There had to be a better way for farmers to package tobacco.

"A nationwide tobacco advisory committee told growers and warehousemen they need to find a better marketing package," said J. Michael Moore, a tobacco agronomist with the University of Georgia Extension Service.

Moore and others figure the answer is a hydraulic baler that squeezes cured tobacco leaves into 800- to 900-pound bales about 44 inches square.

Since the 1960s tobacco has been sold in 250-pound, burlap- bound packages called sheets. But the sheets are hard to move around. The burlap tears easily during moving and allows leaves to fall out.

With the baler, though, "we've been able to put about four sheets' worth of tobacco into one bale," Moore said.

That compression is helpful, since warehouse space isn't what it used to be. "These bales could allow warehousemen to keep three to four times more tobacco in the same amount of floor space while keeping leaf quality high," Moore said.

The real benefit, though, could be lower labor costs. Bales require less labor than sheets to pack and move around.

Moore said Georgia-grown tobacco has more sugar and is exposed to higher humidity than that grown in the Carolinas and Virginia. Although the high sugar content appeals to buyers, it also makes the tobacco absorb moisture faster.

For that reason, many people felt Georgia-grown tobacco wouldn't stay at top quality in bales. But studies this year show it can.

"If the tobacco is properly cured and goes into the bale at less than 16 percent moisture," Moore said, "the quality stays high."

Tobacco in bales isn't as easy to inspect as in sheets, though. Graders and buyers can easily look through loosely-packed sheets to see the leaves. They look for leaf color, size, texture and stalk position to tell the leaf grade and offer a price.

But the bales have five sides they can see. And during tests this summer, Moore said, they could see enough of each bale to decide on an appropriate grade for the tobacco.

Growers will have to stake their reputation on each bale's consistency. "They'll have to be able to say the bale is the same on the inside as it is on the outside," Moore said. "And the buyers will have to trust them."

Moore expects studies to continue for two to three more years. Then the industry will decide if baling is a good option for tobacco.

"All indications we're getting point to baling as an acceptable packaging approach," Moore said.

"The whole idea of this study is to make sure Georgia growers aren't left behind," he said. "They will have seen the technology in operation, hopefully on their own farm. And when the time comes, they can decide for themselves whether it's right for the industry."