Georgia Tobacco Farming

[Doboy Dawg]

When I was a kid around SE Georgia all you saw for miles was tobacco and corn. There were 5 large farms in my family. They all grew tobacco and corn.

I would listen to the old timers talk about picking cotton when they were young. They grew cotton, tobacco, and corn.

I spent quite a few summers cropping tobacco and taking it off the sticks in the old wood barns. When I became a teenager all the farmers were switching to bulk barns and the tobacco was hung in racks.

In the late 80’s tobacco farms starting disappearing around here and cotton once again became popular.

Technology took the individual laborers out of the equation. Eight man two tier pickers were replaced by automated pickers with two man crews.

Four of the five farms in my extended family were sold by the kids who inherited them, as they wanted the money and didn’t want to work hard for it. Most of those lands that belonged to my family at one time are now corporate owned.

 

[RamblinWreck88]

Here's the old tobacco barn at the family place. I can sit in the stand and hear the squirrels dropping acorns onto the roof. I am not sure how far back tobacco farming went in the family, but the earliest known picture of my dad is of him standing in a tobacco field at about 4 years old.

 

[Lilly001]

From my recent travels I know of a farm on US 441 where it itersects with US 221 just south of Pearson Ga in Atkinson county where they have grown Tobacco within the last year or so. And a farm in northern Coffee county, just south of the Ocmulgee river again on US 441 where they grow and dry tobacco.
The plant is very distinct and hard to miss.

 

[livinoutdoors]

buddy of mine grew over 600 acres of it this year. That’s their sole crop they plant.

?prob a pretty hard business these days

 

[1982ace]

They make more per acre but also is more labor intensive.

?prob a pretty hard business these days

 

[4HAND]

Not Ga, but tobacco was grown in Dixie County Fl in the 80's. Surrounding counties as well.

 

[GDAWG84]

I still see some in southern Colquitt county.

That’s probably Robinson Farms, one of, if not the last tobacco farmers in this area. There were several that were holding out until 5 or 6 years ago but now the Robinsons are the last ones I know of. Tobacco used to be big all over Colquitt county.

 

[dirtnap]

There’s a good bit around here still

 

[buckpasser]

That’s probably Robinson Farms, one of, if not the last tobacco farmers in this area. There were several that were holding out until 5 or 6 years ago but now the Robinsons are the last ones I know of. Tobacco used to be big all over Colquitt county.

It is the Robinson’s.

 

[BriarPatch99]

There is a "good" size tobacco farm on highway #203 in South Appling County ... last time I passed though they were combining at a fairly fast pace ....must have a stalk cutter attached to the combine because the stalks disappears as it passes ... Large acreage ...

 

[specialk]

i remember when the stabil program ended the .gov paid everybody off for the lbs. you were allocated.......the top three payouts were to companies here in GA.....tens of millions just to those......my grands only had about 1500lbs, they would ''rent'' them out to other farmers for about .25 a lb per year....don't remember what the buyout was.....

600ac is a big operation!....i got 2 cousins that each have about 250ac each, one in VA and one in NC....they do other farming though, mostly corn, beans, grains, etc....

 

[Oldstick]

I worked driving the trailers full of baccker from the fields then assigned to help with the labor racking it up into the bulk barns. Cook County, GA in the late 1070s. That will turn a skinny 5'-9", 18 year old boy into a muscled 5-9 man in a flat hurry. No gym memberships needed back then.

 

[livinoutdoors]

I worked driving the trailers full of baccker from the fields then assigned to help with the labor racking it up into the bulk barns. Cook County, GA in the late 1070s. That will turn a skinny 5'-9", 18 year old boy into a muscled 5-9 man in a flat hurry. No gym memberships needed back then.

1070s? Daaaang!???

 

[4HAND]

1070s? Daaaang!???

We know who found the "Fountain of Youth".
??

 

[Oldstick]

Yep, I admit I don't look that old. But I do look a LOT older and MUCH weaker with fat typing fingers still for a kid from the 1970s.

I might have died looking like Hercules if it was the 1070s after building all those stone castles by hand.