(1 Feb 2015) LEAD IN:
The once busy tobacco auctions held across parts of the US state of Kentucky are fast becoming a thing of the past.
Falling demand for cigarettes and large company contracts are putting an end to traditional meetings between farmers and buyers that have existed for centuries.
STORY-LINE:
Auctioneer, Tripp Foy's sing-song chant is part of a bygone era when sales of tobacco were a regular meeting point for local farmers.
The veteran auctioneer of four decades calls out prices for the small procession of leaf buyers, following him up and down long rows of tobacco piled in bales.
It's the start of another season of auction sales, a tradition all but snuffed out by low demand and competing contracts.
Like a pied-piper, the song-like chant guides would-be buyers throughout the warehouse.
"The auction itself is about keeping everybody's interest and keeping a rhythm up. We get in a rhythm on a good sale, and it's just like singing a song," says Foy.
A procession of buyers touch and handle the bales as Foy calls out the prices for sale.
"When you got six, eight, ten people participating, and everybody's a professional at the top of their game, you can walk down the row and almost dance to the tune of the sale," he says.
But the tradition of America's tobacco-belt is quickly fading away.
Most of the state's burley tobacco is now sold under contracts between farmers and big companies, cutting out the warehouse operators entirely.
"Tobacco consumption is down, has been for the last three years running. It's a challenge to try to find buyers for this year's crop, the prices are down and it's going to be a struggle all the way through the year," says Foy.
Jerry Rankin, Operator of the Danville tobacco warehouse, says it's all a hand game when it comes to buyers on auction day.
"You see them out there with all their fingers out, that means a dollar twenty-five or a dollar thirty five or fifteen, whatever the auctioneer's saying."
Bidders are taken through a delicate dance marking the start of this season's sales for Kentucky.
"All this tobacco will end up smoking or spitting or blowing blue smoke, it'll all end up at the manufacturer's and today it is a cheap product," says Rankin.
An excess of the tobacco crop, combined with lower demand, is also driving down burley prices. It's leaving auctioneers like Foy struggling for business.
"Forty years ago, tobacco was a mainstay of all your small farmers, to get actual cash money in their pocket. And it was a way of life, and it's sad that it's gone away, but times change," says Foy.
But despite setbacks, devoted auctioneers like Foy have hung on to tradition. Supporters say they provide an alternative for the small-town farmers unable or unwilling to sign contracts for less than desirable prices.
"It makes me thank God every day that I've been tough enough to hold out," he adds.
This is the legacy of a once-vibrant industry, with just a handful of auctioneers waiting for this familiar tune to one day wind down completely.
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