Tobacco Farmer Newsletter: February 2018

Sunday, February 25, 2018

A GOOD START IN THE GREENHOUSE

A new tool for transplanting: This new FMax transplanter from Ferrari in Italy, seen here on display at the recent Southern Farm Show, can plant continuously on different soil types without requiring an adjustment. "You can run from red clay to sand without missing a lick," says Don Watkins of Granville Equipment, which is distributing the transplanter in the U.S. It can be built for two to eight rows, he adds.

Seeding is well under way in eastern North Carolina, says Matthew Vann, N.C. Extension tobacco specialist. And it is getting started in the west, he adds. "It is going pretty well so far. The ambient air temperatures have been good."

The only problem: Overcast conditions have reduced the light available for germination. "We like to see four or five consecutive days of clear, sunny skies when we seed," says Vann. "However, cloudy conditions do not seem to have caused any major issues to date."

When will transplanting begin in N.C.? To this point, one might expect that plants will get to the field in a timely manner, starting maybe April 15 to 20. "But we usually have some growers who want to get out sooner," Vann says.

Report from Ontario: Contracting is for the most part complete in Canada's tobacco-growing area of southern Ontario, says David VanDeVelde, flue-cured grower in Delhi, Ontario. Official statistics won't be available for a while, but VanDeVelde believes acreage pla-nted will be down slightly from 2017, when 193 growers contracted for 18,491 acres. In 2016, 195 growers contracted for 15,353 acres. VanDeVelde is the new chair of Ontario Flue Cured Tobacco Growers marketing board.

North of the border, labor is out of sight: Quite a few Canadian tobacco growers attended the Southern Farm Show in Raleigh earlier this month. Among them were Paul and Desiree Arva of Mount Pleasant, Ontario, who came down from Canada looking for labor-saving tobacco machinery. "We just had a big increase in in the minimum wage," they said. "We need to find any way we can to reduce the labor we need to produce a crop."

VanDeVelde confirmed Arva's report, noting that there had been a 23 percent increase in Canada's minimum wage in the past year. "Farmers are definitely looking for labor-saving equipment." Most tobacco labor is brought in from the Caribbean and Mexico. All Canada's tobacco, by the way, is flue-cured. Substantially all of it is grown in Ontario.

Zimbabwe down: Plantings of the 2017/18 tobacco crop in Zimbabwe is down 5.5 percent from the same period last year, to 104,397 hectares, according to the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board in that country. The decline is largely attributed to the late onset of rains in the previous summer, when planting takes place. Flue-cured is the leading type in Zimbabwe.

Malawi suffering drought: Thanks to an intense drought, Malawi's tobacco production for this year was estimated at about 149 million kilograms in January, almost 12.8 percent less than international market demand, a national survey showed. Another survey will be released in March, and there is some optimism about what it will say. "At the time of assessment, much of the crop, especially in the Southern Region, was affected by the dry spell," said Kaisi Sadala, chief executive officer of the Tobacco Control Commission. "We are expecting that, with the advent of rainfall now, the picture should be different when we are doing the last crop assessment." Last year, the country grew about 124 million kg of all types of tobacco. Burley is by far the leading type.

Industry report: Vaping benign? A public health agency in England created a controversy a few weeks ago when it issued a review of the available evidence that concluded that vaping poses only a fraction of the health risk of tobacco smoking and should be encouraged among smokers seeking health benefits. Unfortunately, that doesn't help tobacco farmers because vaping products contain essentially no tobacco.

Date To Remember: On March 2 at 10 a.m., the annual meeting of Tobacco Associates Inc. will take place at the Wilson County Agricultural Center, 1806 S. Goldsboro St., Wilson, N.C.

GAP GROWER TRAINING EVENTS

Check with your local Extension Service office for further details.

All meetings listed here are free and presented in English.

February 26, 4 p.m. Central City, Ky.
February 26, 6 p.m. Lafayette, Tn.
February 26, 6 p.m. Bowling Green, Ky.
February 27, 10:30 a.m. Morehead, Ky.
February 28, 10 a.m. Hardinsburg, Ky.
Feb 28, 10:30 a.m. Owensboro, Ky.
March 1, 10 a.m. Campbridge City, In.
March 1, 10:30 a.m. Hopkinsville, Ky.
March 2, 10:30 a.m. Lexington, Ky.
March 6, 2:30 p.m. Mayfield, Ky.
March 7, 6 p.m. Greeneville, Tn.
March 7, 1 p.m. Nashville, Ga.
March 12, 10:30 a.m. Tifton, Ga.
March 13, 10:30 a.m. Marion, S.C.
March 13, 1 p.m. Murray, Ky.
March 19, 9 a.m. Mechanicsville, Md.
March 20, 1 p.m. Quarryville, Pa.
March 20, 9 a.m. Quarryville, Pa.
March 20, 6:30 p.m. Glasgow, Ky.
March 20, 6:30 p.m. Gray, Tn.
March 20, 7 p.m., Georgetown, Ohio.
March 21, 10 a.m. Wilson, N.C.
March 21, 9 a.m. New Holland, Pa.
March 21, 1 p.m. New Holland, Pa.
March 22, 1 p.m. Turbotville, Pa.
March 22, 9 a.m. Turbotville, Pa.
March 22, 7 p.m. Bedford, Ky.
March 26, 6 p.m. Bardstown, Ky.
March 28, 7 p.m. Georgetown, Oh.

Sunday, February 18, 2018

TRAY SANITATION TOPS TOBACCO GROWER SHOPPING LISTS AT SOUTHERN FARM SHOW

With Dorton Arena looming in the background, farmers confer in front of the Company Wrench display at the Southern Farm Show on February 1. The display included the JCB Teleskid (just visible at left), the first skid steer or compact tracked loader with a telescopic boom on the market. It attracted a steady stream of visitors, as seen here.

How to sanitize float trays: Since the loss of methyl bromide, steam cleaning trays at a water temperature at 176 degrees for at least 30 minutes has become a popular strategy for replacing fumigation. At the Southern Farm Show in Raleigh, N.C., at the end of January, three brands of "steamers" attracted a stream of interested farmers:

The newest was the Agri-Steamer sanitation system from Evans MacTavish in Wilson, N.C. The Agri-Steamer offers 800- to 1,900-tray capacity with access doors at both ends that allow for easy loading and unloading.
Long Equipment Mfg. in Tarboro, N.C., which introduced its Steaming Eagle steamer at the 2016 Southern Farm Show, now is marketing a "second generation" unit called the Steaming Eagle XL, which can be operated at a much faster speed than the original Steaming Eagle.
Carolina Greenhouses of Kinston, N.C., entry into the market is called the Steamerator. The conventional sized unit holds approximately 840 trays. The company also markets a small steamer called the "Mini" for limited acreage. It steams approximately 240 trays per rotation.

There is another strategy for sanitizing. Beltwide Inc. of Tampa, Fl., makes its Trilogy Tray from injection-molded plastic, and it is expected to last longer than standard expanded polystyrene. The Trilogy Tray is much easier to sanitize:

Simply spray with a high-pressure water hose or pressure washer. No need for a steamer. Belt-wide says Trilogy Trays are more durable. But cost is an issue.

A high-clearance spra-yer tailor-made for tobacco attracted a lot of attention at the Raleigh show. Randy Watkins, co-owner of Gran-ville Equipment, said the 420TS sprayer is fitted with a 420-gallon tank, a John Deere premium cab and a Deere diesel engine. It has three-speed transmission and all-wheel drive. A simple nozzle rotation allows for different chemical applications like contact sucker, fungicide and broadcast.

More on heat-not-burn products: The Tobacco Growers Association of N.C. voted at its annual meeting February 2 to support--with a couple of conditions--the HNB concept. "We would support a product that uses quality U.S. tobacco," said Graham

Boyd, the executive vice president of the organization. "But we want to see it manufactured in the U.S. of 100 percent U.S. tobacco."

One problem will likely arise if the industry con-verts to HNB, said Blake Brown, N.C. Extension eco-nomist, who spoke at the Tobacco Growers Associ-ation of N.C. Meeting. The requirements of HNB pro-duction seem certain to make it more expensive to produce. "Will buyers be willing to pay these higher costs?" he asked.

Editor's Note: Watch for more coverage of the South-ern Farm Show and the tob-acco growers meeting in the next issue of Tobacco Farmer Newsletter.

Report from overseas: Zimbabwe's export incentive for leaf growers has been raised from five percent to 12.5 percent for the 2018 tobacco marketing season. As in the past, the new incentive will be paid directly into the grower's bank account on a monthly basis, according to a statement from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. The statement warned tobacco growers "to desist from selling their tobacco to middlemen, as doing so would result in...losing out on the Export Incentive."

First estimate of 2018 production: Universal Leaf issued its first estimate of leaf production for 2018 on February 6. It predicts:

Flue-Cured--The world total is estimated at 8,177 million green pounds, down three percent from the previous season. Brazil's crop is estimated at 1,322 million green pounds, down three percent from last season, while the USA's crop is estimated at 430 million green pounds, up less than one percent from last season. The PRC flue-cured crop is estimated at 3,858 million green pounds, down eight percent from last season.
Burley--The world total will be up 15 percent at 1,303 million green pounds. Brazil's burley crop is estimated at 165 million green pounds, up 6.6 percent, while the USA crop is down an estimated 1.5 percent at 143 million green pounds. The PRC burley crop is estimated at 143 million green pounds, same as last season.
Oriental--The world total is up nearly five percent at 392 million green pounds.
Dark Air-Cured--The world total is up 11.5 percent at 255 million green pounds.