Raising Food, Family, and New Farmers at Sweet Jones Farm in Louisiana
Some people have big visions. This is one of them. Sweet Jones Farm is growing healthy food and opens doors for people to connect with agriculture.
J’Quincy Jones Sr. grew up playing hide and seek in the sugarcane fields of southern Louisiana. He remembers eating sugar cane instead of chips. His love and appreciation for farming blossomed over weekends with his grandfather where he would pick pecans on Saturday and sell them after church on Sunday.
Quincy may not have known then, but life would lead him to become a farmer.
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USDA’s Farm Service Agency Helps Farmers and Ranchers Tackle Challenges
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has worked to assist distressed borrowers, improve land access for underserved producers and provide disaster assistance and relief for producers impacted by natural disasters. USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) also gave producers and landowners tools to help with climate-smart land management and made great strides in supporting USDA’s priorities of improving equity in program delivery and helping producers rebound and recover after natural disasters, the pandemic, and other challenges in the past two years.
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Super Bowl Fans: Get Ready To Wing It. Chicken Wing Price Down 22%
It’s a chicken or egg question. Why are egg prices still high while chicken wing prices are falling?
Just in time for Super Bowl parties, a new consumer price report from Wells Fargo using U.S. Department of Agriculture data reveals that chicken wing costs are down. The national average weekly retail price for chicken wings as of Jan. 6, 2023, was $2.65 a pound, down 22% from $3.38 per pound a year ago.
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LDWF Makes Delinquent Oyster Lease List Available Online
The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries is required to make public notice regarding the nonpayment of fees related to oyster leases on both its website and in the official journal of the parish in which the lease is located.
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Agribusiness Major Antoine Richardson Selected to Represent SU at the Super Bowl
Antoine Richardson, sophomore agricultural business student from Wynne, Arkansas, has been selected to represent Southern University at the 3rd annual EA SPORTS™ Madden NFL 23 x HBCU Tournament with an exclusive experience during Super Bowl LVII week February 6 – February 13.
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Ian McNulty: Why don't we celebrate the Louisiana shrimp boil the way we do crawfish?
Louisiana shrimp are abundant, and we know that when they’re treated right there’s no comparison with their taste. They are integral to so many dishes that speak of Louisiana, of traditions bound to a sense of home through generations of families.
So why can’t Louisiana shrimp get any respect?
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SBA Economic Injury Disaster Loans Available To Louisiana Ag Related Businesses
Small nonfarm businesses 19 Louisiana parishes and neighboring counties in Arkansas and Texas are now eligible to apply for low interest federal disaster loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration, announced Director Tanya N. Garfield of SBA’s Disaster Field Operations Center-West. These loans offset economic losses because of reduced revenues caused by excessive rains in the following primary parishes that occurred June 1 through Nov. 29, 2022.
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Iraq Buys 88,000 Tons Of US Rice
Al Awees, the private company that took over much of the food purchasing for the government of Iraq in 2021, made two purchases of 44,000 metric tons each of U.S. rice as the 2022 calendar year ended.
The total of 88,000 metric tons may not seem like much given that U.S. rice exports are expected to total around 3 million metric tons in the 2022-23 marketing year, but the symbolism may be more important than the actual amount.
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New Soybean Factsheets Published
There are two new soybean factsheets published on the Soybean Research and Information Network (SRIN). These factsheets were written by a national group of soybean agronomists.
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Louisiana Crop Consultant Honored
Northeast Louisiana crop consultant Hank Jones has been honored as the 2022 Cotton Consultant of the Year.
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Crawfish Season Heats Up
Crawfish growers may look to the rain gauges or the temperature to forecast the supply end of the Louisiana harvest.
But Jason Seither, who boils and sells tons of the mudbugs each year at his Harahan restaurant Seither's Seafood, looks to the local social customs that dictate the annual swell in demand. He knows it's about to rev up.
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Egg Prices Are Declining, but Experts Say It's Still Not A Bad Idea To Get Your Own Hens
While egg prices are finally dropping, it's still not a bad idea to raise your own chickens.
Dek Terrel, an economics professor at LSU, says it's basic egg-onomics.
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USDA Announces February '23 Lending Rates For Ag Producers
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced loan interest rates for February 2023, which are effective Feb. 1, 2023. USDA’s 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.
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AFBF in Your Corner in Court, Again
A couple weeks ago, AFBF filed a new lawsuit challenging EPA’s latest WOTUS rule—joined by more than a dozen other organizations representing agriculture, infrastructure, manufacturing and housing. Why? Because even though farmers and ranchers share the goal of protecting our nation’s waterways, they deserve better than this rule. They deserve better than a rule that requires a team of lawyers and consultants just to identify “navigable waters” on their land.
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Gene Discovery Could Protect Sorghum Against Anthracnose
A gene discovered by a scientific team from the Agricultural Research Service and Purdue University could help fortify the defenses of sorghum to anthracnose, a disease of the cereal grain crop that can inflict yield losses of up to 50 percent.
The discovery, to be reported in an upcoming issue of The Plant Journal, opens the door to breeding disease-resistant sorghum cultivars that are less reliant on fungicides to protect them, reducing growers’ production costs, and safeguarding grain yields and quality, among other benefits.
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