The 2018 Louisiana sugarcane crop has the potential to set a record if weather conditions are favorable, LSU AgCenter announced today.
“We have a tremendously good crop out there,” said AgCenter sugarcane specialist Kenneth Gravois in a press release. “We could beat the record crop we had last year.”
Sugar recovery, or the amount of sugar produced per ton of sugarcane, is not as good as last year, but the tonnage is high with many farms averaging more than 40 tons an acre.
The total statewide yield is estimated to be 16 million tons from 427,000 harvested acres. Last year’s crop was 15 million tons on 420,000 harvested acres.
Total sugar production for Louisiana should be near or more than the amount of last year’s record production of 1.82 million tons of sugar.
The cold snap in mid-November shouldn’t affect the crop at all because the temperatures won’t reach the critical point of sub-26 degrees. At that point, the cane stalks break open and allow damaging microorganisms to enter the plant and inflict damage that affects sugar recovery.
