Tobacco Farmers Till Land for Leaf Growing Season

Source from:  By Tom Murphy, Rocky Mount Telegram Thursday, April 13, 2006 04/14/2006

Nash County tobacco farmers are tilling the land and lining up supplies for the upcoming farming season. Greenhouses across the county are filled to capacity with tobacco plants, said Nash County Cooperative Extension Service Director Charlie Tyson. Farmers should begin transplanting next week, he said. Tyson said tobacco companies have increased contracts with farmers for the 2006 buying season, and farmers have expanded their acreage to meet increased demand. However, expanded acreage will mean a lower profit margin for tobacco farmers. "We have not transplanted any tobacco plants yet, but we are getting very close," Tyson said. "Seedlings in the greenhouses are growing very well — with the least amount of overall problems. "We have had a relatively smooth growing season for tobacco plants in greenhouses." Tyson said most of the tobacco greenhouses in the county are at capacity. "We don't know yet how much the tobacco acreage expansion will be, but I'm guessing there will be about a 25 percent increase compared to last year when farmers planted 7,032 acres," he said. The tobacco acreage expansion is due to the lower leaf prices brought on by deregulation of tobacco production and the tobacco buyout, Tyson said. Tyson said farmers have concerns that they are transplanting tobacco in soil that lacks the proper moisture level. "Our soil was not recharged with rain water over the winter months, as it typically is," he said. "Irrigation ponds have not been recharged, so we're beginning the season with very little margin for copying with dry weather." Cotton acreage in Nash County will be close to the same as last year, Tyson said. Farmers planted 14,429 acres of cotton last year, he said. "We think cotton acreage will be relatively stable, because we are in our final year of the 2002 Farm Bill — which provides government payments to cotton growers to have stable production," he said. "The bill provides farmers a subsidy when the world market price for cotton gets to a certain level. "The subsidy provides a floor so that our cotton growers don't transition out of cotton production." Tyson said farmers are cautious about their 2006 crop planting. "They have got one eye on what they're doing," he said. "The other eye is on Washington, D.C., where the 2007 Farm Bill is being developed." There will be some changes in commodity subsidies in the new bill that favor growers less, Tyson said. "Indications are it will be a very different animal from what we are accustomed," he said. "I don't know the ways it will be different yet, but there are some provisions in it that support some of our commodities that will not hold up to agreements in the World Trade Organization." Tyson said strawberry farmers averted damage from frost Sunday. "Most strawberry farmers provided frost protection with overhead irrigation, which protects blooms and new berries that have already formed," he said. "The water runs all night and into the morning until the temperature rises above the freezing point. "Then the crop is safe again. We think we escaped the frost." Tyson said a lot of farmland is being prepared in Nash County. "Equipment is running in the field," he said. "Farmers are preparing the land and are busy lining up supplies of fertilizer, seed and pesticides." Enditem