Two large sugar refineries in Louisiana, which were shut down before Hurricane Ida hit the state, were still not operational on Tuesday as the companies assessed damages and waited for power lines to be restored.
There were also reports of damage to sugarcane crops in the state, the second largest producer in the country after Florida, but it will take some days for agronomists and farmers to evaluate the situation, an expert said.
Read MoreKANSAS CITY — Two major sugar refineries in the New Orleans area were not operating as of Aug. 30 in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida, which made landfall near the city around midday Aug. 29 as a category 4 storm. The storm was said to be worse in some aspects than Hurricane Katrina 16 years ago.
The ASR Group (Domino) refinery at Chalmette, La., was taken down Friday afternoon, and the Louisiana Sugar Refining, LLC, (LSR) plant at Gramercy, La., was taken down Saturday evening, both as a precaution ahead of the fast-moving storm. As of Monday morning, storm teams still were assessing the situation at both refineries, according to company sources. Indications were both factories were without power. Both refineries are major producers of refined cane sugar sourcing most of their raw sugar supply from Louisiana and Texas, with the ASR plant also utilizing some imported raw sugar. Combined, they produce more than 15% of the total US sugar supply (including carryover, domestic beet and cane sugar and imports).
Read MoreIn Louisiana, sugarcane farmers are busy planting their fields so they can turn their attention to the harvest, which begins next month. This year’s crop is a little short, which is causing farmers to use more cane for seed. Farmers are also watching the path of Ida. LSU AgCenter correspondent Craig Gautreaux has this report from south Louisiana.
Read MoreA pandemic has restricted many things, but for the Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation, it has limited our ability to bring our members directly to their elected officials, particularly those serving in Washington D.C.
Also, with four out of the six House of Representative staffers of Louisiana’s delegation being new to their jobs, we thought it was the perfect time to bring these important individuals to the farm.
Read MoreWhen Bobbie Johnson and James Williams were students at Baton Rouge’s McKinley High, they never envisioned one day owning an alcohol business.
“Bobby said I got this idea, ‘let’s make our own alcohol’… I was like, I said I don’t know anything about it but let’s do it” said James Williams, co-founder and COO of Matador Vodka.
Years after leaving professions in the trucking industry, the two are now co-founders of Matador Vodka where they’re literally and figuratively calling the shots.
Read MoreCOVID has claimed yet another annual Louisiana tradition as the Louisiana Sugarcane Festival & Fair Association announced their decision to cancel this year's event.
Festival organizers across Louisiana have explored just about every option when it comes to moving forward with their events, but the Delta variant continues to wreak havoc on the country—especially in our Acadiana region.
The Louisiana Sugar Cane Festival & Fair Association made the call to cancel this year's annual festival via an announcement on their official Facebook page.
Sugarcane is a tall perennial grass of tropical origin that is cultivated for its ability to store sucrose in its stalks. Attempts to grow sugarcane in Louisiana began in the early 1700s. In the 1750s, the French Jesuits were among the first to successfully grow and harvest several crops of sugarcane at their New Orleans plantation. However, it was not until 1795 when Étienne de Boré, aided by experienced “sugar makers” from Haiti, successfully granulated about 100,000 pounds of sugar that Louisiana farmers recognized sugarcane as a potential cash crop.
Read MoreIn a sugarcane field just outside of Cheneyville in Rapides Parish, Stacia Davis Conger and Justin Dufour are drilling, assembling and placing moisture sensors in the ground under stifling conditions.
Conger, AgCenter irrigation specialist, and Dufour, area ag agent for Avoyelles, Rapides and Grant parishes, have started a project looking at irrigation efficiency of sugarcane, a crop grown in areas that typically receive plenty of rainfall. While 70% of Louisiana’s corn crop is irrigated, less than 5% of the state’s 500,000 acres of sugarcane are.
Read MoreThe St. James Agricultural Tour committee named Herman Waguespack Jr of Thibodaux as the 59th recipient of the Kermit Coulon Sr. Outstanding Service Award.
Waguespack is the research director of the American Sugar Cane League and has served the Louisiana sugarcane industry for more than 36 years.
Read MoreChemical ripeners for sugarcane in Louisiana provide an important benefit. When properly applied, ripeners can maximize recoverable sugar and minimize cane yield (tonnage) losses.
Read MoreThe story of the past two years in Louisiana sugarcane production has been a tale of two very different seasons for farmers.
After tallying a bumper harvest from late September through mid-January, many producers may have expected something similar for 2021, but Mother Nature has dampened the outlook for the current growing season.
Read MoreLawmakers in the Senate have Introduced legislation to reform the Federal Sugar Support Program.
But Jim Simon, General Manager of the American Sugarcane league in Thibodaux, says the bill is anything but fair.
Read MoreThe American Sugar Alliance (ASA) supports new legislation introduced today by Congresswoman Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) and Congressman Dan Kildee (D-Mich.) which seeks to zero out the foreign subsidies that make sugar the world’s most distorted commodity market. This legislation levels the playing field and preserves family farms and good-paying jobs, while maintaining a strong and stable domestic supply chain for sugar.
Read MoreTwo newly released sugarcane varieties took center stage at the LSU AgCenter Sugar Research Station’s first live field day since 2019 after the coronavirus pandemic forced a virtual version last year.
Attendees of the July 21 event included some from as far away as Seattle and the nation of Colombia as well as new LSU President William F. Tate IV. They braved hot weather and muddy conditions to hear about fertilization techniques, pest control, cover crops and the two new varieties.
Read MoreU.S. Congressman Garret Graves (South Louisiana) is leading the way to modernize the Sugarcane Research Unit in Schriever. The funding was secured in the House Agriculture spending bill, which was approved by the House Appropriations Agriculture Subcommittee recently – a strong indication of widespread support for the project as the bill moves through the legislative process. Graves’ provision would modernize sugarcane research, create efficiencies, and yield even greater results for the crop and our state’s agriculture future.
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