Johnston farmers scrambling to salvage tobacco

SMITHFIELD — Bryant Spivey is head of the Johnston County Cooperative Extension Service and its tobacco expert.

“Before Debby we had a good tobacco crop that was late but had excellent potential for both yield and quality,” he said in an email.

But the tropical storm’s arrival in Johnston County was ill-timed, coming on top of a wet July, Spivey said. “The rainfall a few days before Debby, during Debby and even after Debby has caused a great deal of damage,” he said.

“Essentially, plants are drowning, which results in wilting and flopping of the leaves,” Spivey said. “Plant roots need oxygen, especially tobacco roots. When soils are full of water, there is no room for oxygen. The roots begin to die and the plant declines.”

The impact can be uneven, which has been the case in Johnston tobacco fields, Spivey said.  “Plants may wilt slightly or die completely,” he said. “We have all ranges in this category.”

“Right now, it seems that tobacco on well-drained soils has faired remarkably well,” Spivey added. “However, many fields have variable soil types that range from well drained to wetter.”

While not all is lost, this year’s tobacco crop will fall short of its potential, Spivey said. “As soils begin to dry out some, new roots may form, and the plant may recover to some degree,” he said. “It will never be as good as it was before.”

And that means Johnston growers, with most of their crop still in the field, are unlikely to produce the pounds called for in their contracts with the tobacco companies, Spivey said. “It is my guess that the market demands for our tobacco will not be met,” he said. And “to be honest, the demand was probably even greater than the contracted volume.”

The risk to a farmer’s bottom line is greater the longer tobacco remains in the field, Spivey said. “It all depends on how long we have tobacco to barn,” he said.

“Growers,” he added, “have moved into a rescue operation, jumping around to save the worst drowning areas before the leaves completely wilt and turn brown. Those that hand harvest have been able to get back to harvest quickly with crews in the field last Friday, Aug. 9.”

Growers with mechanical harvesters got back in their fields in the middle of last week, Spivey said. “The fact that water-damaged tobacco with any wind is prone to falling over or leaning further complicates machine harvest,” he said.

But growers can’t simply abandon their machines in favor of manual labor, Spivey said. “There are not sufficient workers to harvest it all by hand,” he explained.

Spivey suspects all tobacco growers will be able to collect insurance on this year’s crop. “Nevertheless, growers are working diligently to save all that they can,” he said. “As you may guess, tobacco farmers are not people that give up or bend easily. They will do all that is humanly possible.”

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