Hurricane Laura decimated Louisiana’s pecan crop

In Louisiana, farmers are still recovering from Hurricane Laura. That storm destroyed one man’s entire pecan crop. This Week in Louisiana Ag reports on the devastation.

In Grant Parish, weeks after Hurricane Laura, clean up is still under way in rural parts of the state. The parish’s Farm Bureau president, Ryan Yerby, says that it was the worst storm he had ever seen.

“Isaac was a pretty rough one that tore up our cotton crop, but in my lifetime there has never been a storm that passed through this parish like this one,” Yerby states. “The main thing that took a hit in Grant Parish was the pecan crop. Our pecan crop was totally devastated. I’m going to call it probably 100 percent loss.”

Ben Littlepage runs his family pecan operation at McNeely Crossing and is a neighbor to the Yerbys. He states, “I’ve never seen one like this ever before. I’ve talked to people that are older than me and they hadn’t seen one like this.”

Littlepage goes on to note that almost 50 percent of his trees were damaged and almost all of the pecan crop is gone.