French-made tobacco harvester tours North Carolina tobacco farms
Dr. Mike Boyette, here with the Kirpy in Surry County, demonstrated the mechanized burley-harvesting method at sites across the state.
Photo by Dave Caldwell
Reports of the demise of tobacco in North Carolina in the wake of the tobacco buyout were apparently greatly exaggerated.
Not only are growers expected to produce considerably more flue-cured tobacco this year than last, growers throughout the state continue to experiment with burley tobacco. And if North Carolina growers are experimenting with burley, that must mean that Dr. Mike Boyette, Philip Morris Professor of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, is looking for ways to mechanize burley harvesting, making the crop more profitable.
Boyette's latest attempt to reduce the amount of labor involved in harvesting burley is a French-made machine called the Kirpy. Boyette used a Golden LEAF grant to purchase the first Kirpy to cross the Atlantic (since then, North Carolina growers are thought to have purchased about 20 of the machines). And throughout the harvest season, Boyette has been hauling the machine across North Carolina, demonstrating it to growers.
"We recognized that if we didn't get one, it might take some time for growers to become familiar with the machine," Boyette said. "It (the Kirpy) looked better than anything we've seen, and there was a lot of interest in it early in the spring."
The machine cuts each stalk of tobacco, then moves the stalk up in an arc and deposits it on a flat bed trailer.
Boyette demonstrated the machine at seven sites across the state, culminating with the Burley Tobacco Field Day in early September at the Upper Mountain Research Station at Laurel Springs. While the machine worked reasonably well, Boyette describes it a "Model T" in what he envisions as a progression of burley tobacco harvesting mechanization. So, wait until next year.
-Dave Caldwell
Not only are growers expected to produce considerably more flue-cured tobacco this year than last, growers throughout the state continue to experiment with burley tobacco. And if North Carolina growers are experimenting with burley, that must mean that Dr. Mike Boyette, Philip Morris Professor of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, is looking for ways to mechanize burley harvesting, making the crop more profitable.
Boyette's latest attempt to reduce the amount of labor involved in harvesting burley is a French-made machine called the Kirpy. Boyette used a Golden LEAF grant to purchase the first Kirpy to cross the Atlantic (since then, North Carolina growers are thought to have purchased about 20 of the machines). And throughout the harvest season, Boyette has been hauling the machine across North Carolina, demonstrating it to growers.
"We recognized that if we didn't get one, it might take some time for growers to become familiar with the machine," Boyette said. "It (the Kirpy) looked better than anything we've seen, and there was a lot of interest in it early in the spring."
The machine cuts each stalk of tobacco, then moves the stalk up in an arc and deposits it on a flat bed trailer.
Boyette demonstrated the machine at seven sites across the state, culminating with the Burley Tobacco Field Day in early September at the Upper Mountain Research Station at Laurel Springs. While the machine worked reasonably well, Boyette describes it a "Model T" in what he envisions as a progression of burley tobacco harvesting mechanization. So, wait until next year.
-Dave Caldwell