As July rolls around, Louisiana’s sugarcane “grand growth stage” is well underway.
In tropical regions, the grand growth stage can last for five to eight months, but Louisiana’s sugar producers don’t have the luxury of a long growing season. We must produce our commercial cane crop in nine months so the development of varieties that grow quickly and produce sugar early in our temperate climate is critical.
Photo gallery of 2022 Pointe Coupee Sugarcane Field Day below.
This year, the United States Department of Agriculture, the LSU AgCenter and the American Sugar Cane League authorized the release of two new commercial varieties, L 15-306 and HoL 15-508. It’s important to have variety diversity because reliance on a single variety could lead to changing disease reactions and insect infestation. With the release of these two varieties, growers now have a wider array of improved varieties available to expand on their farms.
With their membership in the American Sugar Cane League, growers and millers help leverage sugarcane research funding to the USDA and LSU AgCenter. The fruits of this research will be discussed at a series of July sugarcane field days held in the major centers of sugarcane production. Led by LSU AgCenter sugarcane specialist Dr. Kenneth Gravois, the field days will tour research plots in Napoleonville, Chacahoula, Erath, St. Martinville and Avoyelles-Rapides.
The field days and other meetings are a great opportunity for growers, crop consultants, financiers, landowners and other interested parties to learn more about the latest advancements and techniques used in the field.
The field day dates are as follows:
July 13 – Assumption Parish; LSU AgCenter, 119 Robin St. Napoleonville; 9 a.m.
July 15 – Lafourche-Terrebonne parishes; Ardoyne Farm, Bull Run Road, Chacahoula; 9 a.m.
July 20 – Pointe Coupee-W. Baton Rouge-Iberville-River Parishes; LSU Sugar Research Station; 5755 LSU Ag Rd. St. Gabriel; 9 a.m.
July 22 – St. Martin-Acadia, Lafayette-St. Landry parishes; LASUCA Farm, 6092 Resweber Hwy., St. Martinville; 2 p.m.
July 27 – St. James Parish Appreciation Supper; Westbank Reception Hall, 2455 Hwy.18, Vacherie; 6 p.m.
July 28 – Iberia-St. Mary-Vermilion parishes; Building 107, Erath; 8 a.m.
TBA – Avoyelles-Rapides parishes; Evacuation Shelter, 8125 Hwy. 71 South, Alexandria; 9 a.m.
Lloyd Lauden-Windell Jackson Scholarship
Windell Jackson served as a League agronomist from 1973 to 2014. He spent his entire professional life working for the sugarcane industry. In honor of Windell, who passed away in March, the League made a $25,000 contribution to the existing Lloyd Lauden scholarship at LSU and renamed it the Lloyd Lauden-Windell Jackson Memorial Endowed Scholarship. The scholarship is available to College of Agriculture students. Preference is given to those from Louisiana’s sugarcane-growing region and those who have an interest in the sugarcane industry.
Lloyd Lauden, hired in 1952, was the American Sugar Cane League’s first agronomist. Lauden is the man who hired Windell Jackson. Lauden and Jackson made outsized contributions to Louisiana’s sugarcane industry and served the industry for decades. They provided a steady guiding hand with their knowledge of the crop and their ability to transfer scientific findings to the growers.
The American Sugar Cane League is grateful for the contributions of Lloyd Lauden and Windell Jackson to Louisiana’s sugarcane industry.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
