IBERVILLE PARISH - Dust kicked up by farm equipment greeted sugarcane farmers in southeast Louisiana on Monday as they headed to the fields for harvest season.

For the next four months, farmer Troy Canella and his brothers will spend their days in the sugarcane fields with their crews.

"Sugar's been really good. Everything's going our way," Canella said, optimistic for the season.

Earlier this year, sugarcane farmers faced a fight against the pasture mealybug, which threatened their crop. Canella said his farm spent $115,000 treating thousands of acres of fields to keep the bugs from hurting the cane.

"From what we're hearing from neighbors with mealybugs in really hot fields, things look like we might be okay," he said.

Now, rising fuel costs threaten the operation. Canella Farm pays $4.69 a gallon for red diesel, the kind of fuel that goes into its tractors and harvesters. This time last year, the farm paid $2.65 a gallon.

With two cane combines and five tractors, Canella is paying an extra $1,000 every day just to run the equipment.

"The price of fuel, wow. Worst time it could ever happen was at the beginning of harvest," he said.

During the harvest season, 28 loads of sugarcane are trucked out of the fields each day. Because of Gov. Landry's State of Emergency signed last week, right now, these cane trucks will be allowed to use red-dyed diesel which is exempt from federal taxes.

Over at Alma Plantation and Sugar Mill, operators expect to process over 2.1 million tons of sugarcane during the course of the harvest season, or 650 truck loads, of cane each day.

"The ag diesel in our trucks saves us about 44 cents a gallon. We do about 6,000 gallons a day in trucking here. That's a good bit of money every day that we can save," said Turner Graham, Alma Plantation and Sugar Mill Sugarcane Coordinator and Grower Liaison.

Graham also serves as the general manager of River Road Growers Trucking Company. He says sugarcane is important to the state and that every cent saved counts.

"It's our biggest crop as far as acreage and revenue is concerned. It's over 500,000 acres in Louisiana," Graham said.

Gov. Landry's order is set to expire Oct. 22.

Both Canella and Graham urge drivers to exercise caution during harvesting season, especially around cane trucks and tractors.