Florida's sugar cane harvest kicked off Monday as U.S. Sugar Corp. began taking the first of this season's cane to its newly enlarged, automated sugar mill and refinery in Clewiston.

But unlike what's portrayed on the new television series Cane, where workers on horseback cut sugar stalks by hand, the real-life Florida sugar industry is more automated than ever.

Florida's cane has been 100 percent machine-harvested since 1993, the University of Florida says.

U.S. Sugar just completed its $100 million, three-year project. It marks the first season the company will operate entirely from one mill, U.S. Sugar spokeswoman Judy Sanchez said Monday.

The company closed its Bryant Mill at Canal Point near Pahokee this year.

"Instead of having two facilities, we consolidated and automated one facility," Sanchez said. "Automation is the key."

The state's other two sugar producers, the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida in Belle Glade and Florida Crystals Corp. in West Palm Beach, are scheduled to begin production within two weeks.

During the next six months, Florida's industry expects to produce 1.77 million tons of sugar grown from cane on nearly 400,000 acres, up slightly from the 2006-07 production of 1.71 million tons.

Most of that cane is grown in Palm Beach County, with about 70,000 acres in Hendry County and some in Glades and Martin counties.

But production is forecast to be well below what it was in 2003-04 because of this year's drought, water restrictions that began in November and the impacts of the 2004 and 2005 hurricanes.

During the 2003-04 season, Florida produced 2.15 million tons of sugar.

"We are not back to the levels we were at prior to the hurricanes," said Gaston Cantens, a spokesman for Florida Crystals. "The drought has had an impact."

Robert Coker, a senior vice president for U.S. Sugar, said the company expects production to rebound, but the crop could use more water.

"We hope we will have more rainfall than we have lately," Coker said. "The cane is clearly not as tall as it has been."

It's difficult to predict the drought's impact on the amount and quality of the cane, said Barbara Miedema, a spokeswoman for the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative.

"We had rain when we needed it and warm temperatures, so the cane is still growing," she said.

Water conditions are not the only uncertain factor in the industry: So is the proposed federal sugar program for the 2007 Farm Bill.

The sugar program will be in effect until the end of this crop year, Coker said.

The U.S. House passed the bill in July.

The Senate agriculture committee is expected to take it up this month, Coker said.

"There's a lot of interest in the Senate now to get something done and get it out," Coker said.

The House bill includes an increase in the sugar loan rate to 18.5 cents a pound from 18 cents a pound.

Processors obtain the loan from the government, then pay growers for the cane they grow and sell to the mill, Coker said.

The rate has been the same since 1985.

The House bill also includes a sucrose ethanol program that would direct excess sugar to corn ethanol plants, where it would be added to the corn feedstock to speed the fermentation process, said Phillip Hayes, spokesman for the American Sugar Alliance in Arlington, Va.

"We are waiting on the Senate now," said Cantens, of Florida Crystals. "We were pretty happy with the version the House turned out."