Tobacco Farmers Experiment With Burley

Source from:  Reidsville, NC wfmynews2.com 08/18/2005

Now that the tobacco quota program is not regulating what kind of tobacco can be grown where, Triad farmers are branching out to grow burley tobacco. Cecil Isley has farmed tobacco for 38 years. But this season, he's learning as he grows. This season is the first in decades the tobacco quota program has not been in place. Under the program, flue-cured tobacco was generally the only kind grown in the Triad. "Burley tobacco areas were typically west of here," says Scott Shoulars, Director of the Rockingham County Extension. "It was grown in the mountains of North Carolina into Kentucky and Tennessee." Cecil Isley is one of 10 Triad farmers with a contract to grow burley tobacco. "The curiosity - I just wanted to raise some," he says. Burley tobacco is allowed to grow taller than flue-cured before harvest, so that makes cutting it down a little more difficult. But unlike flue-cured, burley can dry itself, and that eliminates the cost of electric bills and fuel. "Curing expenses are really up this year because of the high price of curing fuel," says David Smith, a crop science extension specialist. Extension agents say the tobacco companies have 1700 acres of burley under contract statewide, and that's a good start for an experiment. Enditem