When will U.S. Grower Direct purchase tobacco?

An employee at the company's office in North Carolina said earlier this week that opening is scheduled for "early" in the week of August 29. No other information was provided. A source in Georgia confirmed for me Friday morning that no tobacco has been purchased at the USGD facility in Douglas, Ga., and said he'd learned that there have been difficulties with cash transfers from the international banking system.  "I am told the money is available, but the software is not making the transfer," he said. "Dell technicians are to be on-site in Douglas tomorrow to fix the problem." He said he understood that the Douglas facility will be the first USGD station to buy tobacco.

A charitable assessment: Graham Boyd, executive vice president of Tobacco Growers Association of North Carolina, gave USGD the benefit of the doubt in a report on August 18. "USGD is giving us every indication that it is serious about the procurement obligation for this crop," he wrote. "I can report that the new [USGD] station in Louisburg is ready and fully operational with the exception of the computer situation. The Malcam devices were delivered weeks ago at each of the stations and buyers are in position. A tremendous amount of investment and human resources has been invested up to this point for it not to become a reality."

In Georgia, Extension Specialist J. Michael Moore says some growers are stripping their crop because of the excessive rains in July and earlyAugust. "But in areas where little rain has occurred, many are still working on the second harvest," he says. "Although we have some tobacco affected by the weather extremes, we are still going to have an extremely good crop compared to recent years."

In North Carolina, Boyd said the crop was probably never greater than a 500-million-pound potential at planting time, based on an above-average statewide yield of more than 2,400 pounds to the acre. It is a fair estimate today that the current crop has missed its opportunity to exceed a per-acre average of 2,400 pounds. Many growers say it takes 50% more acres of first pullings to fill a barn this year compared to last, he said. "This crop will most certainly be late in terms of harvest completion.  The longer the crop must hang in the field the more vulnerable it becomes to additional poundage or quality loss. "The crop has missed its optimum schedule to achieve its maximum potential in terms of size and weight."  It can still be a good quality crop, just not one that exceeds 500 million pounds of number one and two quality grades, Boyd said. "We should expect a tight supply."

USDA says flue-cured production will be up, burley down

Flue-cured production should be about 3% more than last year, while burley production will likely fall 5%, according to the August Crop Report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture which was issued this morning (August 11). According to the report, the big winner in volume in 2011 will be Pennsylvania, whose burley is up 11% and whose Southern Maryland volume is up 30%. Tennessee will also be way up in burley. The big loser will be South Carolina, down a whopping 31%. This is based on an estimated yield of 1,700 pounds per acre. But Dewitt Gooden, S.C. Extension tobacco specialist, tells Tobacco Farmer Newsletter that he finds the USDA figures mystifying. "It has been a bad season, hot and dry, and our yield is off some, but in some of the worst years I can remember we produced at least 1,900 pounds," he says. "There were a few fields so dry early that the growers disked them up. But in most areas, we have had some rain in time. I don't see how our crop could be as bad as USDA is projecting." Following is USDA's analysis of 2011 tobacco production as a whole and by type, with percentage change from last year:
          --All tobacco production for 2011 is forecast at 726 million pounds, up 1% from 2010. 
        --Flue-cured:NC--369.8 million pounds, up 6%. VA--44.4 million pounds, up 11.2%. GA--26.4 million pounds, down slightly. SC--24.6 million pounds, down 31.5%. US--465.3 million pounds, up 2.9%. "Moderate drought conditions were reported in some of the top flue-cured-producing counties," says USDA. "But some spotty storms provided relief during the past few weeks."
            --Burley: KY--126 million pounds, down 10% [not up 10%, as originally reported]. TN--30.4 million pounds, up 22%. PA--11.2 million pounds, up 11.6%. OH--3.8 million pounds, down 25.8%. VA--3.4 million pounds, up 11.8%. NC--3.3 million pounds, down 16.5%. US--178 million pounds, down 5% from last year." Kentucky growers reported that wet spring weather delayed setting in most areas," the report said. "Also, dry weather and extreme heat in late July slowed plant growth. Tennessee growers are expecting an average crop, recovering from adverse conditions last year." 
            --Southern Maryland: 6.4 million pounds (all in PA), up 30.3%. 
         --Dark air-cured: KY-12.1 million pounds, down 1.1%, and TN-3.2 million pounds, up 13.2%. US--15.4 million pounds, up 1.8%. Kentucky growers reported black shank was becoming a problem in local areas, the report said. However, disease pressure was mostly light.
                --Fire-cured: KY--30.6 million pounds, up 5%. TN-20.6 million pounds, up 14.8%. VA-990,000 pounds, down 27.1%. US:  52.3 million pounds, up 8.1%. "Most Tennessee growers expect an average crop following recent beneficial rains," the report says. 
          --Cigar types: US--15.4 million pounds, down 21.2%. "In Connecticut and Massachusetts, mostly damp conditions were reported by growers in the spring," says USDA. "As the summer progressed, conditions became more arid." 


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Blue mold reported in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania

Initial infestations of blue mold were reported in Connecticut on July 26 Hartford County and Tolland County in shade tobacco, and in Massachusetts on July 21 in Hampden County. The only other incidences in North America through the beginning of August 2 were on June 28 in in a field in Lancaster County, Pa., and on June 23 in plantbeds in two locations in Chester County, Pa. 


For more information, go to the Connecticut Blue Mold Update at http://www.ctvalleytobacco.org/ or the North American Plant Disease Center at http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/pp/bluemold/.

How to lower the labor requirement of harvesting burley

           Could burley growers replace the hatchet-like tobacco "knife" with a weedeater for cutting down their stalks? "We have found that a weedeater with a blade is the best way to cut burley,” says Joseph French, superintendent of the Upper Piedmont Research Station at Reidsville, N.C. "You can cut burley [so] much faster with [one]." You also don’t have to stoop as you do with the conventional knife. “Breakage might be a concern, since the stalk falls straight down,” says French. “But we haven’t had enough breakage yet for it to be a problem.” The harvester walks backward down the row cutting the stalks close to the ground, The stalks fall away from him. The stalks are gathered and loaded--without spearing on sticks--on trailers which carry them to a barn. "There, we notch them with a mechanical notcher attached to the trailer and hang them from wire racks,” says French.

Slip Sheets: You Get What You Pay For!

An advertising message from Jim Bowen, president of Zebac Packaging Incorporated (www.zebacpkg.com).

While making sales calls recently, I met a tobacco grower who had some slip sheets left over from the 2010 season. He had found a good price for the slip sheets and wires the year before. I asked if I could have a slip sheet for analysis, and the analysis revealed the following:         The sheets, which were printed Complies with VT-1, weighed 2 lbs. 14 ounces, or 46 ounces. When the wire weight was added to the sheets, the total weight was 67 ounces. This is, in fact. five ounces below the minimum required weight of 72 ounces for compliance with VT-1.         The difference in price was $0.30 per slip sheet ($2.25 each compared to $2.55 each.) The farmer saved $0.30 per sheet by purchasing the cheaper slip sheets.         Tobacco was selling at approximately $1.75/lb, or $0.11/ounce. The tare weight was set at five pounds or 80 ounces. Since the actual physical tare weight of the farmer's bale was 67 ounces, the farmer lost 13 ounces of tobacco or $1.43 per bale sold ($0.11 x 13 ounces = $1.43). When you add that to the price, the cheaper sheets actually cost $3.68 each.         Even if the slip sheets and wire weigh the required minimum of 4.5 lbs. or 72 ounces, the scale is still set at five pounds or 80 ounces. At $0.11 per ounce for tobacco, you still lose eight ounces or $0.88 ($0.11 x 8 ounces = $0.88). The point is this: Purchase your baling supplies from someone you can trust, someone who understands packaging and how to engineer the proper package for the application. Zebac Packaging Incorporated engineers and manufacturers sheets that not only comply with VT-1 but also maximizes your profit margins at the point of sale. Call Jim Bowen at Zebac Packaging Incorporated and receive what you are paying for...and full price for what you are selling.

Who uses what to control suckers? from Tobacco Farmer Newsletter Aug. 1

Who uses what to control suckers? In a survey conducted by the Center for Tobacco Grower Research (CTGR) after the 2010 growing season, the majority of flue-cured and dark growers said they used DNAs. But only 41% of burley growers said they did. The use of fatty alcohols is more common among flue-cured (79%) and dark tobacco (71%) growers than it is among burley growers (11%). The use of maleic hydrazide is more common among burley (84%) and flue-cured (71%) growers than among dark tobacco growers (43%). The number of MH applications varied among the types. The majority of burley growers (88%) applied MH once, 55% of dark tobacco growers applied MH twice and 65% of flue-cured growers applied MH three or more times.  To learn more, see CTGR's May newsletter at its website www.TobaccoGrowerResearch.com.

More tobacco tour dates: 

   --CrossCreek Seed will hold a field day at its headquarters in Raeford, N.C., on August 3. Registration begins at 8:15 a.m. and the program should end around noon. For more information, call (910) 904 1888 or go to the CrossCreek website www.crosscreekseed.com.

   --Kentucky's Burley Tobacco Tour will start at 12:30 p.m., August 15, at the Spindletop Research Farm in Lexington. Attendees will tour farms in Woodford County Monday, then visit research plots at Spindletop Tuesday morning and more farms Tuesday afternoon, concluding about 4 p.m. For more information, contact Bob Pearce at rpearce@uky.edu or (859) 221 2465.

End-of-July tobacco crop report--from Tobacco Farmer Newsletter, August 1

Flue-cured in Georgia is definitely late, at least as compared to the fairly recent past. "Not too many years ago, we would be preparing for our final harvest at the beginning of August," says J. Michael Moore, Georgia tobacco Extension agronomist. "This year, quite a bit of the crop hasn't even been harvested the first time, and topping and suckering is nearly complete. Our crop is progressing now more on the Border Belt calendar." The delay is partly because of weather conditions. But there is another big factor: the trend among Georgia farmers in recent years to transplant later to avoid tomato spotted wilt infection. In Florida, on the other hand, growers generally haven't made the conversion. "They still plant the second or third week of March and stay on the traditional timeline," says Moore. "One farmer in the Hamilton area told me he will start his final harvest the week of August 1"...The hot early season temperatures and especially the hot soil temperatures may have contributed to the appearance of southern stem rot for the third year. But the disease, called white mold when it strikes peanuts, was only scattered...Despite all that, Moore is optimistic for excellent yield and quality in both the Type 14 states...In Eastern North Carolina, the flue-cured crop has been "all over the board," says Norman Harrell, Extension agent in Wilson County, N.C., on July 28. "We had a pretty good start, and there was timely rainfall early. But the 100-degree days in July were tough. Right now, we appear to have a pretty good crop." Growers in his county have been more cautious than ever in managing MH residues, Harrell says. Using less nitrogen and delaying application till after first harvest have been two frequent strategies. "I anticipate residues will be low," he says. Burley in Tennessee and southern Kentucky has potential for a better-than-average crop, maybe the best in the last three years, says Paul Denton, Kentucky-Tennessee Extension tobacco specialist. "Topping is 10% to 15% complete among burley growers," says Denton. "The dark growers are a little farther along, maybe 25%. But some of both types is ankle high"..."We have at least as many planted acres as last year and it appears we could have a higher yield than last year. So I think we could have a bigger crop"...There appears to be one success story in the burley states this year: Some areas had a wet spring followed by a dry summer. Those are the conditions that usually set the stage for black shank. But Denton says there has been very little this year. That's due to the increased plantings of the black-shank-resistant burley varieties KT-209 and KT-206 that also features black shank resistance, he says. "Probably half of Tennessee burley growers planted one or both of those varieties." Dark tobacco in western Kentucky and Tennessee has been "as up and down as I have ever seen it," says Andy Bailey, Extension dark tobacco specialist in those states. "But it is starting to level out." Irrigation was just starting, and some problems with compaction were reported. "A lot of dark tobacco here is strip tilled, and in strip tillage, you have a lot of roots growing straight down but not many growing laterally," he says. "You can get sidewall compaction, and that lead in some cases to lodging when we had heavy winds on July 24." But average or better yields seem achievable, he says, and since a few excess acres were set late in the planting season, a normal crop seems well within reach.