A long-held vision of Don Welge is now a reality. LSU has unveiled a new online graduate certificate in agribusiness designed to strengthen the resilience and efficiency of the national food supply chain.

The late Welge saw this as a need for the food industry. Welge earned a degree from LSU in agricultural economics and was the CEO and president of Gilster-Mary Lee Corporation — a private-label food manufacturing company.

On Wednesday, July 10, at 4 p.m. the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine will reveal its spectacular new Food Animal Service area in the large animal hospital attached to the LSU Vet Med building on Skip Bertman Drive in Baton Rouge during a ceremony celebrating this state-of-the-art facility. This $4.125 million renovation began in October 2022. More than 9,000 square feet of space was renovated, and another 3,875 square feet were added.

The LSU AgCenter Hammond Research Station will hold its annual horticulture field day July 19, allowing visitors the chance to tour trial gardens, learn about top-performing plants and hear experts speak about their research projects.

Registration will begin at 7:45 a.m. with coffee and refreshments. The program will start at 8:30 a.m. with remarks from AgCenter administrators. Mike Strain, commissioner of the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry, will then give a state-of-the-industry update.

Jay Grymes, chief meteorologist for WAFB-TV and interim Louisiana state climatologist since February, has been named the permanent state climatologist, effective Aug. 1.

Grymes recently announced he is retiring from WAFB this month after nearly 30 years with the station and joining the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, or GOHSEP, to assist the state with emergency response and mitigation. In addition, as the state climatologist, he will direct the operations of the Louisiana Office of State Climatology, housed at LSU.

The ancient underwater forest about eight miles off the coast of Gulf Shores, Alabama, is known as a time capsule from the last ice age—and for the first time, researchers understand why. Chemical and pollen analyses found the bald cypress trees were buried in sediment from swamp and marsh ecosystems, like those in southeastern United States today. Such low-oxygen environments helped preserve the wood, which is more than 60,000 years old and grew on land at a time when sea levels were much lower than they are today.