FRANKFORT, Ky. — While there is no such thing as a perfect growing season, most tobacco producers in the region will agree this year has been adequate enough to produce a high quality crop.
But labor concerns, market volatility and harvesting problems caused by an overly wet late summer have created a whole set of worries for producers despite that good crop.
The dry early season helped Kentucky tobacco put down a strong root system and the late summer rains did help make much of this crop gain in size.
But extensive moisture experienced in some areas coupled with continued labor issues have caused many crops to remain in the field longer than desired.
Bob Pearce, a tobacco specialist with the University of Kentucky (UK) College of Agriculture, Food and Environment said there are some fields experiencing plant complications.
"Most of the crop is in pretty good shape," he said. "There are certain areas where, with the rain we had in late August, we’ve had some problems with hollow stalk and stem rot with concerns about house burn or barn rot, as well."
Pearce said that the tobacco harvest is already a little behind and any rain during that time can be harmful plus with the lack of labor, things are just stacking up.
"A lot of these crops have been standing longer than they should have," he said. "If we are late cutting it, some of the quality has already degraded by that point and we’re not going to recover that."
Pearce noted that about four weeks after tobacco has been topped, the quality begins to drop off; and the longer it stays in the field, the worse the situation becomes.
Another thing that will hurt the crop, especially the portion that won’t be ready to harvest until October, is the negative affect cooler temperatures will have on the plants during the curing process.
"On any of the late tobacco, there are two concerns that I have; one is that we actually have a frost at some point that will catch it before it gets into the barn and the cooler temperatures in October," he said. "Historically the tobacco that’s cured predominantly in October and November is going to be of a lesser quality than tobacco that is cured a bit earlier."
Brian Young, a tobacco producer in Trimble County said the biggest obstacle he has seen for many of his neighboring producers has centered around a lack of labor as opposed to weather.
"Harvest is underway but at a very slow pace; there is no labor," he said. "There are some larger growers who did not have H2A labor and 90 percent of their crop is still in the field."
Young, who grows tobacco with his father, utilized the guest worker program for the first time this season – a move that has paid off from a labor standpoint even though he would like to be further ahead in the harvesting process, as well.
"We’ve already experienced quality decline in our own tobacco; and in the low-lying areas, the leaves are just falling off of the stalks," he said. "We’ve been fortunate because we haven’t had a whole lot of that, but I have heard some horror stories from around the county about entire fields that are like that."
Some areas in the state received more rain than was needed. In northern Kentucky, some areas received more than six inches of rain in August, which is more than twice the average of the previous four years, according to data from the Kentucky Mesonet Weather Data System.
Young said a record amount of tobacco may have been planted in his area this year. He added that had the crop come out of the field in a timely manner, the issue would be too much tobacco and not enough market.
"It looks like some of those acres may never make it to the barn," Young said. "But that may be a blessing in a way because if all those acres had, we were going to find ourselves with a flooded supply and diminished market."
Will Snell, a UK agriculture economist said he doesn’t think the market can hold all of the burley tobacco poundage expected by the USDA, if those production projections hold true.
"The crop report came out a few weeks ago and had 212 million pounds for U.S. burley; I would be very concerned if we end up with that much," he said.
Snell added that he doesn’t think the totals will be as much as projected given the problems producers have had getting the crop harvested. "Anything over 200 million pounds, maybe anything over 190 million may be more than the industry needs.
"That doesn’t mean they won’t buy it, it just means they’ll be more critical on grading; and unfortunately mid- to lower-quality tobacco will certainly suffer in this type of market environment as well as concerns about non-contracted tobacco."
