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[music]
Brad Haire: Welcome to In the Field.
I’m Brad Haire with the University of Georgia
College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
I’m here today with
Dr. J. Michael Moore, Tobacco Agronomist with
the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension.
Hey Dr. Moore.
Dr. J. Michael Moore: Good morning Brad.
Welcome to the tobacco field. [Haire: laughter]
Haire: We’re here at the Bowen Farm, UGA Bowen Farm,
on UGA Tifton Campus.
Dr. Moore, over the past several years, the tobacco industry in
Georgia has gone through many changes;
one of the biggest changes took place about ’04 and ’05.
Can you tell me a little about that?
Moore: Well, there were a couple of changes that took place.
We saw the federal buy-out of the federal quota program and
that gave growers an opportunity, if they decided to, to take their
money and get out of tobacco production and leave tobacco production
to some younger folks who are willing to take the risk,
who were willing to mechanize,
and invest additional capital into the future of their production.
So, we saw grower numbers drop precipitously;
where the older growers generally were getting out and
the younger growers were investing capital in mechanization.
We dropped from 1,000 growers down to 225 or so ultimately, as a result of that.
Our acreage also dropped but its other things were involved in that.
Tomato spotted wilt virus was a problem and
the Race 1 of the black shank disease has also caused us problems.
That also encouraged some growers to get out of tobacco production.
Haire: Now, at one time, we had about 48,000 acres of tobacco in Georgia;
now we’re down to 11,000 this year, which is about the same as we had last year.
Now, how is that crop coming off this year right now?
We’re in the middle of harvest right now in Georgia for those 200 growers.
Moore: We are at the end of a crop that I had thought all season might
be the exception and the outstanding crop in my career.
However, we received long awaited rains in late June.
Many of them came as downpours and created problems for some
growers who received excess rainfall. Other growers are still waiting for that rain.
So that uniform crop that we saw early in the season now
continues to be very green and as growers get pinched on time
for harvest and curing; it’s resulting in some tobacco that’s
a little green coming out of curing barn.
It will encourage our growers to wait for tobacco ripen;
even if it does looks a little late on the calendar.
Haire: Now there’s been some new found interest possibly in tobacco
and some new opportunities for Georgia tobacco farmers.
Where do you see the future of tobacco in Georgia?
Moore: Well, we’re encouraged that we had an opportunity back in the
winter and spring to contract additional acreage with a
new company that has come into the U.S. and offered contracts
throughout the flue-cured production area for about
100 million pounds of tobacco.
Thirteen million or so of that is contracted in Georgia and Florida.
Without those contracts, our acreage would have been down as a result of
other contracts that had ended last year.
It’s encouraging to see new interest in the crop.
Whoever the buyer is, we hope that this will be an annual thing and
that those buyers will like the tobacco in Georgia and will come
back looking for more of the Georgia crop in the future.
Haire: Dr. Moore, I appreciate you joining me today.
Moore: Good to be with you Brad.
Haire: Tobacco harvest in Georgia. It used to be big business for
a lot of people, it still is for some in Georgia.
And, Dr. Moore, I understand that y’all got through with your harvest
of your test plots today. Maybe next year, I’ll come help you. [laughter]
Moore: We’ll look forward to that. [laughter]
Haire: Now, until next time, take care, give thanks and good luck.
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