But they too had to deal with irrigation problems, plus power outages hampered financial transactions. Most retail garden centers in Afton’s area are back up and running, he said. Most have backup generators to use in this type of situation, but some of these devices hadn’t been used in a while, so kinks had to be worked out on the fly. They need electricity to run irrigation pumps. “Plants were blown about, and the power outage really hit them hard. “A lot of greenhouse roofs were damaged and need to be replaced,” said Will Afton, an AgCenter agent in St. The storm has cost those sectors at least $9.5 million, Guidry said, most of which is tied to infrastructure damage. Southeast Louisiana is home to many fresh produce and ornamental horticulture growers. Guidry did not include impacts to sugar mills in his estimate, but he noted that some of these facilities will lose revenue due to hurricane damage and the interruption in operations. “Some of the leaves are shredded, the tops are brown and because of that, the ripener that they’re spraying on the cane at this time before harvest might not take,” Castro said. Harvest season could be more difficult and time consuming than usual, which also can translate to greater costs. It’s a plant, so it’s going to use its energy to do that, and when that happens … then there’s less sugar,” said Renee Castro, an AgCenter area agent. The crop’s resiliency, though, comes at a price. Much of the affected sugarcane is recovering and erecting itself after Ida’s strong winds blew stalks over. He estimates the overall impact to cane producers to be about $35.4 million - about 7% of the total annual value of the industry, he said. “Also, typically when a weather event such as this occurs, the amount of timber that becomes available to the market can overwhelm the market, impacting both the prices received as well as the ability to sell timber.” SugarcaneĪbout 139,000 acres of sugarcane - a quarter of Louisiana’s total cane crop - are projected to have somewhat lower yields due to storm damage, Guidry said. “There is a short window that downed timber must be salvaged before disease and other quality impacts essentially makes this timber unmarketable,” the economists’ report says. Only 1% to 2% of timber that fell during 2020 hurricanes Laura and Delta could be sold, according to an assessment by AgCenter economists Jinggang Guo and Joseph Chang. It’s often difficult to salvage timber that falls during hurricanes. A total of about 168,000 acres of trees were affected, costing the industry more than $300 million, Guidry said.Ībout 50% of the total estimated volume of damaged timber is in Tangipahoa Parish, he said. Timber is Louisiana’s top-grossing agricultural commodity and is a significant economic driver in the Florida Parishes, where many pine trees snapped as Ida unleashed hurricane-force winds. Guidry compiled the document using information gathered by AgCenter agents and commodity specialists around the state along with personnel with the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry and the U.S. The $584 million figure includes Guidry’s estimates for impacts yet to fully play out, such as reduced yields for crops that remained in the field during the storm and have not been harvested, and the potential for increased production costs. Sugarcane, fruit, vegetable and ornamental horticulture crops as well as livestock were affected too. Another 35% is attributable to the loss of infrastructure such as fences, machinery, equipment and buildings. Timber damage makes up about half that amount, economist Kurt Guidry wrote in the report.
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