With the first heat advisory of 2024 being announced, the LSU AgCenter LaHouse Research and Education Center is offering advice to homeowners to keep their homes comfortable more efficiently this summer.
“Higher temperatures don’t necessarily mean higher energy bills,” said LaHouse director Carol Friedland. “There are many different projects for homeowners to improve their home’s energy efficiency to lower their spending this summer.”
Read MoreAlthough the U.S. The Department of Agriculture approved emergency financial relief for struggling crawfish farmers, the 2023 drought’s impact could linger into next year and beyond, an LSU AgCenter professor surmises.
“Louisiana’s crawfish aquaculture industry will experience impacts from the 2023 drought for several seasons before an economic recovery is complete,” writes C. Greg Lutz, a professor in the LSU AgCenter’s Aquaculture Research Station, in his latest column, The Lutz Report, on TheFishSite.com.
Read MoreRecent weather extremes, which include record heat and cold as well as drought and flooding, have made it especially difficult to maintain the health and production of livestock in Louisiana.
Read MoreGillian Eggleston, director of the LSU AgCenter’s Audubon Sugar Institute, has become only the third woman to win the prestigious Crystal Award for Achievement in Sugar Technology since its inception in 1961.
Read MoreAs we near the end of May, most rice growers have their 2024 rice crop in the ground. Overall, reports have this year’s crop in pretty good standing so far, despite several rounds of inclement weather, severe in some areas of the south over the last few weeks. It’s also that time of year when growers take the opportunity to attend various field day events hosted by research and extension staff who provide updates on current crop conditions and progress reports on research projects.
Read MoreHurricane season is once again upon us, and the LSU AgCenter has recommendations to mitigate potential damage and losses to yards, homes and animals as well as tips for keeping food and cleaning supplies on hand.
As the fourth-most active Atlantic hurricane season on record, 2023 saw 20 named storms — including seven hurricanes, three of which were major. However, wind shear caused by El Niño prevented most of the storms from strengthening to a high level.
Read MoreThe efficacy of 3 adjuvants combined with a standard rate of insecticide applied for sugarcane borer (SCB) control was compared with untreated controls in second ratoon sugarcane (HoCP 00-950) in 2023 at the USDA-ARS Sugarcane Research Unit Ardoyne Farm in Schriever, Louisiana. Plots consisted of 3, 60-ft rows, with 4 replications assigned using a RCBD. All insecticide applications used the insecticide Vantacor (FMC) at a rate of 1.2 fl oz/acre and were applied when the infestation reached the threshold level (3% of stalks with SCB larvae present in leaf sheaths) on 29 June 2023.
Read MoreDon Welge, the late president of Gilster-Mary Lee, had a vision. He wanted to start a new kind of agricultural program at his alma mater of Louisiana State University.
“He had this concept of teaching food beyond the farm, meaning not just the growing of the crops and all the sciences that are involved and the economics of all that, but beyond that to the food processors, to food distribution,” said Tom Welge, Don Welge's son and current Gilster-Mary Lee president. “Even through retailing and marketing, so really every part of the cycle in food production.”
Read MoreIn 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.
Read MoreIn 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.
Read MoreLouisiana'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.
Read MoreWith 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.
Read MoreOn 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.
Read MoreThe 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.
Read MoreSeeds 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.
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