BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — LSU AgCenter sugarcane specialist Kenneth Gravois says Louisiana's 2013 sugarcane harvest was one of the five best in the state's history, although the crop didn't top 2012's record production.
Gravois says farmers produced around 34 tons of cane per acre and about 220 pounds of sugar for each ton of cane.
Louisiana has 11 sugarcane mills, which grind the cane and produce raw sugar. The milling season starts in early fall and lasts through midwinter.
Gravois said a relatively wet fall made harvest more difficult, and the late November freeze hit hardest north of Interstate 10.
He says acres were up from the past year. This year, farmers raised about 440,000 acres and harvested about 410,000 acres for sugar. The balance of the acreage was harvested for seed cane.
