How Many Tobacco Barns Will be Enough?

(Tobacco Farmer Newsletter) The looming shortage of barns to cure the 2013 crop is especially urgent for flue-cured growers, who were very short on barn space in 2012 anyway and appear to be looking at more contract pounds. The age of the existing barns could make the problem worse. "A lot of our flue-cured barns are 20 to 25 years old," says Jay Boyette, commodity director for the North Carolina Farm Bureau. "At some point we will have to replace them. That time may have come. Continued