By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – State agricultural leaders are expecting to see record levels of raw sugar production as the 2011 sugarcane harvest comes to a close, but some officials close to home say this year’s crop in the River Parishes could have been better.

Kenneth Gravois, sugarcane specialist with the LSU AgCenter, said total tonnage numbers for cane harvested per acre are expected to be average but added farmers can expect to have an above average quality crop when it comes to producing sugar.

Gravois said Louisiana farmers could produce as much as 230 pounds of sugar per ton of cane this year compared with last year’s 226 pounds per ton. He said the higher sugar content will likely offset what is expected to be a slightly down year in total cane harvested. The 2011 harvest is expected to be about 12 million tons statewide. Gravois said in a typical year, farmers harvest between 13 million and 14 million tons.

Al Orgeron, associate county agent for the LSU AgCenter in St. James Parish, said the culprit for the less-than-stellar cane crop is the lengthy drought period experienced throughout the region in the summer months.

“Some fields went several weeks in July and August without seeing any rain,” Orgeron said. “It leads to a very dry crop that hurt our potential for the year. Farmers did well, but we usually exceed the state average.”

Orgeron’s region, which includes 45,000 acres of cane crop, extends from Ascension Parish through St. Charles Parish, with the bulk of the crop in St. James Parish. The region includes 29 farmers in St. James, nine in St. John, up from eight in 2010, and three in St. Charles, up from one in 2010.

Orgeron said the 2011 crop’s saving grace came in early September, when Tropical Storm Lee dumped heavy amounts of rain on the region and improved the quality of the cane crop.

“Lee was a real turning point for the season,” Orgeron said. “If we hadn’t gotten that rain when we did, the crop in this region would have been exceptionally poor. Tropical weather certainly has many negatives, but they can be a great positive for agriculture.”

Orgeron said following the storm, the region returned to drier conditions, which made it easier for farmers to harvest cane from the fields. He said drier weather produces less mud, which limits the wear and tear on harvesting equipment.

“Dry conditions mean less equipment maintenance and repairs, as well as less fuel consumption,” Orgeron said. “Farmers are not having to haul through mud and water. They only had to make diesel purchases every 28 days.”

Orgeron said some farmers in St. James were initially concerned with plans to eliminate several large cane fields in the footprint of Nucor Corp’s new multi-phase steel and iron manufacturing facility in Convent. He said Nucor officials had planned to remove the cane in favor of eucalyptus, but plans changed, and the cane will stay. The company purchased several thousand acres of land for the project in 2009.

“The sugar cane will act as a natural buffer surrounding the site,” Orgeron said. “Nucor will use about 25 percent of the land purchased, and the remaining 75 percent will stay as farmable cane.”

Gravois said farmers will probably get about 30 cents per pound of raw sugar produced, which is about the same amount netted in 2010.