Burley Tobacco Ccrop is Smaller, Better

Source from:  journalnow.com THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 11/13/2007

Burley tobacco once was an automatic cash crop for farmers in North Carolina's mountains. But since the tobacco quota buyout, fewer farmers have planted smaller yet better crops. "We had the best crop of tobacco we've ever grown," said Warren Anders of Madison County who has been in the burley business for 50 years. "The color's real good, the quality is good." Anders planted 20 acres this year instead of the 75 to 100 he and his son have planted in the past. Part of the reason is the higher cost of fertilizer and fuel as well as stagnant prices. Migrant labor to gather the crop also is harder to find. The other side of the story is the tobacco quota buyout, which gave farmers and land owners a payment in exchange for giving up a price support program. Half of the 4,000 burley farmers in Western North Carolina stopped growing the crop last year. Madison County has been the top burley producing area in the state, but the number of farmers continues to drop, said extension agent Elizabeth Ayers, a tobacco specialist. The light-colored burley traditionally has been grown in Western North Carolina and is used to add flavor to the darker, flue-cured tobacco used in the cigarette blend. This year, the county had less than 1,000 acres of burley being grown by about 225 farmers. Ayers said the county once had 1,000 burley growers and 5,000 acres of the leaf. "Really, it's going to be interesting to see how many people continue to grow tobacco next year, with fuel costs going up and fertilizer at an all-time high," Ayers said. Prices have stayed about $1.67 a pound for burley, the same as farmers received last year, said Marty Owen, owner of a tobacco warehouse in Asheville. He said he hopes to handle 2 million pounds this year, recalling the days when local growers would bring as much as 16 million pounds a year. "It's down, there's no doubt about it," Owen said. "It's just simple age. You're talking about very few young farmers anymore." Enditem