Historically, Daviess County was a large producer of Burley tobacco, used primarily for the manufacture of cigarettes.
With the decline in cigarette consumption in the United States, the demand for Burley tobacco has fallen substantially. As a result, farmers are shifting to a dark air-cured tobacco used to make moist snuff, and a tobacco utilized for cigar wrapper production.
Some Burley acreage remains in Daviess County, though it pales in comparison to the thousands of acres planted in the 1970s and 1980s. Extension Agent Clint Hardy provides an update from the farm of Mike and Floyd Edge in Whitesville, Kentucky.
