The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced sugar loan rates and marketing provisions for fiscal year 2027, along with reallocations for fiscal year 2026. USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation provides loans to sugar beet and sugarcane processors, allowing sugar to be stored after harvest and marketed later when prices improve.
Read MoreOn a Monday morning at a sugarcane farm in Port Allen, LSU AgCenter entomologist Blake Wilson and two student workers pushed through green and yellow cane stalks on a field’s border and into the interior rows. There, they found plants that were completely brown.
This farm, and many others throughout the state, has been infested with the pasture mealybug, an invasive species first identified by Louisiana crop consultants last year.
Read MoreThe Louisiana sugarcane industry is on track for another record season, but growers are still watching a pest that has become a major concern across the region.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins and Gov. Jeff Landry toured the Louisiana Sugar Cane Cooperative in St. Martinville Friday (Sept. 25) as part of a closer look at the state’s sugarcane industry and the challenges facing growers.
Read MoreThe sweet smell of sugarcane fills the air along Bayou Lafourche as the harvest begins in south Louisiana. But for growers, their biggest harvest-time expense, diesel, has hit a record high.
Diesel is hovering around $6.50 per gallon, up about $3 from this time last year.
On the Naquin family farm near Thibodaux, a combine cut the first cane of a three-month harvest on Tuesday, and Craig Naquin said the family is getting slammed by the cost.
Read MoreIndustry experts are projecting supply uncertainty for the beet and cane sugar crops for fiscal year 2026-27. The primary contributing factors to this uncertainty include drought-related reductions in sugarbeet planted acreage, relatively low sugar prices, high input costs and uncertainty about sugar demand, potentially stemming from the growing popularity of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs.
Read MoreThe Louisiana sugarcane industry is on track for another record season, but growers are still watching a pest that has become a major concern across the region.
Read MoreIn Louisiana, 2026 has definitely been the year of the insect. Now this doesn’t mean we’ve had widespread yield losses and control failures, but instead we’ve seen insects do things we don’t normally expect. South American Rice Miner showed up pretty consistently in most fields and didn’t go away.
Read MoreA priest blessed this year’s sugarcane crop at Gonsoulin Farms outside New Iberia, a tradition that marks the official start of the grinding season.
Fr. Keith Landry of Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church used holy water for the blessing on Friday, Sept. 25, as those gathered prayed for a safe and bountiful harvest. A drone was also used to spray hard-to-reach areas of the field during the ceremony.
Read MoreU.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins visited Louisiana’s sugarcane industry Friday, touring the Louisiana Sugar Cane Cooperative (LASUCA) in St. Martin Parish and meeting with Gov. Jeff Landry, Louisiana Commissioner of Agriculture and Forestry Mike Strain, Louisiana Farm Bureau President Richard Fontenot and industry leaders to discuss the state’s agricultural economy and challenges facing farmers.
Read MoreLouisiana sugarcane farmers are receiving much-needed relief from record-high diesel prices as the 2026 harvest gets underway following an executive order signed by Governor Jeff Landry declaring an emergency due to the shortage and high cost of diesel fuel.
Read MoreSugarcane farmers in Plaquemine began the first day of a 100-to-110-day harvest season this week, with rising diesel prices adding new costs to the operation.
Read MoreSugar has earned the dubious distinction of being among the world’s most distorted commodity markets.
Read MoreFor generations, agriculture has helped shape the economy, landscape and culture of Vermilion Parish. Rice fields, crawfish ponds and sugarcane farms stretch across the parish toward Louisiana’s Gulf Coast.
Now, another industry is preparing to put down roots alongside them.
Read MoreAs sugarcane planting nears completion across south Louisiana and growers prepare for the start of harvest season, farmers are facing an additional challenge in their fields in the pasture mealybug.
Read MoreSugarcane farmers across Acadiana are wrapping up this year’s planting season, but a dry spell, high fuel prices, and pest problems in the fields have some growers bracing for a smaller harvest than last year.
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