Freeze Spurs Rush To Harvest Sugar Cane

By Rebecca Hollande

The Advocate

Patrick Frischhertz, a farmer in Plaquemine, finished harvesting his sugar cane on Thursday and breathed a huge sigh of relief.

''I feel very blessed to be able to cut all the cane out of our fields,'' he said. ''It was looking really bleak.''

In late December, an arctic blast sent temperatures below freezing for three days across Louisiana. The freeze killed all of Frischhertz's sugar cane above ground and decimated the amount of recoverable sugar per ton. When temperatures rose again, the cane started to ferment.

''It was a real serious issue for all sugar cane farmers. We were sending cane that was almost sour to the mill,'' Frischhertz said.

The major number for a sugar cane farmer is ''recoverable sucrose,'' calculated by multiplying the recoverable sugar per ton by the tons of raw sugar per acre.

''The recoverable sugar per ton stayed about the same for four to five days, then the temperature started warming up and the sugar cane started to deteriorate. The amount of recoverable sugar per ton started to drop significantly,'' Frischhertz said.

Bobby Morris, a West Baton Rouge Parish farmer, said the area had about 240 pounds of recoverable sucrose per ton of sugar cane.

''Now we're doing 120-150 in sugar content. We lost 100 points in three weeks,'' he said.

Morris surveyed his fields and said he had about $200,000 to $300,000 worth of sugar cane left to harvest.

''It's not something you personally want to leave,'' he said. ''But it's hard to say whether we're going to lose any at this point.''

Sam Irwin, public relations director at the American Sugar Cane League, said out of the 11 sugar mills in Louisiana, five are continuing to grind, which is a good sign.

''As long as they're grinding, farmers are going to keep harvesting,'' he said.

A bigger concern was whether the freeze hurt the next crop - but early indicators seemed to alleviate those fears.

Sugar cane farmers typically begin harvesting in mid-September and finish in mid-January. It's always a race to beat the first freeze, and this season's crop was particularly large. By December, about 83% of the sugar cane crop statewide was harvested. Now, the harvest is about 96% complete.

On the bright side, sugar cane had been thriving before the freeze.

''We've already exceeded last year's sugar production, and last year was a state record,'' said Kenneth Gravois, a sugar cane specialist at the LSU AgCenter. ''So this takes us from an extremely good crop to slightly less than our expectation.''

Morris, despite his current worries, said sugar cane is generally doing well. ''It's very seldom we have a disaster. It's a tough crop to lose,'' he said.

The losses for individual farms are real, but Gravois said good yields in the majority of the harvest, plus a decent price for sugar and molasses, will hopefully bode well for growers.

''Sugar has better margins, better profit. It's more lucrative than other farming,'' Gravois said.

He noted that sugar cane is the No. 1 crop in Louisiana by value and an important economic driver for rural communities. This has attracted new farming operations into the industry, particularly in northern and western Louisiana. It's also attracting young people, whether in farming or in ancillary industries that support farming.

''There are a lot of good young people in this industry,'' Gravois said. ''It's been a real bright spot in the ag economy.''