Burley Tobacco Comes Down off the Mountains

Source from:  By Monte Mitchell JOURNAL REPORTER 08/19/2005

Farmers learn to grow air-cured variety now that artificial boundaries gone The federal tobacco-quota system that was in place for more than 65 years kept the growing of burley tobacco mainly in the mountains of North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky. In this first season since the quota system was ended, those artificial growing boundaries are gone. Now, many Piedmont farmers are switching from flue-cured to burley tobacco. Agents with the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service helped teach farmers about making the switch to burley during a field day yesterday in Rockingham County, as they did on Tuesday in Surry County. Surry County growers had just a few acres of burley tobacco last year. This year, they have 100 to 150 acres, according to statistics from the extension service. The biggest difficulty for new burley growers is finding a place to protect the tobacco while it air cures, said Joanna Radford, a cooperative-extension agent in Surry County. Farmers may grow 6,000 to 7,000 plants an acre. "You have to find a place for that many plants," Radford said. "Usually a building or a barn that they have, or an outdoor structure. Somewhere where they can hang the burley tobacco up, find some kind of shelter for it, and then wait for it to cure. That right now is the biggest obstacle." Farmers in Wilkes County plan to overcome that barrier by curing the tobacco inside old chicken houses, said Matt Miller, an extension agent in Wilkes County. "That eliminates the capital expense while they're seeing (if growing burley is practical)," he said. Wilkes County growers hadn't harvested burley in the past 25 to 30 years, but have 150 acres in burley this year. Miller said that a lot of burley acreage has been reduced in the North Carolina mountain counties. Many were small growers who switched to other enterprises. When Congress ended the federal tobacco program, experts predicted shifts in where tobacco is grown. There has been a considerable change in Kentucky and Tennessee, which produced 90 percent of the nation's burley tobacco before the buyout of the tobacco quota system. This year, Kentucky and Tennessee are expected to have their lowest burley harvests since 1927, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. But North Carolina production of burley tobacco is predicted to be about 6.8 million pounds, 3 percent above 2004, according to the N.C. Department of Agriculture. In Kentucky, experts are blaming the federal tobacco buyout and a summer drought for what's expected to be a 31 percent reduction in the burley harvest compared with last year. "Some of the people looked at the economics of the prices they were offered and decided that wasn't enough to suit them," said Gary Palmer, a tobacco specialist at the University of Kentucky. "Some of those people hung on the last few years hoping for this buyout. When it came, they had no intention of growing any more tobacco." Burley tobacco typically accounts for about 30 percent of the leaf used in U.S. cigarette blends, while flue-cured leaf accounts for 60 percent, and the remaining 10 percent is Oriental tobacco. Though flue-cured and burley leaf are grown in similar fashion, they are harvested and cured differently. Burley growers harvest the entire stalk of the plant and allow it to air dry for a couple of months. Farmers use forced hot air on flue-cured tobacco, but can save those energy costs in working burley. One of those newcomers learning about the change is Mark Wheeler. His family has grown flue-cured tobacco on their Rockingham County farm for 50 years. He learned a painful lesson this week about harvesting burley tobacco. Wheeler whacked his hand with a hatchet as he pounded in a stake. He had to get 15 stitches. "You learn real quick that you've got to wear gloves," he joked. Scientists at N.C. State University are working on a project to research burley production and teach farmers in the Piedmont and Eastern North Carolina how to grow it. The N.C. State researchers say that Philip Morris USA, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and Universal Leaf have contracted with 250 farmers in the Piedmont and coastal plain of North Carolina to grow 2.5 million pounds of burley this year, worth about $3.75 million. Phillip Morris also signed agreements earlier this summer with farmers to grow burley in Pennsylvania and Maryland, two states that had not been part of the traditional burley belt. Enditem