(AP) — Louisiana farmers are worried that more than 60 hours of subfreezing temperatures will hurt next year's sugarcane crop, but an LSU AgCenter specialist is optimistic the damage won't be that bad.
Kenneth Gravois says it may be weeks before a complete assessment can be made.
But he notes that sugarcane survived a freeze in January 2018.
And he says rain and snow before the freeze helped buffer temperatures. AgCenter engineer Randy Price said soil temperatures 2 inches below the surface in Alexandria didn't reach freezing.
This year's crop was the largest on record, at nearly 2 million tons of sugar.