LSU Ag Center experts say the recent freezes were disruptive to the sugar cane industry. Sugar cane specialist Kenneth Gravois the crops now being harvested experienced what he calls a killing freeze.
“We’ve bred some cold tolerance into sugar cane but nothing that can withstand the 16, 17, you know mid-twenty-degree nights that we’ve had,” Gravois said.
However, Gravois said ten of the eleven mills in Louisiana are still processing cane, and 85 percent of the cane in the fields has already been harvested—and he adds that despite the freeze, the quality of the sugar being processed is still very good.
“The effect of a freeze is not an immediate thing so the weather from here on out will really determine how far we go with the remainder of the crop,” He said.
Gravois said he hopes the weather will remain cool to refrigerate the mature cane that hasn’t been harvested yet. In addition, he said 90 percent of the new crop is already in the fields. Gravois said experts just tested soil temperatures to assess the health of that crop.
“And it looks like our soil temperatures didn’t get below 38, 39 degrees, which is a good thing, we want to make sure our soils don’t freeze,” he said.
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