Despite Hard Freeze, Teche Area Sugarcane Farmers Expect Good Harvest

Just as the sugarcane harvest is set to end, Acadiana gets hit with a hard freeze

However, farmers in St. Martin and Iberia Parish say because the freeze came late in the season, there is a good chance it wont do much damage.

"With the current conditions we have, there is no splitting of the stalks so we have ample amount of time to get these crops processed if you would have seen a split in the stalk and moisture in it then you would have deterioration, we would have had an issue.” said Iberia Parish Sugarcane Farmer Ricky Gonsoulin.

Despite this week’s hard freeze and a few heavy rains from 2017, Gonsoulin is very optimistic about this year’s harvest.

"I think you will see a record producing year not only our parish but the state of Louisiana.” said Gonsoulin.

In Iberia Parish, there are still two weeks left to go in the harvest season.

"We estimates somewhere around 5 to 6 thousand acres still left to cut but if we can keep some cool conditions in the fields, we feel we will be in good shape.” said LSU AgCenter County Agent for Iberia Parish, Blair Hebert

St. Martin Parish is hoping to finish this weekend.

"The yields are slightly above average and we’re lucky that we are able to harvest our crop and get it out before the free is really an issue for us.” said LSU AgCenter County Agent for St. Martin Parish, Stuart Gauthier.

Gonsoulin and his team are hard at work trying to get the most out of their harvest.

"Our farm is going to right shy of 70,000 tons for the 2017-18 year. We’re probably going to produce around close to 15 millions pounds of sugar and that’s going to be 10% above our normal output.” said Gonsoulin.