Caption: North Carolina growers gather at a past annual meeting of the Tobacco Growers Association of North Carolina. This year's meeting will be held at the Southern Farm Show on February 7. See below for details. Photo courtesy of Southern Farm Show. NC TOBACCO GROWERS TO MEET FEB. 7 Plan on attending the annual meeting of the Tobacco Growers Association of North Carolina, 10 a.m., EST, Friday, February 7. It will be held at the N.C. State Fairgrounds, Holshouser Bldg. (its normal location), in Raleigh in connection with Southern Farm Show. A varied program will feature speakers projecting the outlook for tobacco in 2025. It will close with a free meal....A new tool for control of ALS: A new application program for the chemical Actigard is showing “some promise” in control of angular leaf spot (ALS) which has caused substantial damage to dark crops in Kentucky and Tennessee over the past 10 years,. Called a “plant activator,” Actigard doesn’t directly kill diseases but helps the plant turn on its natural defense system to fight off disease. It was particularly damaging on dark in Kentucky and Tennessee in 2016 and 2023. It does not affect flue-cured.....Different program than for blue mold: “We are testing a new application program for Actigard where we make more frequent applications at lower rates than the blue mold application programs,” says Bailey. “Actigard has not eliminated ALS in our trials, but it definitely works better when used at lower rates more frequently than with traditional programs we have tested in the past.”...There’s another advantage in control of ALS: Actigard can be used at low spray volumes and is not dependent on full plant coverage at high spray volume like streptomycin or copper programs. According to the label, Actigard could be applied at spray volumes as low as 10 gallons per acre. The third annual meeting of the Burley & Dark Tobacco Producer Association (BDTPA) was held January 16 at Sloan Convention Center, Bowling Green, Ky., in conjunction with the Council of Burley Tobacco and the Kentucky Commodity Conference. Attendance this year was estimated at 60, down a little because a leaf buyer had to reopen its doors after bad weather earlier forced it to close. Joe Cain, Executive Director of the association, said members were optimistic after the second full year of the association’s existence and plan to act aggressively on behalf of their members. First priority: A fact-finding delegation of farmers to travel to Washington DC to acquaint tobacco-state legislators and other officials who are significant to tobacco’s future with the association and its activity....The officers of the association, all reelected from a year ago, are President- Al Pedigo (also Council for Burley Tobacco); Vice President- Darrell Varner (also Chair CBT); Secretary- Bradley Shear; and Treasurer- Jason Wade....Four new directors were named to the BDTPA board at the meeting. They are David Furnish, Charlie Skaggs, Tony Eldridge and Tony Holloway. The association now has board members from Kentucky, Tennessee and Indiana. It would be great to get members from all burley- and dark-producing states. Call Cain at (502) 303-3663 if you are interested. Look for more burley in the Black Patch this spring. Maybe much more, says Andy Bailey, dark tobacco specialist for Kentucky and Tennessee. Early reports are that companies plan to come to Western Kentucky and north central Tennessee to try to recoup some of the shortfall in the traditional burley areas.” At the same time, a substantial cut in contract offers for dark types is expected. These two trends suggest more burley, less dark. Why the decline in dark consumption? Nicotine pouches that only contain nicotine and no tobacco have increased in sales rapidly since 2018 while smokeless tobacco products like moist snuff have seen a slow but steady decline during that time, says Bailey. “This will be the third straight year in which dark contracts have been reduced by some major manufacturers,” he says...  DATES TO REMEMBER Ky-Tennessee Tobacco Expo, February 4, 8 a.m.-1 p.m. CST, Robertson County Fairgrounds, Springfield, Tn. Southern Farm Show, February 5 through 7, N.C. State Fairgrounds in Raleigh, starting at 9 a.m. EST each day. Admission is free. ...Breakfast with the Agriculture Commissioner (with Steve Troxler of N.C. February 7, at 7:30 a.m. EST at the N.C. State Fairgrounds Holshouser Bldg. (during Southern Farm Show.)