Tobacco Asia

Volume 19, Number 5

Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/622093

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 50 of 71

tobaccoasia 51 third pullings cured better, but then the rain started falling late. "The crop took up fertilizer and it turned green." Then killing frosts took place in North Carolina and Virginia on October 18 and 19 and many growers had to give up on har- vesting the small amount remaining in the field. "There is very little left that we can pull and harvest now," said David Reed, Virginia Extension tobacco specialist, at the time. After several years when the first killing frost fell rela- tively late, these two occurred at about the historical average date, catching farmers by surprise. "But the severity of the frost was the problem more than the timing," says Reed. "There were temperatures as low as 26 degrees." He estimated that about 400 barns of flue-cured were lost, maybe 1¼ m.lbs. That would be about 2% of the expected Virginia flue-cured crop. For Ben Teal of Patrick, SC, 2015 was the worst in his young farming career. "I made good pounds, but the quality was poor. The grades were just not there." The main factor was the heat, said Teal, also a flue-cured grower. "We had extensive heat ear- lier. The leaf got sunbaked from the high temperatures. Then we got all that rain (around October 1-3)." Leaf started pouring out of the remaining fields soon after the torrential rain, and it caused a real problem for farmers who found themselves short of curing barns. "One of my neighbors The quality looked good on this burley near Springfield, TN. The grower has gotten maximum use of his barn by loading the tier poles, then pulling this loaded scaffold wagon underneath it.

Articles in this issue

Links on this page

Archives of this issue

view archives of Tobacco Asia - Volume 19, Number 5