Louisiana Farmers, Ranchers, and Forest Landowners Invited to Attend Informational Events About USDA’s Discrimination Financial Assistance Program
As part of ongoing outreach efforts to help farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners who experienced discrimination by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Analytic Acquisitions LLC will host a series of informational events in Louisiana in December.
Authorized by Section 22007 of the Inflation Reduction Act, the Discrimination Financial Assistance Program (DFAP) makes available $2.2 billion to producers who experienced farm-lending discrimination prior to January 1, 2021. These events will offer guidance on how to apply and how to access the support.
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Crop Insurance Education for Limited Resource and Underserved Producers of Specialty Crops and Underserved Commodities
This program consists of ive webinar sessions (2 hours each) over the basics of crop insurance. The objective is to provide growers with the information needed to make an informed decision.
Crop insurance education consisting of sequential webinars, homework assignments, and help sessions, will be delivered via a partnership of subject matter experts and extension educators in 10 states: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia.
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Fertilizer Company Calls Off Plans for Jefferson Parish Plant
A Texas fertilizer company announced Tuesday it has halted its plans to build an ammonia plant in Jefferson Parish. The decision came one day before local officials were going to vote on the company’s request for a multi-million dollar tax break that would have helped subsidize the project.
The project faced immense public pushback from residents critical of its environmental risks and the company’s repeated waffling on an initial promise to bring more than 100 high-paying jobs to the community.
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How Do People Learn About US Farm Practices?
The Yellow Rails & Rice birding event that we wrote about in last week’s issue of Delta Farm Press is helping to close the chasm chiseled into our once-agrarian society. Visitors to those Louisiana rice fields are entranced by riding in combines, talking IRL (in real life!) to family farmers, and discovering the vast populations of wildlife that wander the fields.
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Sugarcane Yield Less Than Previous Years After Record Drought
Sugarcane farmers, like the rest of Acadiana, have been experiencing a record-breaking drought.
Eddie Lewis III, the operator of Eddie Lewis Cane Farm, LLC, said that the harvest season had started rough. He said he started harvesting in September and October, and the cane was coming out 15 to 20 tons to the acre, which is below average.
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USDA/1890 National Scholars Program
The USDA/1890 National Scholars Program is aimed at bolstering educational and career opportunities for students from rural or underserved communities around the country. It was established in 1992 as part of the partnership between USDA and the 1890 land-grant universities.
USDA’s Office of Partnerships and Public Engagement (OPPE) manages the 1890 National Scholars Program, which is aimed at increasing the number of students from rural and underserved communities who study food, agriculture, natural resource and other related sciences.
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Dry Weather Reduces Duck Numbers
If you go back a few months, when the weather was in triple digits, it was then the matrix of data began to come together that revealed this year’s duck season was going to be a tough one for some. Particularly, for those living in southwest Louisiana.
While I was driving home from the Gueydan Duck Festival the last weekend in August, the countryside looked like a parched desert. Clouds of dust rolled up behind the bed of my truck as I traveled along Maree Michel Road heading to a field trial event.
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Farm Share Subscription Helps Two Local Farms
Two local farms have teamed up to offer their Winter Farm Share box with fresh produce and meat. Current Farms and 3 Board Farm are giving customers multiple options, starting at $30 for the box and can be customized.
The owner of Current Farms, Conrad Cable, said they have many things included in the box that people will be familiar with and some that might be something they have not seen.
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USDA Now Accepting Applications for Farm Loans Online
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has launched an online application for Direct Loan customers. More than 26,000 customers who submit a Direct Loan application each year can now use an online, interactive, guided application that is paperless and provides helpful features including an electronic signature option, the ability to attach supporting documents such as tax returns, complete a balance sheet and build a farm operating plan. This tool is part of a broader effort by USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) to streamline its processes, improve customer service, and expand credit access.
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2024 Rice Varieties & Management Tips
Decisions on variety selection are some of the earliest and most critical you will make. This information will help you decide which rice varieties are best suited to your particular growing conditions.
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'Relatively Permanent' Could Be Next WOTUS Battleground
The U.S. Supreme Court made significant changes in the Waters of the U.S. rules in Sackett vs. EPA, but it left unclear the legal meaning of a term that has concerned farm organizations and their leaders for years.
“The Sackett case specifically overturned the Significant Nexus test,” said Brigit Rollins, a staff attorney with the National Agricultural Law Center. (Significant Nexus is a term that applied to the connection between wetlands and lakes, rivers and streams.)
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USDA To Conduct The 2023 Census Of Aquaculture
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) announced that starting Dec. 18 they will mail the 2023 Census of Aquaculture to all producers who indicated in their 2022 Census of Agriculture that they produce and sell aquaculture products. The deadline to respond is Jan. 15, 2024.
An ag census special study, the Census of Aquaculture will provide comprehensive aquaculture data at the state and national levels, including production volume and methods, surface water acres and sources, and sales. Federal, state, and local governments, agribusinesses, trade associations, and producers use these data.
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Exploring the History of Tung Trees in Washington Parish and St. Tammany
I grew up hearing about tung trees. Particularly, I learned that much of the land in St. Tammany Parish on which Money Hill golf community and the Whippoorwill Grove subdivision now exist was once planted in tung trees.
The tung oil tree (Vernicia fordii, formerly Aleurites fordii) is native to parts of China and southeast Asia. Oil from tung seeds has been used in varnishes, paints, and other products.
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Cenla Port to Receive $1.2 Million for Infrastructure Expansion
Louisiana will receive $4.4 million from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act through the Delta Regional Authority, a portion of which is heading down river to Central Louisiana.
The Central Louisiana Regional Port is set to receive $1.2 million for infrastructure expansion. The grant will provide funding to expand operation for DIS-TRAN Package Substation, a subsidiary of Crest Industries. They build electrical substations nationwide.
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Dog that Fended Off a Pack of Coyotes is Nominated for Farm Dog of the Year
The dog that fended off a pack of coyotes last year and was badly injured in the process has been nominated for Farm Dog of the Year.
Casper, a Great Pyrenees, spent weeks at the veterinarian and months at home in Decatur, Georgia, recovering from his injuries. One year later, 3-year-old Casper is fully healed and thriving.
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