By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – Brutally cold temperatures, coupled with wet, wintry weather last December and January have produced a less than average sugarcane crop in the River Parishes, according to a local officials from the LSU AgCenter.

Al Orgeron, an associate county agent for St. James Parish, said farmers in the region are expecting to average about 6,300 pounds of sugar per acre of cane.

He said the figure is about 400 pounds below the typical average for the region and about 100 pounds below the state average, which is odd for the River Parishes.

“Farmers in the area are typically well above the state average, and it has been a long time since this area has dipped below that benchmark,” Orgeron said. “Mother nature has dealt us a less than optimal crop. It’s still good, but not great.”

Orgeron’s region, which includes 45,000 acres of cane crop, extends from Ascension Parish through St. Charles Parish with the bulk of the crop in St. James. The region includes 29 farmers in St. James, eight in St. John and one in St. Charles.

Orgeron said the wet weather in December and January hampered those farmers, who were trying to wrap up the harvest for the year. He said the soggy conditions made it harder to get equipment where it needed to be and also caused problems for future growth this season.

“The wet conditions produce a lot of mud between cane rows,” Orgeron said. “The trucks splash mud onto cut rows and the mud acts as a mulch, which blocks growth. In the spring, the shoots did not come up like they normally do.”

The brutally cold winter weather last season also played a part in the diminished crop. Orgeron said cane can grow in the cold, but freezing temperatures over several days last December and January slowed growth.

On the flip side, harvest conditions this year have been exceptionally dry, which produced a great cost saver for farmers in the region.

“Dry conditions mean less equipment maintenance and repairs, as well as less fuel consumption,” Orgeron said. “Farmers are not having to haul through mud and water. They only had to make diesel purchases every 28 days.”

Orgeron said a few new varieties of cane crop released in the last two years have shown great success despite the decrease in harvest. He said new varieties from the LSU AgCenter and U.S. Department of Agriculture have produced healthy crops that are very sweet and contain good sugar content.

Orgeron said the best news from the harvest this year was sugar netted an increase in price per pound, jumping to about 30 cents this year.

“It was needed,” Orgeron said.

“There hasn’t been a price increase in 30 years, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. With the less successful crop this year, there were a handful of farmers in the region who would have had to quit the business all together. It was the one break we got this season.”