World to American Farmers: Don’t Send Us Thin Leaf
A case study for thin lower leaf: This photo was taken August 26 just west of Winston-Salem, N.C., during the memorable 2014 crop when so much of the Piedmont flue-cured crop was very late in development. This field would have normally been half harvested by this date but instead harvest did not begin till after the US Labor Day in September. After so much time in the field, the lower-stalk leaf was extremely thin, and the farmer harvested very little of it.
By Chris Bickers
American farmers have a problem right now, and by all accounts, it is a side effect of the current world oversupply of neutral filler tobacco. Neutral filler can be obtained at a much lower price almost anywhere in the world other than the United States, and this translates into pressure on growers from buyers not to even bring to market this leaf, which is generally considered to be the three or four lowest leaves on the stalk.
“This is neutral leaf at best, and we have a lot of it,” a leaf dealer told Tobacco Asia. “This problem has gone on forever: In 1978, the federal government introduced the ‘four-leaf’ program, in which flue-cured growers were encouraged to knock these leaves off.” This was considered one of the more successful efforts in those days to stabilize the market.
But that was in the days of federal price support. Now, farmers contract directly with the manufacturers or their dealers, and if they voluntarily reduce their yields—which is what not harvesting the lower stalk will of necessity do—they have nowhere to look to for compensation except their companies.
“It would seem that this would be simple enough,” says the dealer. “It is just a matter of paying farmers enough for their upperstalk leaf to make up for what they lose on the lower stalk. But there has been a lot of disagreement about what that should be, and it is proving a real dilemma.”
Growers respond
Despite all that has been said to this point, it is undeniable that some individual crops produce lower-stalk leaf that is appealing enough to manufacturers/dealers that they willingly bought it and presumably found a use for it in their blends.
Agronomists associated with North Carolina State University analyzed of factors that will help the lower leaves to have better buyer demand.
“The first decision to be made is whether to harvest or not to harvest the first three or four leaves,” the agronomists said. “The economics associated with the decision not to harvest are not good because some costs associated with these leaves have to be made up by selling the remainder of the leaves for significantly more than current contracts predict. Therefore, many growers are expected to try to harvest at least some of the lower leaves.”
World to American Farmers: Don’t Send Us Thin Leaf
Workers on foot hand harvest flue-cured leaf in this file photo from the Winston-Salem, N.C., area, also taken on August 26, 2014. It will be seen that a farmer’s decision not to harvest lower-stalk leaf—or even to knock this leaf off—will be easier if he is hand harvesting, since his workers can exercise judgement as to what should be harvested. This is much more difficult, though certainly not impossible, to do with a mechanical harvester.
They put together for farmers a list of practices to improved their chances of producing in-demand lower leaf. The farmer can:
- Harvest by hand and simply instruct his workers not to pick the bottom leaves.
- Be sure excess nitrogen is not present. No more than medium-sized growth is desired.
- Harvest the lower leaves very early, long before leaf deterioration begins and before the leaves become overripe.
- Have the resources so that you don’t have to harvest leaves when they are wet (and that includes wetness from the dew).
- Pack the harvested leaves uniformly in racks or boxes.
- Remove the sand that is so prevalent on lower-stalk leaves. This is one of the most serious problems with lower-stalk tobacco. The content of valueless sand sometimes runs as high as one-sixth of the weight of tobacco. Sand removal will definitely increase the quality of tobacco and increase the value of the lower-stalk leaves.
- Provide enough ventilation in the curing barn to remove 20% to 30% of the moisture in the leaves by the time the tobacco yellows. The tobacco should be thoroughly wilted on the lower tiers or racks when it is yellow enough to increase the temperature for leaf drying.
What not to do
On the other hand, some factors can be expected to contribute to producing lower leaves with poor marketability, they said:
Growth that produces big rank tobacco that shades the lower leaves, particularly where the crop is grown with excess nitrogen. Excessive rates of nitrogen will make this problem worse. Excess shading from the upper leaves will cause the lower leaves to be thin, immature, and low in oil content. Coupled with adequate rainfall, excess nitrogen causes leaves to be thin bodied even though they may appear to be high yielders.
Crops grown under high moisture conditions produce lower leaves which are normally about 90% water compared to upper stalk leaves being about 80% water -- because of the high water content of lower stalk leaves, they are much more difficult to cure.
Mechanical harvest sometimes injures the leaves which are then very subject to the entry of soil bacteria that promotes soft rot, a real problem on lowerstalk leaf.
Leaf diseases such as blue mold, target spot and fleck also affect this question.
N.C. Extension economist Blake Brown suggested in March that if a farmer knocked off the bottom four leaves, he can expert his overall yield to decline by 10%, with all the yield decline coming out of X and P grades.
An initial yield of 2,500 lb/acre would then decline to 2,250 lb/acre average yield after four leaf removal. “It costs $20/acre to remove the bottom four leaves with a mechanical harvester,” he said. “Under this scenario, harvest costs would go down about $100/acre. The weighted average price would have to be $2.09/lb to give the same profit/acre as if there were no leaf removal and a weighted average price of $1.91.”
World to American Farmers: Don’t Send Us Thin Leaf
A worker on the farm of a Piedmont N.C.flue-cured grower loads leaf he has just stripped from the bottom of the stalk into a wagon for transport to the curing barns.
How burley compares
The situation is a little different for American burley. The market actually wants more lowerstalk burley leaves than it is currently getting. Called flyings, they are in short supply on the current market, partly because it is difficult to produce a true flying.
“We are encouraging growers to separate true flyings from cutters if they can,” said Don Fowlkes, agronomist for the Burley Stabilization Corporation in Springfield, Tn. “But farmers usually end up with a bottom grade that is a mixture of flyings and cutters.”
Stalk position grades above the flyings and cutters level need to be medium to heavy bodied, not thin, he said, and have desirable color.
Here are some ways to improve your chances of producing this style of burley:
- Choose varieties that cure well on your farm.
- Plant in well-drained, fertile deep soils that are not deeply sloped, and fertilize and lime according to soil test results.
- Take out the tops of the plants in a timely manner, and use sucker control chemicals as directed.
- Timely harvesting.
- Space sticks properly and manage the curing environment.
- Separate your cured leaf by grades in a way to get the maximum value of your leaf from all stalk positions.
“In broad terms, the upstalk burley tobacco our customers want is best described as being medium to heavy bodied with a tannish-red to red color line,” said Fowlkes. “Not tobacco that is thin and bright (buff, light tan, K color lines), but also not tobacco that is excessively dark or black.”