County tobacco growers have some new information to sort through this year, now that the Farm Service Agency has started accepting leases for burley tobacco.

Monday, March 12, 2001

County tobacco growers have some new information to sort through this year, now that the Farm Service Agency has started accepting leases for burley tobacco.

Burley growers voted to keep the current quota system for another three years, and the Ohio burley tobacco producers voted in favor of the lease and transfer of tobacco across county lines within the state, said Jim Herrell, director of the Gallia-Lawrence Farm Service Agency.

The following is a partial list of information available at the county FSA office:

– A listing of quota owners wishing to lease quota away from their farm will be available on the Internet and at the county office.

Your home county office (Gallia-Lawrence agency) is the contact point for this process and your home county will supply other Ohio counties with the listing. Copies of this list will be available at the county office and can be mailed upon request but these will not be read over the phone.

"If you want your name on the listing, a form must be completed to release your information on the Internet," Herrell said.

– All cross-county leases must be started by the transferring or leasing away party.

If you are leasing away your quota to another county, you must have the following information from the receiving party: county, farm number, name, address and phone number. You must have the information prior to processing the lease.

Producers who lease to their farm will need to supply the information listed above to the transferring farm so they can start the leasing process.

– To access the burley tobacco lease away list for the state of Ohio on your home computer:

Step one, access the FSA homepage at http://www.fsa.usda.gov/pas/default.asp

Step two, on the homepage, click on "services" under "navigation" on the left side of the page.

Step three, on the services page, click on "burley tobacco lease and transfer reports" under "add.resources" on the left side of the page.

Step four, on the burley lease and transfer reports page, click "spring L&T report."

Step five, on the burley tobacco spring lease reports page, click the state to view the report of pounds available for spring lease in that state.

For more information about tobacco leasing, contact the Gallia-Lawrence Farm Service Agency office at 111 Jackson Pike, Gallipolis, Ohio, or call 1-800-391-6638.