The LSU Ag Center says the state is looking at a record sugar cane harvest this year. Sugar cane specialist Kenneth Gravois says sugar was planted on 496-thousand acres in 2020 and the harvest which started in September produced about 83-hundred pounds per acre…
“This is an expansion onto better land, better varieties, we’re going to produce almost 2 million tons of sugar, that’s a record for Louisiana.”
Gravois says even a rough hurricane season could not slow down a record-breaking sugar cane harvest.
“Even though we had all these hurricanes our sugar recovery is good, we’re probably going to average somewhere around 232 pounds of sugar per ton out of the core lab, that’s great.”
Gravois expects over 500-thousand acres of sugar cane planted in 2021 as more sugar cane will be planted in the northern and western parts of the cane-growing region. He says the 2021 crop is already off to a great start thanks to a mild winter.
“We haven’t had any severe freezes, the re-growth is starting to come back, the stands are good.”
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