ST. MARTIN PARISH — The sugarcane harvest season is underway across Louisiana, and in St. Martinville, the Louisiana Sugarcane Cooperative is already grinding cane around the clock. John Hebert, agricultural manager with the cooperative, said this year’s crop is shaping up in line with 2024, even as some differences are already showing in the fields.
“I think this year is really tracking toe to toe with 2024 as far as growing conditions and crop potential,” Hebert said.
From the staging area to the mill floor, Hebert described how the cooperative handles the cane once it comes in from the fields. “Right now we’re in the staging area where the most recently harvested cane comes in and waits to be processed, for the most part cane gets harvested in the daytime hours, however we process 24 hours a day 7 days a week,” he explained.
That nonstop schedule produces both sugar and blackstrap molasses, with the cooperative expecting to yield 470 million pounds of sugar this year — nearly 4 million pounds every day. While production is keeping pace with last year, Hebert said the cane’s sucrose concentration is slightly lower.
“We are seeing a little bit lower sugar per ton concentration, so the overall concentration of sucrose per ton of biomass on the field is down a little bit,” he said.
Hebert added that September’s lingering heat could be a factor in the variability, and it is too early to draw firm conclusions. “So we’re trying to put our thumb on what’s causing some really big variability in the crop as far as sugar but it is also September so it’s really still hot there’s a lot of things going on so hopefully things will level off,” he said.
Despite challenges earlier this year from steady summer rain, Hebert said growers were able to finish planting on schedule. “We had rain all summer long, a lot of troubles with land preparation ahead of planting and fortunately much like last year and many other years we went from everyday rains to no rain at all and we had a very successful planting season that went very smooth and allowed growers to finish up in time for harvest,” he said.
With grinding season underway, Hebert said the cooperative is focused on keeping production on track as growers and processors work together to turn this year’s cane into sugar and molasses for Louisiana and beyond.
