In October through December, it never fails that I end up behind a sugar cane truck on my way from Ïã¸ÛÁùºÍ¿ª½±ÀúÊ·¼Ç¼ to visit my family in Morgan City. During my route, I drive through Port Allen, Brusly, Addis, Plaquemine, White Castle, Pierre Part, Belle River and Stephenville on my way.
Truth be told, I'm always thankful for the sugar cane harvest because police cars tend to stake out in between the tall stalks to catch speedy drivers. Though, while I'm cruising through, having a one-person concert in my car, I pray that a sugar cane truck doesn't pull out in front of me.
For one, they're slower — much slower. And two, they always seem to have little bits of sugar cane flying out from the top of the trucks.Â
These moments always make me wonder, "Why aren't sugar cane trucks covered? Why don't they have a top?"Â
Turns out, the answer is simple.Â
Sam Irwin, who has worked with the American Sugar Cane League for 10 years, said the trucks just don't need to be covered.Â
Sam Irwin, public relations director for the American Sugar Cane League.
Since sugar cane is the last crop of the season to be harvested in Louisiana, farmers are mainly concerned that the crop gets to the mill as quickly as possible to be ground up and made into raw sugar. Sugar cane can be harvested in any type of weather.
"Sugar cane farmers are going to harvest in every condition," Irwin said. "If it's snow, if it's pouring down rain, farmers need to get that cane out of the fields and brought to the sugar mills. Once the mill gets cranked up, they don't want to shut it down. The mill goes 24/7."Â
The start of October marks the beginning of the sugar cane harvest season, which ends in December, but Irwin said farmers may start earlier and continue into the beginning of January. Irwin explained that there are fewer sugar cane mills today than in the '60s and '70s, which results in bigger trucks with more cane — often going longer distances.Â
Additionally, it's easier to harvest a large volume of sugar cane because of advanced technology and new equipment. Before the '90s, Irwin said farmers would cut the stalks down and leave them in the field for a machine to grab the cane and dump it into a wagon, which was basically a truck bed with two rails on the side. On the way to the mills, he said whole pieces of cane would fall into the road.Â
"Sugar cane farmers are going to harvest in every condition," Sam Irwin said. "If it's snow, if it's pouring down rain, farmers need to get that cane out of the fields and brought to the sugar mills. Once the mill gets cranked up, they don't want to shut it down. The mill goes 24/7."Â
Now, farmers harvest sugar cane using combine harvesters that cut cane stalks into pieces or "billets" as they pass through the machines, which also blow all the leafy material away. This is known as billet harvesting and was introduced during the mid-1990s. Instead of throwing 8-foot pieces of cane with leaves in the truck, the cane is now cut into 12-inch pieces, Irwin explained.Â
While the combine cuts the cane, a tractor with a wagon trails behind to catch the cut-up pieces. Once the wagon is full, drivers head to loading sites where the hydraulics on the wagon dump the cane into a larger trailer.Â
"It's sort of like when you're transferring spaghetti from the boiling water into the colander," Irwin said.Â
So, what is flying off the top of the sugar cane trucks?Â
Irwin said that it isn't uncommon for cane to fly out of over-loaded trucks or have pieces fall out and land on the truck's bumper, eventually flying away.Â
"It's not nearly the mess it was back in the '70s and '80s," he assured me.Â
