Firing Burley Tobacco

[RSKY]

Farmers are cutting tobacco everywhere around us and on the roads to both daughter's homes. My wife and I have been watching the progress as the crews march across twenty to thirty acre fields. As somebody who worked as a teenager doing this I find it hard to imagine a field of tobacco that large. I always hated cutting burley because the plants are so big.

Anyway. On to my question.

Is burley tobacco fired? Wife says yes, I say no. I remember hanging it in the barn because I was one of the largest in the teenaged crews and always was on the bottom 'handing up'. I don't remember anybody firing is as they did other types.

Have had one friend loose an entire barn with three and a half acres in it. Nothing left but tin siding and a few timbers. Saw his wife at the grocery and my wife asked her about it and she started crying. Talk about a years work going up in flames.

Anyway, is burley fired or air cured?

RSKY

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Mostly air cured, but sometimes fired. With the huge prices on cigarettes nowadays, I am amazed that people don't grow their own. The curing process is probably the stumbling block., because it takes a lot of time and space. You can grow burley almost anywhere.

Curing of tobacco - Wikipedia

 

[dmccarty]

I thought Burley was air dried and Brighleaf was flue cured.

I stacked tobacco in a barn. Once. Once was enough. :shocked::laughing::laughing::laughing: I did this when I lived in KY and all of the tobacco I saw was air drying in barns. When I moved to NC, I noticed that the barns were quite different because they were flue curing.

When the tobacco market collapsed, I saw very few farms growing tobacco anymore. The wife's family land is rented and a few years ago the farmer rrew a tobacco crop. What he did to handle and cure the tobacco was interesting. The tobacco was hung on pallets to dry which minimized the labor in handling the crop. The pallets were then moved into long rows, covered in tarps, and left to dry. All of the movement of the pallets was by a fork lift which really speeded things up and minimized labor. No more standing on thin rails in a tall barn while worried about falling while tobacco was burning your neck and eyes.

With the new method you don't need a barn either. :thumbsup:

I looked at what the farmer was doing and said it was sooooo obvious, why in the heck did we stack tobacco. :shocked::laughing::laughing::laughing: The answer is that we did not have a fork lift or pallet forks on a front end loader.....

Later,
Dan

 

[Streetcar]

I have never seen burley fire cured. Due to no fear of heights, I always was forced to take the top rail. It was great not having to hand up the burley

 

[Wagtail]

dmccarty? Are we talking 'Pallets in Fields'!!!

:scratchchin:

 

[buckeyefarmer]

dmccarty? Are we talking 'Pallets in Fields'!!!

:scratchchin:

The bad pallets start smoking early.

 

[teejk]

I thought Burley was air dried and Brighleaf was flue cured.

I stacked tobacco in a barn. Once. Once was enough. :shocked::laughing::laughing::laughing: I did this when I lived in KY and all of the tobacco I saw was air drying in barns. When I moved to NC, I noticed that the barns were quite different because they were flue curing.

When the tobacco market collapsed, I saw very few farms growing tobacco anymore. The wife's family land is rented and a few years ago the farmer rrew a tobacco crop. What he did to handle and cure the tobacco was interesting. The tobacco was hung on pallets to dry which minimized the labor in handling the crop. The pallets were then moved into long rows, covered in tarps, and left to dry. All of the movement of the pallets was by a fork lift which really speeded things up and minimized labor. No more standing on thin rails in a tall barn while worried about falling while tobacco was burning your neck and eyes.

With the new method you don't need a barn either. :thumbsup:

I looked at what the farmer was doing and said it was sooooo obvious, why in the heck did we stack tobacco. :shocked::laughing::laughing::laughing: The answer is that we did not have a fork lift or pallet forks on a front end loader.....

Later,
Dan

The whole industry changed a lot in the past 20-30 years. First was ending the old "auction" process in favor of the major manufacturers contracting directly with growers. A few years later the manufacturers lobbied for and got an end to the old "quota" system (they paid a lot to buy out those growers that had a piece of the action). As it stands now, anybody can grow tobacco (the Amish seem to have gotten into it big time). Most people don't because there is a lot more to the finished product other than leaf in terms of highly secret flavorings.

 

[dmccarty]

dmccarty? Are we talking 'Pallets in Fields'!!!

:scratchchin:

The bad pallets start smoking early.

I almost made a comment about pallets in a field in my post but I figured someone else would make the reference! Twas only a question of time. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

Later,
Dan