It’s November first and even though the season isn’t officially over until the end of the month, State Climatologist Barry Keim said with records as far back as 1851 a storm has never made a November landfall in Louisiana. We’ve had them in late October before.
Read MoreThe U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced loan interest rates for November 2023, which are effective Nov. 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.
Read MoreThe U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) encourages urban producers, innovative producers and other stakeholders to submit comments for and virtually attend the upcoming public meeting of the Federal Advisory Committee for Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production (Committee) on Nov. 29, 2023.
Read MoreDrought, dry weather conditions, and extreme heat over the summer have forced a Christmas tree farm in Tangipahoa Parish to shut down for the 2023 holiday season.
According to a Facebook post, Christmas Town Christmas Tree Farm in Kentwood, La. announced it will not have trees available for purchase this year.
Read MoreNewly elected Speaker Mike Johnson has been on the job for five days. His colleagues are already pushing him to do more. On Friday, 60 House Republicans sent him an open letter calling for the swift passage of a new farm bill. They say the letter was intended to highlight the critical importance of federal policies helping farm, ranch and forester families.
Read MoreThe U.S. Federal Transportation Policy is a disjointed, bureaucratic hodgepodge of restrictions and requirements lacking consistency across the states, imposed under the extortive threat of federal funding losses.
What weighs more? A ton of milk or a ton of logs?
Read MoreLouisiana Agriculture Commissioner Mike Strain talked to a St. Mary Chamber luncheon audience Wednesday about one state department. But he might have taken a line from “A Tale of Two Cities.”
For Louisiana farmers and the Agricultural and Forestry Department, this can be the best of times and the worst of times.
Read MoreUSA Rice recently hosted a delegation of six Central American retailers and distributors from Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Costa Rica for a week-long trade mission through rice country in the mid-south.
The tour included two main stops in Memphis, Tennessee, and Lafayette, Louisiana, where participants met with USA Rice members and industry representatives.
As he prepares to move into the Governor's Mansion, Attorney General Jeff Landry will get advice from 14 committees comprised of influential business figures, major GOP donors, a Democratic district attorney and the incoming Republican insurance commissioner, among others.
Agriculture, Fisheries & Land Management: Joel Broussard, an oil and gas executive and outdoorsman.
Read MoreThe face of the Harvest of the Month series on Louisiana Public Broadcasting, Crystal Besse does her homework to ensure she nails the history and culture of her adopted home.
Besse followed a career in public health from her native Tennessee to Louisiana, and five years ago she became director of Seeds to Success: The Louisiana Farm to School Program.
Read MoreIn Grant Parish, the pecan is the king of the crop. But just like every crop this year, pecan farmers are bracing for the record drought’s impacts.
“All we can control is our inputs. That’s what we can buy at the store and put out here. We can’t control the weather,” said Ben Littlepage, owner of Littlepage Farms on Highway 8 outside of Colfax.
Read MoreIn New Orleans and much of the South, crawfish is more than just a delicacy; it is a worshiped food group of its own, and one that residents mark on their calendars as its season. For many families in Louisiana and the surrounding areas, it serves as the centerpiece of family gatherings, graduation celebrations, and holidays like Mardi Gras. During these times, you can smell the crawfish boiling in practically everyone’s backyard.
Read MoreThe nation has a new Speaker of the House, and he’s someone already trusted by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. NCBA’s Vice President of Government Affairs, Ethan Lane said though Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana has not served on the Agriculture Committee, he has a strong voting record when it comes to agriculture.
Read MoreWhen firefighters rushed from across the state to battle a massive wildfire in Beauregard Parish, a firefighter from Texas noticed something unsettling about his Louisiana colleagues: most of them had no idea what they were doing.
“They’d say ‘we’re just going to go hit it,’ and want to rush in,” said Taylor Lott, a volunteer firefighter in Beauregard who trained in wildland firefighting in his home state. “No, in the conditions we’re having and the fires we’re having, you can’t do that. There’s just a lot they didn’t understand.”
Read MoreNew restrictions proposed on future large-scale solar farms in St. James Parish would require land buffers tougher than what's been required for industrial plants and tank farms seeking to move into or expand in the Mississippi River parish.
The minimum 500-foot buffer from homes, which is also tougher than what some other river parishes have adopted for solar farms, would be one piece of St. James' first ever solar farm law.
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