in October." Curing is completely different for burley, Day said, and much more labor intensive. Instead of packing the leaf in the bulk barns to dry, growers must cut off half the burley stalk and hang it on old-fashioned sticks to cure. Growers who plan to try their hands at burley production this year will contract with three companies, said Day, adding that, "I have no doubt we can grow it and cure it. We'll just have to think about things a little differently." Enditem