Load em up, head em out

crsutton81

Member
Finally got an opportunity to get an
appointment to deliver the first
load of baled up tobacco tips. We
have been storing them for awhile
waiting for them to start accepting
them at the receiving station. Had
bales about anywhere imaginable.
Thought one time we'd have to start
stuffing the mattresses with baccer.
Spent most of the morning putting
together a load to deliver next
week. Sure hope the Buicks are
elsewhere on sale day.
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src=https://www.yesterdaystractors.com/cvphotos/cvphoto102249.jpg>

<img
src=https://www.yesterdaystractors.com/cvphotos/cvphoto102250.jpg>
 
cr thank you for posting your tobacco activities. I moved back to my dad's homeplace in 1978 and grew the golden leaf until 2005. We were on a much smaller level of production than you, but it paid the bills here.
 
It's paid a many of a bill here also. I had the first crop of my own when I turned 19. I was one of the growers for NC State's variety test plots. Grew it for several years until the buyout came through and that pretty much ended that program. Dad had more contract than he wanted, so I picked up from where he wanted to stop at and it has grown over time from there. He's getting to the age where he wants to retire out of it. I've been in it my whole life and love most of it but, it's getting to where I'm not sure what to do from here forward. We need to upgrade some equipment but scared to do so the way the market is. I don't want to be the one to kill a long family history of growing it but also don't want to ride the ship to the bottom either.It'll sure make an old man out of ya. I feel like the country song where I'm much too young to feel this danged old.
 
Can you use herbicides on it or does it have to be grown basically organically? The demand as a whole has surely decreased from the 70s would that be correct? I do not understand the last sentence about the Buicks, maybe autocorrect changed the word?
 
So I assume that is flue cured tobacco. Your bales look much different than what I recall. Are those bales this year's crop or last year's? Are the sand and cutter leaves in more demand?
 
There is very few labeled herbicides that can be used on it and it is mostly a pre plant option. There is however several pesticide and sucker control products that is appropriate. Used to when all of it was sold on the auction system, you had a scheduled day to get it to the warehouse to be floored then come back on sale day for it to be sold. There was a group of circuit riders that went around to every warehouse having a sale and they dictated the price on each grade. They always drove blue Buicks around here. If you pulled into the front door and saw them parked up by the office, it won't gonna be a good day. It would be the same effect as a tractor being worth 20k yesterday and today you might get 10k for it.
 
Interesting thing about smoking ..... here in North America, tobacco sales must be MUCH lower than years back, at least per capita. When I grew up as a kid in the 50's it seemed that most adults smoked. A person doesn't see many smokers anymore but they're still out there I guess. Things like pipe smoking and cigars, I seldom see any of that happening. But in Europe and Asia, I'm told that smoking is at the other end of the spectrum with lots of it going on. Things really do change and I suspect a lot of tobacco farmers have for one reason or another moved on to other crops. Good luck with your farming activities whatever they might be.
 
Yes it's flue cured and this years crop. The lugs and cutters are in a little more demand than they have been being in the last few years. It's funny how the lighting can change the looks of a bale. They are dark looking in the picture but not in person.
 
Interesting. I worked with a guy who was from Kentucky - just a little north of Elizabethtown. His family raised tobacco, and he said that 5 acres was about all a family could keep up with. I think Juney's tobacco farming was completely done by manual labor.

Also - he would tell us that he was [going down to Kentucky over the coming weekend]. I was looking at a map as I ate my lunch, and noticed that Elizabethtown was north of where we were in Southern Illinois. I kidded him from that day forth that he was [going up to Kentucky over the coming weekend]. He didn't like knowing that his Kentucky home was farther north that where we were working in Southern Illinois.
 
They're out there in vast numbers still. Just look at the shoulder at the end of any off ramp in this area, cigarette butts everywhere.
 
I suspect that close to 100% of the cigarettes that are smoked in vehicles end up being tossed out the window, and of course they no longer put ashtrays in vehicles I don't think do they? I'm sure most would still chuck them to the roadside. Did some web crawling, the link below shows an interesting graph for cigarette consumption to 2015 in the USA, Canada would no doubt show the same trend. Looks like things have steadily dropped off since the peak of 1960(with a slight increase in 2015). I suspect all such stats eventually level off and will obviously never reach zero.
 

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