Growing tobacco for your own use and more, as a cash crop...

[O.S.O.K.]

A while back I was looking into ways to make some extra cash once we move to our new place in Mississippi. I was thinking a small truck farm. Well, somebody on another board suggested tobacco.... I hadn't thought of that!

So, I started researching it and came accross this board: http://www.fairtradetobacco.com

It has proven to be very informative and is populated by very good folks - very similar to this site in fact! Further, they do not expect or accept any $$ contributions. Just a neet little specialty board.

I thought I'd pass this on in case there are any others here that minght be interested...

I found out that you can grow your own tobacco and even grow more for sale as long at it remains in "leaf" form - no de-vienning or chopping, etc. and it can be surprisinly profitable. That is, if you grow "specialty" strains - not burley, the commodity type.

Anyway, thought I'd pass this along - Happy New Year!!!!

[FWiedner]

Anything that goes toward making a fellow financially independent is a good thing.

I'm a hard-core cynic and have zero experience as an agrarian (well maybe not zero, I know a little about hay), but tobacco sounds like a way to invite government 'help' into your life whether you ask for it or not.

[Chuck 100 yd]

Interesting, Thanks for the link.

[O.S.O.K.]

You're welcome!

From what I read, unless you get into something like "shade leaf", the growing isn't that hard. Just need good soil that drains well (which we have on our place - good sandy loam). And it is completely fine to grow and sell the whole leaf - just don't further process it and you're good to go.

"but tobacco sounds like a way to invite government 'help' into your life whether you ask for it or not." That's what I thought too but I found out otherwise.

Besides, the way things are going, the govt. won't have any resources to worry about somebody growing a little tobacco.

And when I say profitable... think $12K+ per acre. Think about that...

The key is having a place to sell your leaf. But that is taking care of itself as this is getting more and more popular - do a web search for "leaf tobacco" and you'll see what I mean. Do another one for "pipe tobacco"....

[Chuck 100 yd]

Were are the seeds available. ( I haven`t looked so may be a dumb question) ???

[Canuck Bob]

I come from a tobacco growing region and be aware it is not a plant and forget crop. Ours was a lessor grade to the good stuff grown in your climate. It is amazing how much tobacco comes from a small field. The old farmhands made thier own plug tobacco for chewing. It was just good leafs bundled up and pressed into a black tarry square. My first taste turned me off tobacco for life!

[Old Ironsights]

The only smokeable plant I could grow here would get my whole family shot and my house razed.

Yippie for voting for selective Prohibitionists...

(OTOH, soak whole cloves and whole/chopped nutmeg in Vodka for a while, filter and serve and you will find a whole new definition for "stoned drunk". Gee, ain't arbitrary laws great?)

[Pitchy]

Give it a try bro.

[pricedo]

Were are the seeds available. ( I haven`t looked so may be a dumb question) ???

I tried planting a few cigarettes last spring.

Watered the patch for days.

Nuthin but a few dandelions & buttercups.

[O.S.O.K.]

That site that I listed in the OP gives away seeds. The site owner has a seed bank - just asks you to report back on the results and send seeds in too. Or, you can buy them online.

I'm not even a tobacco user myself. I am only interested in it as a legal cash crop. If we can make a living off of 5 acres of planted tobacco with one harvest per year.... why not!! I am hoping that it works out and we can use the income to pay down the mortgage and get debt-free quickly.

I plan on using local materials to construct the cure house...

My wife is interested in this as it would mean that she could stay at home instead of teaching again. She's sick of teaching - she works her tooty off and it's getting more and more stressful.

[Rusty]

Not to rain on your parade or anything, but I'd check really carefully on the selling part of the venture. I'm not sure of all the ins and outs of it but it used to be that people growing tobacco in Ky, Tn, NC, Va and where ever else they grew it had what was called an allotment. I know in Tn where we looked for land a few years ago many times when a piece of land was listed for sale it was listed with the allotment being sold with it.
I don't know if that system is still in place but it's something to check out. Tobacco has always been a good cash crop. My wife and her sisters all worked in the tobacco fields when they were growing up.

[O.S.O.K.]

Not to rain on your parade or anything, but I'd check really carefully on the selling part of the venture. I'm not sure of all the ins and outs of it but it used to be that people growing tobacco in Ky, Tn, NC, Va and where ever else they grew it had what was called an allotment. I know in Tn where we looked for land a few years ago many times when a piece of land was listed for sale it was listed with the allotment being sold with it.
I don't know if that system is still in place but it's something to check out. Tobacco has always been a good cash crop. My wife and her sisters all worked in the tobacco fields when they were growing up.

Rusty - that's exactly what that site is about - addressing that as well as "how to".

The laws changed in 2005 - I'd try and explain but if you're interested, the information and threads there explain it much better than I can.

Before spending time on that site, I too was under the impression that one had to have a license to grow tobacco and that it was strictly controled.

[Bis]

O.S.O.K. I checked out the site you mentioned. It looks like there are not that many states that you can produce tobacco or at least they didn't mention them. Do you know if East Texas weather will allow you to grow the stuff.

[Rusty]

Thanks for clearing that up I never understood the old system fully. It never did seem fair to me anyway. I'm glad it was changed. I knew there were always small businesses that grew and sold their own kinds of chewing tobacco.
I saw there was one fellow on the forum that lives just north of me who seems to be growing it for his own use and someone else way out in Co. I'd say if it can be grown in those two diverse places it can be grown anywhere.

[gcs]

They grow, or at least used to, in Connecticut, I believe mostly cigar wrapper type. If you can grow it there, you can probably get it to grow in any zone 6 area, maybe 5 with some protection.

[Old Ironsights]

Thanks for clearing that up I never understood the old system fully. It never did seem fair to me anyway. I'm glad it was changed. I knew there were always small businesses that grew and sold their own kinds of chewing tobacco.
I saw there was one fellow on the forum that lives just north of me who seems to be growing it for his own use and someone else way out in Co. I'd say if it can be grown in those two diverse places it can be grown anywhere.

No government system/regulation is "fair"... particularly the ones enforcing "fairness" at gunpoint.

[O.S.O.K.]

O.S.O.K. I checked out the site you mentioned. It looks like there are not that many states that you can produce tobacco or at least they didn't mention them. Do you know if East Texas weather will allow you to grow the stuff.

Bis, you can grow tobacco practically anywhere - just need good soil. Basically, soil that allows for good drainage and has the right PH, etc.. I see that in some areas of the country, folks choose to grow in buckets so that they can control the soil quality easier. If you are asking about the legality of growing, then I would answer that you can grow in any state - though the "tobacco producing" states have more state laws about it on the books. Federal law now permits people to grow, cure and sell "whole leaf" tobacco in any quantity. You just can't "process" the leaf which is defined as deviening, cutting, chopping or adding other "non tobacco" products.

If you are asking about growing for your own use - then you can grow, cure and process for your own use with no restrictions.

This is kind of like distilling alcohol for your own use. There is some limit as to the quantity that you can distill, but it's totally legal within that quantity as long as you aren't selling it.

Yes, we still have some freedom in this country!

[O.S.O.K.]

Thanks for clearing that up I never understood the old system fully. It never did seem fair to me anyway. I'm glad it was changed. I knew there were always small businesses that grew and sold their own kinds of chewing tobacco.
I saw there was one fellow on the forum that lives just north of me who seems to be growing it for his own use and someone else way out in Co. I'd say if it can be grown in those two diverse places it can be grown anywhere.

No government system/regulation is "fair"... particularly the ones enforcing "fairness" at gunpoint.

I refer to the myriad web of government regulations that we are now subjected to as citizens as "tyranny".

Plain and simple.

Actually, it is the tyranny of incremental encroachment on our liberty.

[44shooter]

I grew up around tobacco farming in eastern NC. This was flue-cured tobacco for cigarettes mainly. In the eighties I saw many small acreage (say 20-30 acres of tobacco) farmers get out. Pretty much all that is left are large farms (100+ acres tobacco). And this is one of the largest tobacco producing regions in the U.S.

Yes, there was an allottment system in place to keep demand and prices up so growing leaf would be profitable. The allotment system is over now so farmers can theoretically grow as much as they want. However, the system of selling has changed. In the past, farmers hauled large sacks of cured leaf to a warehouse where it would be auctioned to buyers. Now farmers contract with a buyer. If you don't have a contract, you do not sell tobacco. The big old tobacco warehouses are either sitting empty or being turned into trendy shopping centers and apartments.

Also consider that tobacco is pretty labor intensive. You have to start your plants in a plastic covered "bed" in the early spring. Then the plants have to be "set out" in the field. They need to be "topped and suckered" for best quality. At least for flue-cured variety, the ripe leaves have to be primed (harvested) about three or four times per field. The leaves are then taken to the barn to be cured, the particulars of which have changed over time.

Oh, and you will need crop insurance. One good hailstorm in the summer will beat the leaves right off the stalks.

That is just what I know about one type of tobacco grown in one region. Other types are grown in different places with smaller farms and different farming practices.

I hate to be negative, but I just can't see very low-scale tobacco farming being profitable. Unless, you grow some kind of craft, boutique sort of pipe or cigar tobacco that is hard to get and in demand. The Africans, Asians and South Americans grow most of the world's tobacco now.

[getitdone1]

Don't know much about growing tobacco but I have heard it's "labor intensive." That is, a lot of hard, physical work.

You've got to "cover all the bases" before you sink much money into it. How many years might it take to get it yielding well?

When I was back on the home farm in SW Indiana I considered alfalfa. Once you get it going and the equipment--a couple of the "catches" you can make maybe 3 times or more per acre than with corn or soybeans. Too, you gotta have a reliable buyer(s) year after year. Not sure but think it takes a few years to get the plants going well. So it's not a jump right in and start making a lot of money kind of endeavor.

I'm sure there's several in this group who know a lot more about alfalfa than I do. With enough acres this might be an alternative for you. A tobacco/alfalfa farm might make a good combination. Might not.

Don

[O.S.O.K.]

You guys are talking about "comodity" tobacco - I'm talking about specialty or "boutique" tobacco. Two different things.

Kind of like the difference between growing corn on thousands of acres and veggies on a small truck farm.

The whole leaf market is realtively new in terms of recent history and interest.

Product is sold to on-line stores or specialty shops.

[Rusty]

As an aside but staying with the topic you might want to see about getting a book thru your local library called "40 Acres and No Mule" by Janice Holt Giles. She met her husband and married him right after WWII and he took her home to the Kentucky hills. Tobacco was their cash crop and she talks about the trials of raising it and the problems she had getting used to life "on the ridge."

[awp101]

Tobacco as a cash crop? I'm still trying to find money trees...

[Streetstar]

Jump in with a solid business plan, some enthusiasm, and a desire to get your hands dirty -- and you may surprise yourself -- (fall short in any of those 3 things i mentioned though, and it might be a rough time )

I would love to make 12k an acre off of my place ---- somebody mentioned hail storms though -- central Oklahoma -- on the flip side, i dont want to put in 16k per acre in labor to make 12k

[O.S.O.K.]

$12k per acre is when everything falls into place. I would be very happy with half that.

And this is basically like tending a garden.

I'm not trying to convince anybody - just sharing something that I've learned.