Discrimination Financial Assistance Program (DFAP) decisions and awards have now been made. If you applied and haven’t received an award or denial by August 6, 2024, please call the DFAP call center at 1-800-721-0970.
Deputy USDA Secretary Xochitl Torres Small told the Voice of Louisiana Agriculture Radio Network some 77-million dollars will be distributed to just over eleven hundred farmers and ranchers in Louisiana who applied for the program.
Read MoreIn preparation for the August Crop Production report, USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) will review all available data, including survey data and the latest information from USDA’s Farm Service Agency and Risk Management Agency, for planted and harvested acreage for barley, corn, cotton, dry edible beans, oats, peanuts, rice, sorghum, soybeans, sugarbeets, Durum wheat, other spring wheat, and winter wheat.
Read MoreThe U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced loan interest rates for August 2024, which are effective Aug. 1, 2024. USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) loans provide important access to capital to help agricultural producers start or expand their farming operation, purchase equipment and storage structures or meet cash flow needs.
Read MoreLouisiana agriculture generates approximately $3 billion in sales each year, but in most years agricultural productivity is negatively affected by hurricane damage. Louisianans are familiar with the devastation and loss of life and property that can accompany a hurricane event as the state experiences, on average, one hurricane every three years. The total economic losses from a single hurricane can reach tens of billions of dollars, while agricultural losses can exceed one billion dollars. Louisiana is a major agricultural producer for the United States, but the structures, livestock, and crops are highly exposed to extreme wind and flooding during hurricane events.
Read MoreThe USDA estimates 2023 farm production expenditures in the U.S. at $481.9 billion, up from $452.5 billion the previous year. The four largest expenditures totaled $238.7 billion and accounted for 49.6 percent of total expenditures in 2023.
Read MoreThe USDA is extending the comment period for its proposed new competition rule under the Packers & Stockyards Act by 15 days.
Tanner Beymer with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association says the later deadline is welcomed news, but it’s not enough.
Read MoreAccording to the National Agricultural Statistics Service in Louisiana, there were 1.5 days suitable for fieldwork for the week ending Sunday, July 28, 2024. Topsoil moisture supplies were 0 percent very short, 18 percent short, 57 percent adequate, and 25 percent surplus. Subsoil moisture supplies were 0 percent very short, 17 percent short, 67 percent adequate, and 16 percent surplus.
Read MoreThe U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced changes to the Enhanced Coverage Option (ECO) beginning with the 2025 crop year. USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) is expanding coverage options to additional crops as well as increasing premium support to make the policy more affordable for producers.
“The Risk Management Agency is continually responding to producer needs and adapting our insurance coverage options to give producers more choices when it comes to managing their risks,” said RMA Administrator Marcia Bunger. “This expansion is part of RMA’s larger effort to provide more options for specialty crop producers.”
Read MoreFriday, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service is making $190 million available to help private forest landowners adapt to and mitigate the impacts of climate change and retain working forestlands.
Read MoreToday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) released the Watersheds report, which provides data that supplement the 2022 Census of Agriculture, Volume 1.
Read MoreDonald Trump may return to the White House, but his old band won’t be getting back together. Former Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue says he has no interest in returning to the Executive Branch. It’s a question he gets a lot these days.
Read MoreRose Fisher Greer and her daughter are the only basket weavers left in the Jena Band of Choctaw Indians, a tribe based in Central Louisiana.
To practice her craft, Greer needs river cane. For that, she has to go into Kisatchie National Forest, and she’s the only person in her tribe willing to make the journey. At one patch just off the side of the road, a few feet into the forest, the river cane grows in clusters of green stalks several feet high.
Read MoreLouisiana Central, in partnership with the Louisiana Small Scale Agriculture Coalition (LSSAC), is hiring a statewide position to work with our USDA Regional Food Business Center program. The Delta RFBC is a multi-year program funded by the USDA AMS and will include technical assistance and grants for post-harvest to final sale systems within the Louisiana Food System.
Read MoreThe U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced the deadline for commodity and specialty crop producers to apply for the Emergency Relief Program (ERP) for 2022 natural disaster losses is Aug. 14, 2024. USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) began accepting ERP 2022 applications in October 2023.
“If natural disasters impacted your farm or ranch in 2022, there’s still time to submit your application for Emergency Relief Program assistance,” said Ronald Guidry, Jr., FSA State Executive Director for Louisiana. “Don’t delay. Gather up your documents and contact your local FSA office to complete the application process.”
Read MoreChairman of the House Agriculture Committee, Glenn “GT” Thompson (PA-15), delivered the following opening remarks at today's full committee hearing on the consequences of EPA's actions on American Agriculture:
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