Tobacco Acreage up, So is Grower Confidence

Source from:  Karen McConkey Staff writer JONES COUNTY 07/15/2005

Year after year, Bobby Davenport continues to plant his faith, along with various crops, praying for the best. The Jones County farmer grew up on a farm, and began his own operation 31 years ago. Life today as a farmer is substantially different than it was when Davenport started tending cotton, soybeans, corn and tobacco. "All of it has gotten a lot more complicated," Davenport said. "I grew up on a farm, and been farming all these years myself, but I can tell you, even my tractors are more complicated. Used to be when I could work on 'em myself, but it's not like that anymore." In the aftermath of the tobacco buyout, surprisingly more tobacco is in the fields this year. Buy-out skeptics theorized that once small growers got out of the business, less tobacco would be planted, bringing a higher premium to those who opted to stick with growing the golden leaf. It hasn't held true for Greene, Lenoir or Jones counties. Davenport is growing more tobacco this year than last. His contract with Phillip Morris allowed him more quota and Davenport hopes it will help offset some of the costs associated with his cotton crop. Jones County's Farm Service Agency Director Lewis Humphrey said his office hasn't completed the crop intention data for 2005 yet, but he already knows that his county is growing more tobacco this year. "A lot of people may be surprised, but tobacco has been the backbone of Jones County," Humphrey said. "Until they come up with something else, our farmers are still going to plant it." Strong tobacco prices and substantial contracts with tobacco companies have given tobacco growers more confidence in their crop, Humphrey said. Jones County growers have registered 1,900 acres of tobacco, up 255 acres from 2004. Lenoir County FSA Director Pat Williams was surprised when she tallied the 2005 crop intentions just this week and discovered an increase in tobacco acreage. "I think like a lot of people, I thought after the buyout, we'd see less tobacco grown. That doesn't appear to be the case," Williams said. Lenoir County tobacco growers are putting in 5,661.84 acres of tobacco this year, 650 more acres of the leaf this year than in 2004. Greene County FSA Director Richard Toler said since the tobacco buyout, more tobacco is being grown this year. "We're up about 800 acres in tobacco," Toler said. "Some of the growers who got contracts (with tobacco companies) got increases in their quotas." Toler said the buyout was to phase out the smaller, less efficient grower and theoretically replace them with the more experienced, larger growers. With government regulation out of the picture, less cost is involved in growing tobacco for those with contracts. "All that adds up to making tobacco growers more competitive in a world market," Toler said. Greene County tobacco growers have 4,926 acres this year compared to 4,100 last year. Billy McLawhorn has been a crop consultant for 23 years since beginning his business, McLawhorn Crop Consultants, Inc., in 1982. A crop expert and farmer, he knows the ups and downs of the agribusiness industry. Farmers by nature are reluctant to make sudden, dramatic changes, even in the face of such sweeping change that the tobacco buyout brought, McLawhorn said. Overall, area crops have maintained an even keel, he said. "I think we've seen a few more acres of soybeans, but there really hasn't been a shift in what we're growing in this area," McLawhorn said. "I think the biggest thing going on now is that people give more thought to what their plans are. The stakes are so high and they are reluctant to make dramatic changes." But change is demanded and producers often must respond rapidly, he said. "Compared to how they (farmers) did things 20 years ago, they've had to learn to make pretty quick changes," McLawhorn said. "That doesn't mean they're always comfortable with it, but they change because the world is moving so fast they have to go ahead and do it. We weren't going to see megachanges in a year or so when they have been growing one crop for the past 75 or 100 years." Enditem