Tobacco farmers facing hard losses: ‘Once the rains came, it never stopped’

It was before sunrise Wednesday and workers were in the field on foot pulling leaves off waterlogged tobacco plants for Barnes Farms.

“On Sunday, we put in 11 barns. I have never put in a barn in my life on Sunday until this past Sunday,” said Brooks Barnes. “We worked from sun up to sun down. We are going to do that until we finish.”

Barnes was content with the way the tobacco looked up until Tropical Storm Debby dropped nearly 8 inches of rain.

“The ground was already moist. Now it is completely saturated,” Barnes said.

So Barnes has focused his efforts into trying to salvage leaf from plants whose roots have died, starving the plants of oxygen.

“We are going to take it on a farm-by-farm, field-by-field, case-by-case basis,” Barnes said. “We are going around to each farm, and anywhere the water stood on it and it is starting to droop over, we are cropping that tobacco on foot and bringing it back here to put in the barn so we don’t lose it.”

Barnes said it is a matter of days before water-soaked tobacco is going to be gone, history, he said.

“Tropical Storm Debby greatly impacted the tobacco crop in Wilson County,” said Norman Harrell, director of the N.C. Cooperative Extension office in Wilson County. “There are direct losses from the storm, which include leaves blown off plants, plants blown over, damage to the root system from excessive rainfall, scalding, flooding and drowning.”

Harrell said growers had tobacco in curing barns that was damaged from the loss of power.

“When tobacco is in the yellowing and leaf drying phase of the cure, tobacco is the most susceptible to damage from the loss of power,” Harrell said.

But he greatest impact is the damage to the root system from the excessive rainfall.

“This impact will unfold in the coming weeks as to how long the tobacco can remain in the field,” Harrell said. “A damaged root system combined with the high heat/humidity, will cause tobacco to ripen at a faster rate than growers can harvest it. Damaged roots are also an entry point for disease.”

Farmers say the year has been one of extremes, extremely dry to extremely wet.

A few weeks, ago, growers were concerned about a lack of rain.

The storm brought too much of it.

Harrell said it is possible that Wilson County could see one of its greatest losses ever seen to a tobacco crop.

“I will say that that is possible, but the farmers are going to try and do everything within their power to harvest this crop, and we will just have to see how this tobacco holds in the field as to how big this loss is,” Harrell said.

Barnes said it is a “crying shame” to have such a pretty crop before the storm, and then all the sudden everyone is faced with potential losses.

“If this would have happened the middle of September, we’d probably be OK because everybody would be far enough along in harvest that we could probably get it all harvested before the roots rotted off and all of it died,” Barnes said. “All of us have got the machine capacity to get it off, but we don’t have the barn room. That’s the problem. There’s not enough tobacco barns in the state of North Carolina to handle this crop right now, period. It is a matter of what’s in the field is going to deteriorate before we can get it all out.”

Grower Rob Glover said his fields got 20 to 30 inches of rain since July 12.

“The tobacco went from being in being in good shape, green, and holding in the field to now it is going away really fast, and I don’t think there is going to be enough time to salvage it all due to excessive rain and excessive heat at times,” Glover said.

Farmers had a late start due to the drought, which put them behind.

“Once we started barning, we realized that the crop was greener than it needed to be. We were kind of waiting for rain and once the rains came, it never stopped,” Glover said. “Today it looks great but I am afraid a week from now it’s going to be less than I have had, but it would be nice if we could hit a pause button for about four weeks.

We will get all we can as fast as we can. We just hope the good Lord will give us some good weather going forward.”

Glover said he will try to make the best of it while he can.

“It’s disheartening, but that’s farming,” Glover said. “It’s beautiful right now, but looking down the road I am kind of nervous about it. We are going to get it all as fast as we can and do what we can.”

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