Reservist, his family find sweet success raisin' cane

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Chance Babin
  • 926th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
ST. MARTINVILLE, La. (AFPN) --  As the sun rises deep in the heart of Cajun country, the sound of farm equipment roars across a muddy sugar cane field. Hard rain from the night before made the field a sloppy mess, making it extremely difficult to walk, much less harvest the crop. But there’s work to do, and it’s time to get busy.

Over their truck and tractor radios, workers chatter away in a unique mixture of French and English. But what, to an outsider, must sound like a strange foreign language is part of the rich Cajun culture that makes this region special.

Meanwhile, in kitchens and restaurants nationwide, millions of people are starting their day with a dear old friend: a nice, warm cup of coffee. As they reach for a little sugar to “sweeten it up,” few people realize what it took to put the sweetener on their table.

One person who does know the amount of sweat and hard work -- along with a little luck from Mother Nature -- it takes to create those tasty white crystals is Staff Sgt. Kent Roberts of the 926th Fighter Wing at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base New Orleans.

Sergeant Roberts and his father, Ronnie, and his brother, Brett, harvest about 30,000 tons of sugar each year. They are part of the Louisiana Sugar Co-Op, located in St. Martinville. Sergeant Roberts and his brother own Nina Farms. Their father owns Ronnie Roberts Farm Service.

For the Roberts patriarch, the path that eventually led to him becoming a sugar cane farmer started in the 1970s when he and a cousin began farming soybeans. They later decided to supplement their soybean crop with 30 acres of sugar cane.

Eventually, his cousin got out of the business, but Ronnie decided to increase his sugar cane crop to 2,000 acres.

Although the Roberts boys grew up helping their father with the family business, their father never pushed his sons to follow in his footsteps.

“I didn’t encourage them (to farm),” he said. “But I didn’t discourage them, either. What I did encourage them to do, though, was join the service to see the world, and then when they got back, they could figure out what they wanted to do.”

Ronnie served four years in the Army, something Sergeant Roberts also did before joining the Air Force Reserve. Brett served in the Marine Corps.

When Sergeant Roberts completed his four-year hitch in the Army, he attended college at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, graduating with a degree in accounting in 2002. His father thought for sure he’d become a certified public accountant. Instead, he chose to become partners with Brett and his wife, Stephanie, at Nina Farms.

“I missed it (farming) when I was in the Army,” Sergeant Roberts said. “Nina (Farms) to me is home. I like working for myself and getting to see the plant go from 1 inch to 8 feet. It’s like being one with nature, being close to the land. And as a reservist I work in finance, so I’m staying close to my roots in that department, too.”

Another factor that weighed heavily on Sergeant Roberts’ career decision was the opportunity to be part of a family business.

“I wanted to help my family and spend time with them," he said. "If it was about the money, I’d be an accountant.”

The Roberts, and all the other sugar cane farmers in south Louisiana, harvest their crop from late September until late December or early January. Farmers work 12 hours a day six days a week, rain or shine.

This year the Roberts cultivated, planted and harvested 1,850 acres on 62 different tracts of land. Some of the land is leased. Some they use for free, and the family share crops on some land. In the case of the share-cropped land, the owner receives one-sixth of the profits.

During the harvest, Sergeant Roberts spends most of his time driving a combine, a harvesting machine originally developed in Australia. The combine cuts the cane at the base of the stalk, separates the cane from its leaves, and then deposits the cane into a cart, pulled along by a tractor, while blowing the cut leaves back into the field.

Once the cart is full, the contents are dumped into a trailer, which is then hauled to the mill for processing.

“What’s being cut right now in the field will be in the warehouse tomorrow,” Ronnie said.
Once at the mill, the cane is run through a series of tests to determine, among other things, its sugar content, moisture content and mud content. The cane is then run through the mill where it is eventually made into raw sugar and stored in the warehouse. It is later shipped to a refinery to be made into a finished product.

Besides their immediate family, the Roberts work with their extended family -- members of the co-op. They are one of 45 members who process around 800,000 tons of sugar cane a year. Every ton processed yields about 200 pounds of sugar.

“They have a lot of farmers who pledge their cane here,” said Will Klentzman, the Louisiana Sugar Co-Op plant engineer. “They actually own the mill. They determine what gets done based on our recommendations. They are my boss.”

Because the members of the co-op are the owners of the mill, it is important that the mill be as productive as possible. The mill gets 40 percent of the crops brought in. If the mill makes a profit, it is shared between the owners. If there is no profit, the owners have to make up for any deficit.

And while there is a friendly sense of competition among the owners, in the end, they are a community that comes together to help their partners.

“One thing I like is that the farmers help each other,” Sergeant Roberts said. “It’s not competitive. We may have a little competition to see who harvests the most, but if you break down and need a part, we all help each other. And if we finish the season early, we’ll help someone else to finish their harvest or vice versa. Everyone helps each other out.”

(Courtesy of Citizen Airman)