The latest crop report shows loads of good news, with most everything close to 5 year averages, or ahead of schedule. It looks like more good weather is on the way. By that, I mean there will be some rain, and some dry, as things try to stay pretty balanced across Louisiana. Here’s how I see things going through the middle of next week.
First off, the warmth is here, and it looks like it’s here to stay. We’ll still see a couple of “cold” fronts before we really shift into summer mode, but the cold fronts are going to lose their punch.
Louisiana’s warm, humid weather provides a conducive environment for plant pathogens to quickly establish and spread. As a result, an important plant disease called southern blight has started to show up in Louisiana vegetable and ornamental production.
Southern blight is caused by the soilborne fungus Athelia rolfsii (Sclerotium rolfsii). The pathogen has a wide host range and is known to cause disease on various economically important vegetables (cucurbits, eggplants, peppers, potatoes, tomatoes) and ornamental plants.
Sweet potatoes are a popular food choice for consumers worldwide because of their delicious taste and nutritious quality. The red, tuberous root vegetable can be processed into chips and fries, and it has a range of industrial applications, including textiles, biodegradable polymers and biofuels.
The study is part of a multi-state collaboration funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that includes researchers from Mississippi, North Carolina, Michigan, Louisiana and Illinois.
On April 16, nine members from Tangipahoa Volunteers for Family and Community (TVFC) attended this year’s annual convention for Louisiana Volunteers for Family and Community (LVFC).
Tangipahoa Volunteers for Family and Community is an all-volunteer arm of LSU Agriculture Extension Service.
The House Health and Welfare Committee advanced a bill Wednesday that would require seafood sellers to clearly market whether the seafood is local or imported from other countries such as China.
Sen. Patrick Connick, R-Marrero, showed an image of a package of frozen crawfish sold at a local supermarket. Connick explained that the item named “Boudreaux’s Crawfish” was not from Louisiana but instead a product of China.
Several types of conventional cancer therapies, such as radiotherapy or chemotherapy, destroy healthy cells along with cancer cells. In advanced stages of cancer, tissue loss from treatments can be substantial and even fatal. Cutting-edge cancer therapies that employ nanoparticles can specifically target cancer cells, sparing healthy tissue.
In an era where the future of agriculture is of paramount importance to both local communities and the global stage, the LaSalle Conservation District in Louisiana has taken a proactive step in shaping the next generation of agriculturalists. Their Career Day event is a testament to this commitment, with a clear goal to display the breadth of opportunities within the local community to high school students fascinated by the agricultural sector.
Caitlin Joubert from the Office of Soil and Water Conservation Districts talked to students about soil health and the importance of it in our everyday lives. She explained many NRCS soil health practices for sustainable agriculture.
We are right at the midway point of the 2024 Louisiana legislative Session, and things are about to get interesting. Subject matters like insurance and tort reform are starting to really take shape, as well as other issues like reduction in the size of government. These are just a few issues that can spill over into almost every other issue at the legislature.
If you have turned on the news recently, you may have noticed that Washington, D.C. has become increasingly complicated over the last sixteen months. The infighting, partisan gridlock, and frequently shifting priorities may give you the sense that nothing is getting done at the federal level.
Beyond funding, there are policy and regulatory decisions being made on issues important to Louisiana such as flood insurance, FEMA reimbursement reform, agriculture regulations and access to rural healthcare.
Anheuser-Busch recently announced the national rollout of its newly-adopted U.S. Farmed certification and seal for several of its industry-leading beer brands, showing support for farmers in the U.S., including Louisiana, where the state's farmers sold $4.8B worth of agricultural products in 2022. Developed and verified by the American Farmland Trust (AFT), a national nonprofit that helps to keep American farmers on their land, the U.S. Farmed certification and packaging seal helps shoppers choose products that derive at least 95 percent of their agricultural ingredients from farms in the United States.
To further protect the U.S. livestock industry from the threat posed by highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza, USDA is sharing a number of actions that we are taking with our federal partners to help us get ahead of this disease and limit its spread.
USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced a Federal Order requiring the following measures, effective Monday, April 29, 2024.
The Louisiana sugarcane industry has persevered for more than 225 years, even though it is a tropical crop is growing in a temperate environment. Growers regularly face a challenging climate, which includes the threat of early winter freezes before the crop is harvested. An early freeze can kill the sugarcane plant and cause the sugar (sucrose) inside of the stalk to deteriorate. Another challenge is the short seven-to-10-month growing season.
A TikTok video from Dust Kitchenware, known by their handle @dust6923, has quickly gained notoriety not for its innovation but for the backlash it has stirred among crawfish lovers in Louisiana.
The video demonstrates a tool designed to simplify the process of shucking crawfish tails. By inserting a tail into the device and pulling, the shell is supposed to strip right away, leaving the meat ready for consumption. However, the response from the Louisiana community, where crawfish is less a food item and more a cultural emblem, is probably not what the company hoped for.
Elizabeth (Liz) Walsh, Ph.D., is a research scientist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service, in the Honey Bee Breeding, Genetics, and Physiology Research unit in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in 2022 with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada under the guidance of Steve Pernal, Ph.D., at the Beaverlodge Research Farm in Alberta.
The LSU AgCenter is Louisiana rice farmers’ MVP, or most valued partner, in research and crop variety development. From creating a new market for jasmine rice, to producing varieties of rice that are better for diabetics and more sustainable and resilient to changes in the environment, LSU has been critical to the Louisiana rice industry for more than 100 years. The research also has world-wide impact since one-fifth of the global population’s calories comes from rice.
More than 60 percent of the rice Louisiana farmers plant was developed by the LSU AgCenter, with a direct economic impact of $580 million.
The USDA FSA is looking for a Program Technician to serve in the Natchitoches Office. The application deadline is Monday, April 29, 2024.
Down in southwest Louisiana we know tailgating! And cooking rice dishes such as jambalaya while getting your pregame on is a tradition. But lest you think it’s only for college football, let’s set the record straight: we can and will tailgate before lots of other sports, including baseball, and rice is always a focal point of the festivities.
Friday, April 12, was Cajun Country Rice Day at the University of Louisiana – Lafayette (UL) for the first of a three-game baseball series versus Marshall University in the Sun Belt Conference.
One of Cotton Incorporated’s missions is to improve cotton production profitability through research. To make sure our research direction is addressing current challenges, and that past research results have had a positive impact, Natural Resource Surveys of U.S. cotton producers were conducted in 2008, 2015, and 2023.
According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service in Louisiana, there were 5.1 days suitable for fieldwork for the week ending Sunday, April 21, 2024. Topsoil moisture supplies were 1 percent very short, 7 percent short, 70 percent adequate, and 22 percent surplus. Subsoil moisture supplies were 0 percent very short, 4 percent short, 81 percent adequate, and 15 percent surplus.
Louisiana milk production during the January - March 2024 quarter was 29.0 million pounds, down 3 percent from the same period in 2023 but up 32 percent from the October - December 2023 quarter. The average number of milk cows on farms during the quarter was 8,000 head, unchanged from the same period last year but up 1,000 head from the previous quarter.
Listen to the latest markets and headlines in Louisiana Agriculture on The Voice of Louisiana Agriculture Radio Network.