In 2023, a severe drought and heat in South Louisiana caused major setbacks for crawfish farmers, with many crawfish and hatchlings perishing. The 2024 season reflected this loss, with lower availability and higher prices. According to LSU AgCenter’s Todd Fontenot, the upcoming season looks more promising, as the crawfish are emerging to better conditions.
“So a lot of our producers are flooding up their crawfish ponds at this time. They’re seeing some signs of crawfish emerging as they are putting water on these fields.”
Increased rainfall and moderate temperatures have improved field conditions, especially for crawfish raised alongside rice. While concerns remain, especially with salinity issues in southern ponds, Fontenot expects this year to be an improvement over last year’s record low yields.
“We are seeing crawfish emerging from their borrows with young, with hatchling recruits that they are going to be releasing into the pond.”
With acreage dedicated to crawfish production up to 400,000 acres, hopes are high for a plentiful season. However, Fontenot says it remains too early to predict whether prices will remain stable.
“In general, we are still seeing in the rice growing region, still an increase in acreage. We’ve seen a decrease in soybean production and those acres are going into crawfish production.”
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