A plaintiff group, including Atchafalaya Basinkeeper, the Louisiana Crawfish Producers Association-West, Healthy Gulf, Sierra Club and its Delta Chapter, and Waterkeeper Alliance filed a lawsuit to challenge the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ approval of the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority’s (CPRA) East Grand Lake (EGL) project in the Atchafalaya Basin.
In the lower Mississippi Delta, excessive rainfall is common during the early growing season, leading to saturated soils for several days. This condition accelerates nitrogen (N) losses through denitrification, leaching, and runoff, thereby reducing corn yield potential. Consequently, the LSU AgCenter recommends applying N in at least two splits for silt loam and clayey soils, and in three splits for sandy soils.
The Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry’s (LDAF) Livestock Brand Commission will host its next saddle microchipping event on Friday, May 31, from 10 A.M. to 2 P.M. It will be held at Burton Coliseum located at 7001 Gulf Highway in Lake Charles, Louisiana, in conjunction with the Louisiana High School Rodeo Association.
LDAF’s microchip identification program provides all saddle owners in the state of Louisiana the opportunity to have their saddles registered and identified by using a microchip implant. If microchipped saddles are ever stolen, the program allows brand officers to confirm ownership and return the property. This service is provided free to the public.
Congressman Troy Carter joins the show for DC Current to share his thoughts on peaceful protests on college campuses, emergency assistance to Louisiana’s Crawfish Aquaculture Industry, along with the misuse and abuse of AI.
In a second round of Big Idea seed grants, the largest internal funding program in LSU history, the Provost’s Fund for Innovation in Research is investing $1.2 million in 15 interdisciplinary research teams. Aligned with LSU’s Scholarship First Agenda, the teams and their projects aim to solve pressing problems in Louisiana and everywhere.
In total, the funded projects will engage 65 faculty across nine colleges and schools on LSU’s flagship campus in Baton Rouge, extending collaboration to LSU Athletics, LSU AgCenter, Pennington Biomedical Research Center and LSU Health New Orleans. Two projects support advances in agriculture; seven projects drive discovery in biomedicine; six projects elevate the coast and environment; six projects protect the state and nation through stronger defense and cybersecurity; and six projects help secure the future of energy.
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) today announced that all 64 Louisiana parishes have been approved for the Emergency Forest Restoration Program (EFRP) to restore and rehabilitate private forest lands impacted by severe drought and related insect infestation damage. The EFRP signup period runs from May 13, 2024, to July 12, 2024.
EFRP is a cost-share program that provides financial and technical assistance to owners of nonindustrial private forestland (NIPF) to restore NIPF damaged by a qualifying natural disaster event.
Last year was one for the ages across Louisiana, and NOT in a good way. I did a brief dive into a comparison of the numbers from this year and last year, since May 15th 2023 was the point where we went from a pretty normal year, to one of the most incredible droughts and heat waves in recent history. I used Alexandria for this exercise since it is right in the middle of the state, and I had already used it for my local update.
Louisiana's soybean planting progressed well in mid-April, exceeding the five-year average. However, heavy rains in mid-May slowed progress, with only 69% planted by May 12th, 2024. This lags behind last year's 76% at the same point. An article, “The Farmer's Forecast: More Soybean Planting Delays” indicates continued rain and potential wind/hail threats.
Thanks to Buck Leonards and the staff at Louisiana Farm & Ranch for providing the digital edition of the May 2024 issue.
Minding the Forest drops a new episode May 15 featuring Dr. Laura Sims, assistant professor at Louisiana Tech University, who is studying Brown Spot Needle Blight.
The podcast can be found on the Louisiana Forestry Association website, https://www.laforestry.com/podcast
The cicadas are coming. Are your trees and shrubs ready for the invasion?
The emerging Brood XII and Brood XIX cicadas love to target deciduous trees, or those that with leaves that change colors and drop in the fall. No need to worry about those evergreen trees, known as coniferous trees, which can maintain their leaves throughout the year. Cicadas don't like them.
With summer comes outdoor activities and the possibility of encountering ticks and the diseases they carry. To determine which species may be common to a particular location in Louisiana, an LSU AgCenter researcher and her team have developed an online tool to assist in locating the bloodsuckers.
AgCenter entomologist Kristen Healy has been working with the Louisiana Department of Health and Tulane University to better understand the risk for tickborne diseases in Louisiana. According to Healy, the state hasn't had a survey of ticks in decades, and much of the current knowledge predates that of the introduction of imported fire ants.
“Crawfish aren’t just essential to my restaurant, they’re central to our culture here in south Louisiana,” explained Jason Seither, owner of Seither’s Seafood in Harahan, Louisiana, just outside of New Orleans. “And when crawfish prices get as high as they got this season, it threatens an entire way of life.”
On any given year, these two-clawed, ten-legged red crustaceans — reminiscent of a lobster but much smaller at only three to six inches long — dominate springtime social gatherings and the menus of casual restaurants across Louisiana and beyond.
On a breezy sunny evening in May, before the heat of summer settles in, a dozen or so people gathered in what was once a vacant lot in Baton Rouge’s Zion City but is now a growing community garden.
Only minor work was being done in the garden that day — a little pruning, a couple of plantings. Mostly, the group sat in lawn chairs, while Clifford Payne tended hamburgers on a grill. This lot, which was filled with waist-high weeds just a few months earlier, has become a meeting spot for the community.
The 2024/25 U.S. corn outlook is for larger supplies, greater domestic use and exports, and higher ending stocks. The corn crop is projected at 14.9 billion bushels, 3 percent down from last year’s record as increases in yield helped partially offset decreased area. The yield projection of 181.0 bushels per acre is based on a weather-adjusted trend assuming normal planting progress and summer growing season weather, estimated using the 1988-2023 period.
In the opinion of U.S. Congressman Rick Crawford, holding this type of meetings on a regular basis constitutes progress, although “we are still not where we would like to be”.
For any country in the world, food security is an essential component of national security, the legislator, who appreciated the growing support within the United States for agricultural initiatives in favor of regularizing economic and trade relations with the island, said.
Public and private cost-share programs give farmers the option to test new technology and conservation practices with lower financial risk before footing the bill of whole-scale implementation.
For the Wiggers Farm Partnership in Winnsboro, La., utilizing cost-share programs available through NRCS, especially the Conservation Stewardship Program, has enabled them to make compounding changes to irrigation equipment, soil improvements and more.
Generational farms in the Mississippi Delta are imbibed with a special blend of history, camaraderie and commitment to quality. Visiting places where the roads share the family surname and corners carry on the legacy of tenant growers long gone puts into perspective the heritage of growing in some of America’s richest soils.
At the Wiggers Farm partnership near Winnsboro, La., next-generation producer Drew Wiggers, alongside his uncle Scott and cousin Rusty, contributes to the slow, steady progress of on-farm improvements that hallmark modern agriculture.
Congresswoman Letlow announced that crawfish will be covered under the Emergency Livestock Assistance Program and the USDA Farm Service Agency will begin delivering relief for crawfish production losses suffered in 2023 and moving forward.
Congresswoman Letlow began the push for crawfish assistance in September of 2023 with her Drought Assistance Improvement Act, following the severe drought disaster Louisiana experienced last summer.
This a huge win for Farm Bureau and should be a big relief to our crawfish farming members who are suffering one of their worst seasons in history.
The press release does a good job of explaining what is to come, but I’d like to share a few details from behind the scenes with you and to say some thank you’s and remind you of the effectiveness of your organization.
Seeds to Success: The Louisiana Farm to School Program hosted the first Louisiana Farm to School Institute at the Wesley Center in Woodworth from April 30 to May 3.
Four teams selected from across Louisiana convened to kick off a unique, yearlong professional learning opportunity that helps school teams take their farm to school activities to the next level.
Listen to the latest markets and headlines in Louisiana Agriculture on The Voice of Louisiana Agriculture Radio Network.