December Freeze Zapped SCGC Sugar-Cane Production by 20%

Warm temperatures in late February -- right now -- don't tell the winter season's chilling story in Florida's sugar-cane country. December freeze events took their toll -- and the results of the record cold in the Belle Glade area show 2010-11 cane production for the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida dropped by 20 percent.

According to the Co-op, the impact the freeze will have on next year's crop is unknown because of potential freeze damage to the seed cane.

Said George H. Wedgeworth, president and CEO of the Co-op, "Farmers recorded below-freezing temperatures on three distinct occasions in December -- Dec. 7 and 8 with temperatures below 30 degrees for up to nine hours; Dec. 14 and 15 with temperatures below 28 degrees for more than 12 hours; and Dec. 27 and 28 with temperatures below 28 for seven hours -- a phenomenon never seen before in the Glades."

Wedgeworth explained, "Once the terminal bud freezes, it becomes a race against the clock to get the sugar-cane from the field to the processing facility as the cane deteriorates over time."

The Co-op consists of 46 grower-owners and employs 550 people during the harvest season. By the end of its 2011 harvest Feb. 19, the sugar mill ground 2.43 million tons of sugar-cane grown on 61,650 acres in Palm Beach County.

But that figure is a sinking dynamic. Last year, the Co-op brought in 2.75 million tons of cane. The Co-op claims the last time it took such a hit from Mother Nature was in 2005-06, when Hurricane Wilma savaged the crop.

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