Chad Hanks can sum up this sugarcane growing season rather succinctly.
“Unprecedented,” Hanks said as he stood in a sugarcane field in Lafayette Parish.
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More stink bugs are starting to show up in soybean fields. The stink bug complex in Louisiana soybean includes several species such as the brown stink bug, green stink bug, southern green stink bug, and perhaps the most notorious, the redbanded stink bug. Each species is capable of causing damage.
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Louisiana FFA is gearing up for an exciting school year after members wrapped up a busy summer that included officer training and a visit to the nation’s capital.
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You would need 10 Tiger Stadiums to seat the million wild hogs that run loose in Louisiana. They tear up garden beds, wreak havoc on crops and damage levees — but maybe not for long.
A poisonous bait developed by the LSU AgCenter and LSU Department of Chemistry was approved for a patent earlier in August, according to the AgCenter. The next step before public use is approval by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
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The Louisiana soybean crop has been severely affected by extreme heat and drought stress. Factors such as availability of irrigation, planting date, and soil type have all had a significant impact on the condition of plants.
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Layne Langley, area nutrition agent with the LSU AgCenter, visited summer camps in East Feliciana and West Feliciana parishes to present hands-on nutrition programs for the campers.
Be Fit and Healthwise is an annual summer camp hosted by RKM Primary Care. It is for children ages 6-14 of East Feliciana Parish and the surrounding area.
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Everyone in Louisiana already knows rain has been hard to come by this summer.
But exactly how bad and widespread is the drought? Without enough data points, it can be hard to say — and that can prevent local farmers, ranchers and others from qualifying for assistance programs.
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Extreme heat and periods of drought this summer will likely lead to losses in several of Louisiana’s agricultural sectors.
Economists from the LSU AgCenter expect the worst losses in the beef cattle sector as reduced hay production, the forced downsizing of cattle herds and other factors could lead to estimated losses of $135 million to $290 million.
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August 21 to 25 is Louisiana Flood Awareness Week, an opportunity to educate citizens on the many ways to prepare for floods and mitigate future damage.
“Anywhere it can rain, it can also flood,” said Carol Friedland, director of the LaHouse Research and Education Center. “Staying prepared and weather aware during a flood is important to keep Louisiana communities safe.”
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Three years after a tornado and two hurricanes ripped through central Louisiana, the LSU AgCenter is making progress on rebuilding facilities in the region that play key roles in its research and education efforts.
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Some of the most innovative minds in agriculture from across the country gathered last week to share ideas on numerous topics at a multistate meeting hosted by the LSU AgCenter.
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This month’s 2023/24 U.S. corn outlook is for reduced supplies, lower domestic use, smaller exports, and tighter ending stocks. Projected beginning stocks for 2023/24 this month have been raised 55 million bushels higher based on a lower use forecast for 2022/23, reflecting reductions in corn used for exports, glucose and dextrose, and starch.
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After years of research aimed at finding an effective way to control exploding populations of feral hogs, a patent has been issued for a bait developed by scientists with the LSU AgCenter and LSU Department of Chemistry.
The bait uses sodium nitrite, which is lethal to feral swine, the culprits behind millions of dollars in damage to agricultural fields and forestlands in Louisiana and across the country.
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One might think with temperatures hitting the triple digits on a Thursday afternoon in August, Louisiana producers might shy away from attending a typical field day, but the Dean Lee agronomic crops school is anything but typical.
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Joy Sims has been dreaming of booming produce markets in Tensas Parish since she started working as a Healthy Communities agent for the LSU AgCenter four years ago. That dream is finally taking shape thanks to the Tensas Healthy Communities Coalition.
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