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The field used to represent sugarcane production in Louisiana is located in Terrebonne Parish in South-central Louisiana, although sugarcane production areas cover 21 parishes in the south central part of the state. According to the 1997 Census of Agriculture, Louisiana ranks 2^nd in both sugarcane acreage and production. Most sugarcane is grown on well drained soils. Sugarcane is grown on fields with 15- to 18-inch flat bottom furrows or a furrow with a slight ridge of loose soil down the center. The elevated rows or beds are opened and the seed cane planted to a depth at least 3- to 4- inches above the final furrow water level, poorly drained soils will require higher planting. The seed cane is covered with no more than 2 inches of packed soil. Sugarcane is produced in a three to four year cycle with the first year planting referred to as the "plant cane" crop and successive years referred to as "stubble" or "ratoon" crops which are harvested from regrowth. Yields diminish with each successive crop. At the end of the third or fourth year, sugarcane is rotated to another crop or left fallow before replanting. Row spacing is approximately 60 inches. Irrigation is rarely used except in very dry years. The soil selected to simulate the field is a benchmark soil, Commerce silt loam. Commerce silt loam, is a fine-silty, mixed, superactive, nonacid, thermic, Aeric Fluvaquents. These soils are extensively used for sugarcane production. Commerce silt loam is a deep, somewhat poorly drained, medium to slow runoff, slowly permeable soil that formed in loamy alluvial sediments. These soil are generally found on level or undulating alluvial plains and have slopes generally less than 1 percent, but may range up to 5 percent. Agricultural areas are protected by levees; unprotected areas are subject to occasional to frequent flooding. The soil is extensive in Louisiana and throughout the lower Mississippi drainage basin. Commerce silt loam is a Hydrologic Group C soil.

* EI = 100 ft-tons * in/ acre*hr

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