By Bruce Schreiner
The Associated Press

CROPPER, Ky. - Toiling in burley tobacco fields for a half century taught M.L. Bellwood plenty about patience and persistence.

But when it comes to talk of a tobacco buyout, his patience has just about run out.

"I'd say it's probably a pipe dream," the 64-year-old farmer said before driving his work crew to the field to plant tobacco on a hot, muggy spring day.

Frustration has taken root among farmers over the lack of congressional action on a buyout, which would pay producers and quotaholders to give up federal allotments dictating how much leaf they can sell under a Depression-era price-support system.

"If we're not going to have a buyout, let's say we're not going to have it and let's do something else to move on, instead of dangling that carrot," said Scott LeCompte, once a full-time farmer and tobacco warehouse operator in Shelby County who now just dabbles in tobacco.

LeCompte, who works at a farm implement business, said most farmers he talks to have just about given up hope for a buyout. He said many stuck with tobacco to keep from missing out on a buyout.

"I think a lot of our political people have said, 'We're pushing for this,' and we keep electing them and nothing happens," LeCompte said.

Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the second-ranking Senate Republican and a leading buyout proponent, said the pessimism is justified.

"I haven't given up hope," he said. "But if I were advising a ... tobacco grower in Kentucky today, I'd say don't count on it. We're doing our best, but I think it's a real, real hard sell."

In the House, buyout proponents may try to attach it to a corporate tax bill expected to be considered next month. McConnell said he has encouraged House members to follow that strategy. "That could be the way to get a proposal through the House," the senator said.

One House version would use federal cigarette tax revenue to pay for a buyout. A Senate bill would require cigarette manufacturers to fund it.

One obstacle is whether to link a buyout with language giving the Food and Drug Administration the power to regulate tobacco - once taboo in tobacco country. House leaders oppose the FDA proposal. In the Senate, linking the two is the only way to pass a buyout, McConnell said.

Gene Witt, another longtime tobacco farmer in Shelby County, said the inaction reflects a lack of political clout among tobacco growers.

"Farmers are such a small part of the voting population anymore," he said as his work crew planted burley. "We have a hard time getting anything passed because we don't have the power other people do."

Some farmers said their cause wasn't helped by President Bush's recent comments in which he said he didn't think a change to the tobacco program is needed. Witt said he felt betrayed. He said the cost of a buyout is a "drop in the bucket" compared to other federal expenses.

McConnell, usually in lockstep with Bush on policy, said he didn't agree with the president's comments but didn't consider them a setback.

"Frankly, his position at the moment is not the problem," McConnell said. "We've got to figure a way to get it out of the Congress first."

He predicted if that happens, Bush would sign the measure.

Burley tobacco, once a mainstay, has been in steady decline in Shelby County where, like elsewhere, quota cuts slashed production. Eight tobacco auction warehouses once operated in Shelbyville, 30 miles east of Louisville. Now, only one remains as tobacco companies buy most of their leaf directly from farmers.

LeCompte's warehouse was torn down a few years ago.

Some farmers gave up, cashing in on the development boom in the county next door to Louisville. Upscale homes now sprout on prime farmland.

Bellwood said a buyout would benefit both farmers wanting to quit growing tobacco and those wanting to expand. A post-buyout system would allow farmers to grow as much leaf as the market would bear.

"You've got to get the tobacco in the hands of the farmers who want to grow it," Bellwood said.

Bellwood pays 70 cents a pound to lease production from quotaholders who don't want to raise leaf. Some area farmers pay even higher lease prices. Combined with production costs for fuel and fertilizer, "that doesn't leave you much margin," he said.

Shelby County farmer Paul Hornback said the uncertainty over a buyout has become a hindrance. Hornback intends to grow 220,000 pounds of burley this year, most of it leased. He'd like to grow more tobacco, but has held off building new curing barns until the future becomes clearer.

"There needs to be some way that I can plan for the future," he said. "Right now, we're operating year by year, and in any industry, that's not good. So we need to get the issues resolved."

Hornback guessed about half the tobacco growers in Shelby County would quit production if a buyout occurs. LeCompte, who once raised 100,000 pounds of leaf but is down to 6,800 pounds this year, would be among them.

"I'd take the money and run," LeCompte said.

Bellwood, who has worked in the tobacco fields since boyhood, said he'd set aside his portion of a buyout for retirement.

But he'd probably keep growing tobacco, though on a smaller scale.

"I'm too old to do anything else," he said.