Notched burley tobacco system performance

Burley tobacco is a valuable crop that is still harvested manually. A system of harvesting and handling notched burley plants on wire-strung portable frames has shown potential to reduce labor requirements. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the performance of the system with a newly designed harvester. Specific objectives were to determine hanging rates of several two and three person hanging crews, leaf loss associated with each crew, the percentage of plants that had split-out or shallow notches and could not be hung, and the frame exchange time requirements during field operation and to compare curing of the tobacco on the wire-strung portable frames to tobacco cured conventionally. The results showed that the notched plant wire-strung portable frame system harvests 0.7 ha/day (1.7 ac/day) thus saving the burley tobacco producer up to 45% of the labor compared to the conventional system. Leaf loss can be held to the 5% level and the combined percentage of splitout and shallow notches can be held below 3%. Less skill and strength is required with the notched burley tobacco system than the conventional system. The three worker hanging crew functioned more smoothly than the two worker hanging crew but a slower tractor speed would correct the problem for the two worker crew. Tobacco harvested by the notched plant system was more susceptible to houseburn because of the higher density than tobacco harvested and cured conventionally. Tips of leaves near the concrete floor of the barn cured dark red because of the wet curing year.