Fire ant again

Got bit by a fire ant yesterday as I was
cleaning off the garden. Put some tobacco on
the bite, no itching of festering yet.

What does this have to do with tractors? Well,
nothing, but my question does. Previously I had
the same thing happen and, being a non smoker
with no tobacco in the house, I went to the
local store and asked for a package of their
cheapest chewing tobacco. Looked on the package
and it contains 53.5% imported tobacco. My
question is, why, with this being a tobacco
growing country, do we import tobacco and from
where?

BTW, the one row cultivating tractor of choice
for tobacco farmers back in the day was a
Farmall A, at least in this state.

KEH

The Farmall A and its future models seem the be a highly sought tractor for lots of small cultivating jobs even in modern times, Concerning the imported tobacco, I can only speculate but maybe that's how the variety is the cheapest because the imported tobacco is cheaper than domestic. Concerning the fire ants I am sure glad they don't live here in the north. Around here we sometimes hit yellow jacket nests in ground that hasn't been plowed for a while. They hate it when you plow them up or run the hay equipment over them a few times.

I think Turkey is known for its tobacco, and I'm
sure that as big as Russia and China are there must be someplace there that is conducive to tobacco growing.

Lots of luck with the fire ants. If you need some more I can load you up.

Gov. regs have forced alot of tobacco farmers out of business, that and the push to get people to stop smoking/chewing! Those who still do have to have it, so its got to come from somewhere!

Given that fire ants are an unpopular addition to many old tractors and implements from the south, I would say right on topic

Tobacco is a labor intensive product, no money in it unless government subsidies. I think they quit the subsidies.

(quoted from post at 12:12:54 11/07/14) Gov. regs have forced alot of tobacco farmers out of business, that and the push to get people to stop smoking/chewing! Those who still do have to have it, so its got to come from somewhere!

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the dereg of tobacco subsidies and the quota system has pushed a lot of tobacco farmers out of business. There are no "limits on how much tobacco a farmer can grow, unlike under the tobacco base system where only certain farmers could even grow tobacco.

So it is dereg not reg.

You got bit by A fire ant.Come to Texas and get 20 or 30 up your pants.You will be looking where you can get your pants off,hopefully not in a public place.....The one row farmalls were popular with small farmers in my area,especially vegetable farmers.There are still many 140s and even 274s still working.The a's through 140's will run forever since parts are readily available.I have heard parts are not so available for the diesel 274.I have my father's super A and my 1979 140 and still use them.

The chemical, Mirex, kept fire ants away until the EPA outlawed it years ago. The military spread it and it killed all fire ants. People in our state have died from the bites.
Good thing the government looks out for us.
Richard

The deregulation of flue cured tobacco has for the most part
proceeded as follows. The USDA did away with the "quota"
system. This dictated how much tobacco you could grow.
Both in pounds and acreage. If you did not own or rent the
quota you could not plant or sell the tobacco.

The new system is very similar and totally different in many
ways. The growers now "contract with the tobacco
companies". They contract for so many pounds with a price
range. They prefer to contract with growers producing 50 plus
acres per year. Many growers will produce 200 plus. While
this may seem like small acreage to grain farmers was not
under the old system or even the new system.

Tobacco is a management intensive crop. It takes multiple
trips across the field to produce a crop. (One to bed land, one
to shape beds, one to transplant, two to three to cultivate,
several trips to spray and usually 3 to 4 to harvest.). Once the
crop is gathered it is put into curing barns. Most of the above
is done mechanically with some physical labor packing the
gathering boxes and putting the boxes into the barn. Once
cured it is once again manually placed into a baler and baled
into 800 pound bales. These are then transported to the
contracted location.

JWalker

(quoted from post at 17:08:58 11/07/14) I think Turkey is known for its tobacco, and I'm
sure that as big as Russia and China are there must be someplace there that is conducive to tobacco growing.

Lots of luck with the fire ants. If you need some more I can load you up.

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And, our major tobacco companies send our experts to foreign countries to show them how to grow tobacco.