EVALUATION OF LABOR REQUIREMENTS AND WORK RATES FOR CONVENTIONAL STRIPPING OF BURLEY TOBACCO1

Abstract For the 1997 – 2004 crop years, labor records were kept for the burley tobacco stripping operation at the University of Kentucky Animal Research Center. Worker hours were recorded for the following labor categories: taking tobacco down and bulking on the stick (take down hrs), removing the tobacco from the sticks and bulking on wagons (loading hrs), removing the tobacco from the stalks (stripping hrs), and support personnel for the stripping crew (runner hrs). Typically a five-worker crew plus a runner or support person was used to manually strip the tobacco into three or four grades. The volume of tobacco stripped ranged from slightly over 19,000 kg in 2003 to approximately 65,500 kg in 1998 and 1999. Total worker hours ranged from approximately 1,456 in 2003 to 4,383 in 1998. An average value for the eight years of 189 worker hours/ha was determined using the total volume of tobacco stripped, the total worker hours required and an average yield of 2800 kg/ha. Average percentages of the total wo...