Big turnout hears the latest on cane

Sugar cane in St. Mary
2022
Number of cane farms.................................75
(Down from 98 in 2017)
Acres in cane..........................................38,677
Value of crop........................................$111.6M
Percentage of farms family-owned..............81
Percentage hiring farm labor........................47
Source: 2022 USDA Census of Agriculture

The largest crowd to ever attend an LSU AgCenter sugar cane field day learned the latest news and research in varieties, soil fertility, biostimulants, weed management and plant pathology.
AgCenter Sugar Research Station coordinator Al Orgeron approximated that there were 280 attendees based on the number of lunches served.
“Typically, we average 210 to 220, so this was a big increase in interest over previous years,” Orgeron said.
The event at the station in St. Gabriel began with a variety update from breeders Collins Kimbeng and Michael Pontif. Like last year, no new variety was released. Pontif explained why.
He said each new variety is tested against the reigning champion, L 01-299. This year, it was determined that L 17-738 didn’t meet the criteria to be released.
“What we have here is a sugar cane breeding improvement program,” Pontif said. “So, if it’s determined in our April meeting that 738 was good enough for release, we would’ve released it.”
According to Pontif, more than 250 samples of L 17-738 were processed, and it was determined that it shouldn’t be released to the Louisiana commercial sugar cane industry.
“It’s always hard to beat 299 in these tests,” he said.
Kimbeng explained what makes a good sugar cane variety.
“If you want good sucrose, we have it. If you want high yield, we have it, but we don’t necessarily have both in the same variety,” he said. “So, what we do is make our best effort to combine the best traits into a single variety.”
Kimbeng said disease resistance is important because even if a variety has high yield, one disease could wipe it out.
Following the variety update, soil fertility specialist Brenda Tubaña and postdoctoral researcher Bruno Nicchio discussed soil fertility and biostimulants. Tubaña spoke of the importance of embracing new technology and how to adapt.
“Precision ag, a more precise application of nutrients, and conservation practices that allow us to use residue and cover crops can change the nutrition requirements of sugar cane,” she said. “So, we want to make sure if that is being adopted, we have specific fertilization guidelines for those cropping systems.”
Nicchio went on to address biostimulants, which he said can promote crop growth and work as hormones, nitrogen fixers and organic matter decomposers. He said three trials have been conducted during the past year.
“The trials gave us the idea that this technology can be potentially used for sugar cane harvest,” he said. “We will continue with these trials but have new trials too because we still have questions.”
Weed scientist Matt Foster discussed the differences in herbicides and gave an application presentation using a backpack sprayer filled with water.
“There aren’t a lot of new products in the market. Back in the spring, I took a new turf product, which we sprayed on a row of cane here at the station,” he said. “It was looking promising at first, but ended up killing the cane, so that was a no go.”
Foster then showed the attendees examples of jungle rice and goosegrass and spoke about their resistance to certain popular herbicides.
At the final outdoor stop, plant pathologist Andre Gama spoke about filling the shoes of retired AgCenter researcher Jeff Hoy, the effects of rust and smut on certain sugar cane varieties and how best to combat them as well as other diseases.
“The No. 1 way we manage sugar cane diseases in Louisiana is through varietal resistance, but another very important program we have here is the clean seed program,” he said. “Here, you don’t have issues with RSD, ratoon stunting disease, anymore. This is because of a combination of two things: clean seed and varietal resistance.”
Gama encouraged producers to use the AgCenter’s free lab testing services as a method to check for and prevent disease spread as well as sanitizing equipment, especially if sharing machines from another farmer’s field.
“Pressure washing, ordinary ammonium, lye for a cane knife — all are effective and important if you’re sharing equipment,” he said.
Before the field day commenced, AgCenter sugar cane specialist Kenneth Gravois gave a positive assessment on this year’s crop despite last year’s severe and extended drought and a cold snap at the beginning of the year.
“The two biggest effects were that we planted a lot of cane in dry weather and some of that resulted in thin stands, but pretty decent,” Gravois said. “Another thing was the cold weather we had in mid-January, especially the farther north you go, some of the old stubble stands were a little bit weak. But, by and large, people are optimistic about this crop.”
The day concluded with updates from Matt Lee, LSU vice president for agriculture and dean of the College of Agriculture; Jim Simon, general manager of the American Sugar Cane League; Michael Salassi, director of the Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station; Tara Smith, director of the Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service; Mike Strain, commissioner of the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry; and Jay Grymes, interim state climatologist with the Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service.
Lee spoke about the impressive grant funding brought in by AgCenter researchers in the past two years to support science and cooperative extension programs.
“Prior to two years ago, we were averaging about $31 million a year,” Lee said. “In the last 24 months, the AgCenter faculty have brought in $86 million in net new grants, and we’re going to continue this trajectory.”
Finally, Grymes discussed last year’s drought and how he intends to correct mistakes that were made in the past.
“Last year, we mishandled the Drought Monitor,” he said. “We’re not going to do that this year — I promise you folks.”