Rain may inhibit cane crop

The story of the past two years in Louisiana sugar cane 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.
“When we have high rainfall, we tend to get a little lighter crop,” Kenneth Gravois, LSU AgCenter sugar cane specialist, told the group of cane growers at the St. Mary/Iberia/Vermilion parishes field day in Jeanerette recently.
“For the farmers, I know it’s been a frustrating with a year like we had last year because of COVID-19, and we had several hurricanes,” said Blair Hebert, LSU AgCenter extension agent. “But we had a bumper crop.”
The high tonnage and high sugar yields added up to a record-setting harvest in 2020, but this year’s consistent rains have delayed spring fertilization and field preparation for the planting season that has begun in some areas of the state, Hebert added.
“I’m still optimistic that we have a real good crop out there, but we need the weather to dry up so that we can get the crop planted and then get ready for harvest,” Hebert told the growers .