Tobacco Farmer Newsletter: LATE JUNE CROP REPORT: CROP COMES BACK STRONG

Mountainous achievement: The weather this spring was unfavorable for transplanting in much of the Tobacco Belt. Burley growers in the Appalachian mountains--like this crew near Marshall, N.C.--still had some planting to do near the end of June. File photo by Chris Bickers.

FLUE-CURED

Since the rains began, flue-cured in N.C. has come back strong. Now, it might help if the precipitation pulled back. “We have had a tremendous amount of rain in eastern N.C.,” says Matthew Vann, N.C. Extension tobacco specialist. “Most farmers there have had up to 10 inches in June, and some have had more than 20 inches. We may be heading for a new record for precipitation in June in this state.” The rain has been spottier in the Piedmont, but that region has had more than enough too. The crop is beautiful in the East and strong in the Piedmont, says Vann. But how much will it weigh? “Because of a transplant shortage in the spring and the water damage that we are facing, we have likely suffered some yield loss.”

Georgia: Tropical Storm Claudette brought rainfall and winds that helped improve conditions—48 percent of the crop had been topped by June 20, according to USDA.

South Carolina: Farmers from the Pee Dee region reported wet fields that hampered field work, including fungicide application. USDA estimated that 19 percent of the crop had been topped.

Virginia: Plantings in the Old Dominion were estimated by USDA at 95 percent complete for flue-cured.

BURLEY & DARK

Kentucky: Tobacco condition is mostly good with 89 percent of the crop set, says USDA…In Allen County, Ky., near Bowling Green, virtually all of this crop (all burley) had been planted by June 10, reports Kristi Gassaway, county executive director of FSA for Allen and Monroe Counties. It amounts to a little over 800 acres grown by 25 growers. That is about the same as in 2020. In neighboring Monroe County as of that date, between 35 and 40 percent had been planted. Approximately 2,821 acres of were expected to be planted, by 42 growers, same as in 2020.

North Carolina: USDA projected that 69 percent of the small N.C. burley crop had been transplanted by June 20. But an agronomist in the state said that figure was too low. He expected all plantings to be complete by June 30. Almost all the state’s burley is grown in the mountains of the west, and this area did not get the continuous rain that the eastern part of the state received in June.

Virginia: About eight percent of the burley crop remained to be planted as of June 20, according to USDA. Plantings of the small dark fire-cured crop were completed that week.

Tennessee: Plantings are nearly 100 percent complete, says Mitchell Richmond, Tennessee Extension tobacco specialist. “We will finish this week.” The late-planted burley looks a little better than the early-planted. There are no significant disease problems to this point. “There is a little tomato spotted wilt, and also some black shank, about what we would expect.” Where burley didn’t get too much rain, it is looking good so far.”

Connecticut broadleaf: Tennessee farmers continue to experiment with Connecticut broadleaf. “There is a good crop again this year though probably not as much as the thousand acres we had last year,” says Richmond. “We are still having growing pains with this type.” Most of the growers are in middle Tennessee but a few are growing it in east Tennessee and appear to be doing fairly well…The new type is slowly making its entry into N.C. also. “If I had to guess, I would guess we have 25 to 30 acres,” says Vann. “We might have 25 growers cultivating small plots of an acre or a little more.” That’s slightly more than last year, he thinks. There is a cluster of farmers growing Connecticut near Laurel Springs in Alleghany County (bordering Virginia) and most of the rest of the farmers are located east of Alleghany along the Virginia line

CANADA: The majority of the crop was planted in May, though some planting extended into early June, according to the The Canadian Tobacco Research Foundation. Most crops appear to be off to a good start, and cultivation is now occurring. Not many problems have been reported in fields yet except for a few reports of nematode and chill injury. There have been reports of blue mold occurrence on tobacco from the United States, where the disease has been recently reported in Pennsylvania. There have been no reports yet of blue mold in Ontario, where almost all of Canada’s tobacco is produced, and in fact the disease has not occurred in the province since 2009. However, growers are advised to routinely scout fields and any leftover plants in the greenhouse for signs of blue mold.

TOBACCO EVENTS SUMMER 2021

A Tobacco Field Day will be held in North Carolina July 21 at the research sta-tion in Oxford, from 9 a.m. to 12 noon. For more information, contact mcvann@ ncsu.edu.
The Kentucky Corn, Soybean, and Tobacco Field Day will be held July 27, at the University of Kentucky Research Center, in Princeton, Ky., 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. NOTE: Kentucky’s Dark Tobacco Twilight Tour will be held August 12 at 5:30 p.m. on the West Farm of Murray State University, 615.Robertson Road No., Murray, Ky.