South Florida is experiencing much colder weather than usual this winter, even reaching below freezing temperatures. In response to the question, “How Does Cold Weather Affect Sugar Cane”, Wayne Boynton replied….
Here is a brief answer to your frozen sugarcane question.
Normally, when we get cold, we get various degrees of damage.
Not too cold
No killing of cane or its foliage. This will sweeten cane a little. An old Cuban working in the mill once told me that even if he never set foot outside of the mill, he could tell you the rise and fall of the daily temperatures by the rise and fall of the sucrose levels in the cane juice coming through the mill. I am not talking about freezes, just fluctuations. Cool days blow in; the sucrose goes up. Warm days follow; the sucrose goes down. It is that sensitive.
Cold enough to kill leaves
This stops photosynthesis which stops sugar production. The sugar in stalk deteriorates a little.
Cold enough to kill terminal bud
Cane stalk is dead and sugar deteriorates a little more.
Worst case scenario is when the stalk itself freezes to the core inside
The sugar inside immediately starts to turn pithy and sour, and eventually will be no longer harvestable (except as below).
Now, which month has a lot to do with the profitability of the cane. If the stalks are killed in November or December, and it is a long grinding season as we are having these years, the mill may not be able to harvest all the cane before there is no more sugar or not enough sugar to make extracting the sugar worth the expense. Thirty or forty years ago, an early freeze was so bad that it killed the entire crop. The crop could not be harvested in time to extract sugar until the end. BUT, the cane had to be removed from the fields so that the next crop could sprout and grow, so they had the cane cutters (before machines) cut and stack the cane as normal, the harvesters loaded it into the wagons, and the mill crushed it as usual. But, the only thing the mill produced was molasses; no sugar.
If, though, the crop is killed in late January or after, the sugar will start to deteriorate, but the mill may be able to harvest it all, and still get some sugar. A little less per ton each day as the season progresses, but still some sugar.
One other thing: usually the freeze damage is not uniform across the industry. And, some varieties re-act differently. Within days of a freeze, the coop’s field foreman are out surveying the fields; almost every one. They rank the fields, the farms, the geographical area as to degree of damage. The draw up extensive maps showing the worst areas. Then, they alter the harvest schedule to harvest the worst-damaged fields first, and then down the line.