Here's our take.
As many of you have already heard, crawfish season 2024 is off to a very slow start.Although we are running 6-8 weeks behind, we do feel that we will see some availability very soon. We will try and explain briefly what we think is going on.
The drought and extreme heat that the entire state of Louisiana experienced through the summer and into the late fall has affected the crop dramatically. In fact, many of the farms in the deep south have lost the majority of their females and juvenile crop. Therefore, they will not have much production this season, especially in the early months. We think there will be some production, but it may be limited to a few short months.
With the majority of the state’s production coming from this area, it will affect the availability and price. We will most likely see record high prices for the crawfish that are available.Fortunately, our soil type in central Louisiana is a bit different than the southern part of the state. We have a heavier clay on our farm and surrounding farms. With that being said our crawfish have to burrow deeper. This has helped us survive this awful situation.
When it gets hot and dry our soil forms a crust on top which in turn helps hold the moisture not too far below. The crawfish below this crust still had some moisture and we are seeing good survival rates here on our farm. We are seeing normal amounts of juvenile, female, and male crawfish. Because we are farther north, we just don’t kick off as early as the farms down south. Colder temperatures don’t allow the water to warm up typically until late February early March. At this time, we do feel like our farms will have normal production.The areas around the Atchafalaya and Mississippi rivers, which we refer to as “The Basin” has recently been blessed with large amounts of rain.
These are areas that are basically a natural pond if you want to look at it in comparison. As the rivers rise the water spills out into these pond-like areas creating what us farmers try to duplicate. In the crawfish industry these are referred to as "wild caught". I feel that there will be a good wild crop coming out of that area. As long as they have water, they will fish!
Please be patient with us all, but in the meantime, we have frozen whole boiled crawfish and hundreds of other delicious Louisiana products to satisfy your Louisiana craving until we have the live product available.