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US Leaf Update: Looking at Three Facets of Development
By Chris A. Bickers Burley Harvest Mechanization: Stuck at Starting Gate Before harvest a year ago, a number of new burley farmers in traditional flue-cured areas of NC were thinking seriously about buying one of a number of more-or-less new burley harvesters. After these harvesters had been demonstrated on the 2006 crop, the enthusiasm fell way off. One farmer from the Piedmont town of Madison NC told me he got the chance to demonstrate a harvester made by the Kirpy company of France last season. Like nearly all the current harvesters, it notches the stalks after cutting them so they can be hung from wire frames to cure. Unlike the conventional harvesting process, there is no opportunity in this system for the stalks to "wilt" in the sunshine and lose water content. That means the cut-and-notched burley is brittle and breaks easily. "We had problems with it," said the farmer. "There was tremendous loss of leaf while handling." So in 2007 he cut by hand with a tobacco knife and put most of it on sticks. "We found some burley sticks, and we were also able to use some old flue-cured sticks. We will have to go to notching eventually because of labor, but right now, the most efficient way is to cut and put it on a stick." As far as he knew, only two harvesters were bought by farmers in his county, which lies north of Greensboro. One was sold before the 2007 harvest began, and the other was kept for backup in case the farmer couldn't field enough workers to hand harvest his crop. Two burley harvesters were on the market in 2006: The Kirpy harvester built in France and the Powell harvester made by MarCo in Bennettsville SC. In addition, a prototype harvester was widely demonstrated by Carolina Greenhouses of Kinston NC and may be ready for marketing in time for the 2007 season. For 2007, a new harvester based on University of Kentucky research called the GCH Gold Standard was put on the market, on a very limited basis, mainly in Kentucky. It is manufactured by GCH International of Louisville KY. Mike Boyette, NC Extension engineer, agreed that using sticks, which is very labor-intensive, is likely to be a stopgap measure until a better system can be devised. "If burley is going to come to eastern North Carolina, it cannot be put on a stick," said Boyette. "People aren't going to work like that." Also, Boyette said a stripping and baling system will soon be available that will allow the farmer to insert the burley stalk with the leaves still on it. It will not only strip the stalk but the leaf will be conveyed into four different chambers based on grades. "All it requires is one man to feed the stalks," he said. "If we are still growing burley in five years, I think it will be substantially mechanized, especially the stripping process," he said. "There are innovations yet to come. As long as innovations save the grower money and do not negatively affect quality, I believe they will be supported by the companies." Note, though, that in the leading burley states of Kentucky and Tennessee, there has been little interest in hanging burley on wire or in harvesting it with a machine. Growers are staying solidly with the traditional practices of harvesting stalks by hand using a hatchet-like tool and skewering the stalks on sticks. They dry out some in the field and are then transported to curing structures and hung to cure. George Duncan, Kentucky Extension agricultural engineer, said that in his state, "The stick method is going to be around for a long time. Any option to it [here] is going to have to be labor saving, functional and at the same time economically feasible." Could Wood be the Way to Cut High Flue-curing Costs? With so few opportunities to cut the cost of producing flue-cured tobacco, using wood as a curing fuel may be the best opportunity. A group of tobacco farmers in eastern North Carolina developed an intriguing new wood-fired boiler system last year that has attracted considerable attention. The system is being called a "pit boiler," said Mike Boyette, NC Extension engineer, since the wood is burned in a pit. The boiler is rolled over the pit, and can be rolled back out of the way as needed. "It can be fired with almost any type of wood," said Boyette. That includes stumps, which are normally very hard to dispose of in this country, so a farmer with a pit boiler could probably expect to receive a few stumps as gifts from neighbors who are clearing land. Versatility in fuel sourcing will make this system very economical. "If you had to buy the wood, you could cure for about $75 to $80 a barn in fuel costs," he said. "That would compare to $400 to $600 for a conventional barn right now." The new pit boiler has another advantage compared to existing hot water systems. "Up until this system, 10 was about as many barns as one could efficiently cure from one hot water boiler," said Boyette. "Now, farmers need to be able to heat at least 33 barns with one system and preferably up to 50. This system can do it." In the context of current high prices for conventional fuel, curing with wood heat appealed to a number of members of the audience. "It is much more attractive to flue-cured growers than it was before," said Ron Taylor, president of Taylor Mfg. Co. "I am sure you are going to see it grow." Taylor's company was a leader when wood first caught the attention of the industry in the early Seventies as a curing fuel. This time around, he thinks the incentive for conversion to wood will be even greater. "Before, the savings from conversion to wood were small because of the antiquated methods we were using," he said. "And the scale wasn't large enough. To make this work, a highly controlled method is going to be required. And we need to be able to use it to generate heat for large systems. I would think 80 to 100 barns would be a good goal to shoot for." Now as then, the strongest point in favor of curing with wood is its availability. In eastern NC, where Taylor's factory is located, there is an abundance of wood, he said. "It can be had at an economical price. In fact, most is owned by the farmers themselves. It is going to waste now." Taylor pointed out a fringe benefit of curing with hot water: no nitrosamines are generated that can get into the leaf. Taylor thinks wood curing will be a major trend, and he is sure his company will play a part in it. "We have a wood system that could find a place on a lot of farms," he said. "It can provide heat for two to 100 barns." Otherwise, there seem to be no more quantum leaps in flue-cured technology waiting on the horizon. But adoption of the existing technology continues, said Boyette. "What we have seen most often in the last few years is investments in mechanical box loading systems," he said. "They load the boxes with thin uniform layers of leaf and incorporate a system to weigh the quantity of green leaf in each box." Making such an investment has both energy efficiency and quality improvement benefits, said Grant Ellington, NC Extension associate in engineering. "Uneven loading allows air to pass through less densely loaded areas while bypassing more densely loaded areas," said Ellington. "Boxes that are not uniformly loaded may result in drying at different rates due to the variations in bulk density. Uneven drying results in longer curing times, thus increasing the electricity and fuel consumption per cure." Uneven loading or overloading can result in scalded or improperly cured tobacco, he added. A lot of people think that in this country, we are reaching the end of the era of easy availability of labor, said Boyette. "Before, when labor was cheap, there was little incentive to mechanize," he said. "But now we can't grow tobacco like our competitors overseas. To be competitive we are going to have to mechanize."