The Eunice Chamber of Commerce presented its first Eunice’s Best honors on Tuesday at the LSUE Mumphrey Center.
Michael Fruge is named Farmer of the Year. “... a second-generation rice, soybean, and crawfish farmer from Eunice, Louisiana, whose remarkable contributions have left a lasting impact on both agriculture and the health-conscious consumer market.
Read MoreFarmers are putting the finishing touches on their second-crop rice harvesting across southwest Louisiana. Growing conditions were favorable, and yields have been good. LSU AgCenter correspondent Craig Gautreaux has the story from Acadia Parish.
Read MoreThe United States, Argentina, Australia, Canada and Ukraine submitted a counter-notification to the World Trade Organization (WTO) on India’s domestic support, input subsidies and market support prices for wheat and rice.
Read MorePeople in Louisiana love to eat rice. So when an LSU AgCenter-developed rice variety offering a low glycemic index and a boost in protein hit store shelves a couple of years ago, customers took notice.
Read MoreLouisiana corn for grain production is forecast at 84.1 million bushels, unchanged from the October 1 forecast but down 29 percent from 2023. Based on conditions as of November 1, yield is expected to average 189 bushels per acre, unchanged from last month but up 14 bushels from last year. Producers expect to harvest 445,000 acres of corn for grain, down 235,000 acres from 2023.
Upland cotton production is forecast at 310,000 bales, up 10,000 bales from the October 1 forecast and 101,000 bales above last year.
Read MoreADM Rice just finalized another sale of 44,000 metric tons of U.S. long grain rice to Iraq, with shipment expected in January 2025. This sale follows the one from August, helping to bring certainty and predictability back into this market.
“We are grateful to see another shipment to Iraq, as our farmers are finishing harvesting this year’s crop,” said Keith Glover, Chair of USA Rice. “We look forward to being able to supply the full 200,000 tons for this year’s MOU.”
Read MoreFollowing meetings with Representative Rick Crawford (R-AR), Panama has reopened its market for U.S. milled rice under the U.S.-Panama Trade Promotion Agreement (TPA). This milestone marks a renewed opportunity for U.S. rice while reinforcing trade ties after a protectionist trade agenda under the previous Panamanian administration. Since 2021, Panama has unilaterally converted the milled rice portion of the TPA’s tariff rate quota to rough rice and have only allowed rough rice to enter duty free.
Read MoreUSA Rice released the annual U.S. Rice Domestic Usage Report today, tracking domestic shipments and consumption of U.S. milled rice from August 2022 through July 2023. This year’s report has added rice flour as a new category under rice delivered to industrial food processors. Additionally, this year’s report continues to include consumer research data that gives a clearer picture of who is eating rice, where they are consuming it, and where they are buying it. These changes have provided better representation of the industry, and a more accurate picture of which types and how much rice is consumed in the U.S.
Read MoreAs the first rain event in nearly two months came into South West Louisiana, so did “Birders” from all over the US. The hope of all is to catch a glimpse of the elusive Yellow Rail in Thornwell, LA, also known as “The Yellow Rail Capital of the World,” for the 16th Annual Yellow Rails and Rice Festival this weekend.
Read MoreCrawfish aquaculture is the most profitable aquaculture endeavor in Louisiana, representing roughly 69% of the total gross farm value generated across all commercial aquaculture enterprises in 2022, according to the Louisiana Summary Agriculture and Natural Resources 2022. Crawfish producers in south Louisiana create a suitable wetland habitat for crawfish to survive, reproduce and grow to harvest size in shallow water impoundments used for both crawfish and rice.
Read MoreIn south Louisiana, Paul Johnson was amidst rice harvest of his ratoon crop, and yields were stronger than expected. “I am pleased with what we are seeing so far. They are not the yields we had last year, but I think last year was an anomaly. I don’t think we will ever see that again,” Johnson said. “The second crop yields are strong.”
Read MoreThe 87th Annual International Rice Festival (IRF) took place this past weekend, bringing together an estimated 100,000 attendees to celebrate the state's deeply rooted connection to rice under the theme “Rice: a Louisiana Cuisine.”
The festival is Louisiana’s longest-running free agricultural event, as well as one of its largest; Festival President Joshua Spell, a Crowley native and executive chef at the popular local eatery Fezzo’s, emphasized the importance of keeping the festival free for the community.
Read MoreWhen I was young, broke and first started doing my grocery shopping, I fell in love with rice.
It was cheap. It tasted good. It went with almost anything — and I could cook it 100 different ways.
I still love rice, which is why I was excited to visit Crowley to see rice in its natural habitat.
Read MoreU.S. merchants shipped 1,125 metric tons of rice to Cuba in 2023. Considering that Cuba imports around 600,000 to 700,000 metric tons of rice per year, that may not seem like much of an accomplishment.
But it’s a 500% increase from the total of U.S. rice shipped to Cuba in 2022.
Read MoreThe 2024/25 U.S. corn outlook calls for smaller supplies, larger exports, and reduced ending stocks. Projected beginning stocks for 2024/25 are 52 million bushels lower based on the Grain Stocks report. Corn production is forecast at 15.2 billion bushels, up 17 million from last month on a 0.2-bushel increase in yield to 183.8 bushels per acre. Harvested area for grain is unchanged at 82.7 million acres. Total use is raised slightly to 15.0 billion bushels reflecting greater exports.
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