Sugarcane around Kaplan.
 

Seems like every year we are seeing more and more land going to sugarcane. I believe this will have negative long term effects on the waterfowl hunting in the area. Henry is a perfect example of this. Ducks and geese used to be plentiful in that area. Now if your not in the marsh or at least bordering the marsh don't even waste your time. What's y'all opinion??

I was just thinking about this the other day... Cant be a good thing to lose duck habitat

Bob your gonna have to get out of the cattle and start farming rice and crawfish to help supplement for the lost habitat lol

My buddy and I were having the same discussion. Even a fallow field will grow up in goat weeds and at least attract doves. A sugar cane field is a wildlife desert not a dessert.

I killed my first duck 200yds from my house when I was about 9. Big ole drake pintail. Use to wait for the bus with a shotgun shooting geese. Not gonna say how long ago that was but now it's all a combination of houses and cow pastures where it used to be rice and soy beans. Lucky to hear a goose fly over anymore. I miss those days...

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I feel the same way.. Sugar cane seems to be easier to farm with a larger profit, so more farmers are going that direction. My grand parents live between Kaplan and Cow Island so I grew up traveling from Scott to Kaplan often. Durning the winter we would go on 35 to see all the geese on the refuge and there was always some on the SE and SW corners of 700 and 35 but now it's cane fields on that intersection. It pisses my dad off every time we pass and there is a new cane field!!

Whenever I drive past cane fields, I usually see a few rabbits.

theres some new ones this year in the area for sure

They do attract droves and droves of blackbirds. :)

Yep they planting right next to one of my dads crawfish ponds right now. That can't be good with all the chemicals they spray.

Plenty of wildlife in sugarcane fields, one of the few places you can actually see quail

Also, plenty of chemicals used in rice farming as well, so the chemical comment is null and all those chemicals and wastewater gets drained off several times a year and goes right down the bayou, and they use a TON of water to pump those fields and many of them pump from groundwater = drinking water
And diesel prices to pump those fields is pretty high

Sugarcane farming seems a lot less intensive than rice

don't do any rice just crawfish. Not a chemical one in the ponds.

Gotcha, was talking about rice fields:)

I'm surronded by cane, they fertilize once a year and a few weeks before harvest the spray some chemical to almost kill it to make the sugar yeild go up. Chemicals cost and farmers aint down with spending a ton of money.

Yep they spray it to imitate a freeze. If they do happen to get a hard freeze they don't have to.

I have been hunting around Henry since I was a small kid and I can tell you first hand that the number of ducks that use to be in that area before all the cane started popping up to now are a lot diffrent. Still have some good hunts in the marsh if we get a cold enough winter

you learn something new everyday, never knew dat

Welcome aboard



You are gonna have some really good hunts dis year cher, we be hearing its gonna freeze soon:rotfl:

We had a great season back there year before last.

We always do pretty good the past 3-4 years have been really good for us hopefully it keeps going that way.

Where about is your property?


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I've felt this way for years, seeing more & more around Jennings. Hwy 1126 near Andrus Cove has a lot of cane that used to be rice & soybeans. Not as many places for ducks to sit unmolested unless they are in the marsh. It seems, if a field has water, it has a blind.

The only thing we have that we can depend on now is the geese.


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You know where Herbert's landing is? Go west towards the Boston Canal an we have the property on the north side of the Landry canal (at the cornor of the Boston and the Landry canal)

Y'all lease from Trent and Clyde?


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Yea that's who we lease from we have been there forever

Yea y'all do kill some ducks there. I know Trent well. We used to hunt across the intracoastal . I'm originally from Henry.


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Yea most years are good we hunt right across the canal from Trent's blinds and camp.

Three more reasons I hate sugarcane. It is tax subsidized. According to the Washington Post, sugar subsidies cost us taxpayers 3.7 billion a year. Second, I have asthma. Last year, I had to go to the E.R. due to burning of cane field by my house. The sugar lobby shoves over $500,000 in congressman's pockets every two years. Many of those politicians are the first to beat their chest over other air pollution/climate change garbage, but look the other way regarding open burning after getting paid off by the sugar mafia. Third, the little asphalt road I live off of is riddled with potholes after harvest. None of which the farmers are asked to repair. The parish just throws cold mix in the potholes which last about 2 months. Local police jury here in Vermilion Parish will not do anything because, you got it, dominated by cane farmers. Yeah, I got the reddazzzz over sugarcane.

last year in cow island they sprayed chemicals on the sugar caine next to my blind. it killed all the rice and didnt see many birds

We hunt the Bell City area and not only has the sugar cane farming increased, but there is a lot of acreage that used to be farmed rice and beans and now sits fallow and has had for years. Seems like there is a decrease in grain farming every year. We still get birds in the area, but the amount of birds that show up in recent years compared to a decade ago has markedly decreased. I miss the days of old when every other rice field had a body of ducks and geese in it...

limit
 

i wish i could have gotten in on the good ole days when they had birds like that . i am a first year duck hunter really . i have heard talk about them days.

Wouldn't the road be riddled with potholes even if there was rice or beans there? 25,000 lbs of sugarcane weighs the same as 25,000 lbs of rice or beans:confused:


Not touching the subsidies comment, not going there, not going there, but there are some mistruths in that statement and if you look at other crops you will see many are subsidized as well:)

All the same, they are permitted to carry 100k lbs on state highways...


Sent

To some, the good ol days are right now. You can look at the population counts of 'the good ol days' and what was killed in Louisiana then and what is killed in Louisiana now and you may find that we kill more now than we did then (depending on what years you are comparing). My 'good ol days' the limit was 3 and killing 3 ducks per person for 30 days. May have seemed like the good ol days, but 60 days and 6 ducks to me is much more 'gooder' than 3 and 30. 360 ducks per year limit is 'gooder' than 90 per year, 4 times 'gooder':)

And remember that peoples' memories often forget the bad days, they tend to remember the good days but forget the bad ones and many times the stories you hear don't reflect the overall experience, just the good ones.

if that made any sense:rotfl:

Yep whether it beans, sugarcane, or rice - its all gonna rut up some roads

Vermilion Parish is based on farming, its what supports the economy there. Gotta be careful what you wish for

I agree with sugarcane being good for economy. But sugarcane requires a lot more equipment up and down the roads than rice does. Typically with rice you only have two or 3 tractors, a combine and a truck to haul to the bins. Sugarcane has a multitude if tractors, a combine, and trucks to haul it. Not to mention all the vehicles the farmers use to get back and forth. Rice is only a two or 3 man operation.


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gotcha:)

Just seen two specks land in a cut cane field. There's hope yet!


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All cane trailers have triple axles, this allows them to carry 100,000 lbs. The scales at the mills top at 100,000 lbs so it's not very wise for a can farmer to load the truck with more than 100,000lbs. Most trucks come to the scales between 92-98,000 lbs

Cane is no doubt harder on roads than rice.

Harder on rock dogs too


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I grew up in South Lake Charles. From Country Club road to the south was mainly bean field, few rice fields, and even fewer houses. Back when nelson Road was Gravel from Gauthier to the south. Now, you have a mini hospital, sub-divisions, etc. We used to lay out in the bean fields and use newspaper as decoys. Those was the good ole days.
I have lived in the Coteau / New Iberia area since 1987, I noticed a decrease in cane fields in Iberia Parish, major increase in subdivisions. If anything, majority of the cane farms that ran from the parish line on Hwy 90 to New Iberia are now businesses and subdivisions. With Lafayette growing, everything is and has been moving to Broussard / Youngsville area, people want to live close to work which takes the woods and farm land (regardless cane, bean, or rice). I guess this is what people call "Progress", I hate it.