Crawfish season is officially underway, but a recent cold front has caused some temporary delays.
Last week, Louisiana’s crawfish crops were covered in ice and snow, creating challenges for farmers and restaurants. Some crawfish restaurants had already opened before the cold front, and farmers are optimistic that once warmer weather returns, conditions will improve.
“After the weather thawed out, we caught plenty of crawfish,” said Brant Lamm, a local crawfish farmer. “But after we rebaited, we caught half of what we had. So, it will take a week of warm weather to get back to normal.”
The recent cold front is not the first obstacle Louisiana’s crawfish industry has faced. Last summer brought record-breaking heat, which significantly reduced the crawfish population. The extreme temperatures led to higher prices for the popular mudbugs. Although Louisiana rarely experiences freezing temperatures, many farmers prefer the occasional freeze over prolonged droughts and extreme heat.
“The freeze won’t last too long, but the drought killed the crawfish,” Lamm explained. “We didn’t have the population of crawfish we needed because of the heat.”
Despite these setbacks, farmers are optimistic about the 2024 crawfish season. The cold snap is seen as a minor delay rather than a significant disruption. With warmer weather on the horizon, the crawfish population is expected to rebound, potentially leading to a successful season.
“I think this will be a normal year,” said Lamm. “The freeze will set us back to February, but we’ll just need to give them more time to grow.”
A state agriculture expert agrees.
AgCenter crawfish agent Todd Fontenot said that due to the physiology of the crustaceans, there may be a short dip in production. But as temperatures begin to return to normal for this time of year, harvesters, restaurants and home boilers should witness a quick rebound.
“We don’t foresee it being more than a temporary slowdown,” he said in an AgCenter article. “Since crawfish are cold blooded, their bodies slow down and they burrow as low as they can get in the mud and vegetation and stay there to protect themselves from the elements and predators because they are most vulnerable at that stage.”
When crawfish are facing these conditions, they’re not foraging and eating, so it does tend to set production back a bit as long as the weather remains frigid, Fontenot said.
During longer, sustained periods of freezing, production could be adversely affected. But the deeper the water in the pond, the more insulated the crawfish are when burrowing down, Fontenot said.
While Fontenot said there was some ice on his pond north of Eunice, it wasn’t significant, with the deeper water measuring above freezing at 36 degrees near the bottom.
With temperatures expected to rise into the 70s next week, Fontenot expects the mudbugs to start looking for food again and production to ramp up shortly thereafter.
“I think we’re going to rebound faster than previous years where it might have stayed in the 40s the week following a hard freeze,” he said. “With the positive upcoming forecast, I think it will take about a week, so folks should feel optimistic about getting their crawfish for the Super Bowl.”
To read the AgCenter's full article on the topic, click here.
