Farmland Holds Value in 2024

From 2020 to 2023, farmland values jumped 30% to 40% in Indiana, Illinois and Iowa, according to USDA. During that same period, cropland in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi increased only 10% to 11%.

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Allie Shipley
USDA to Purchase $36 Million Worth of Domestic Shrimp, Awards 1.2 Million in Pollock Contracts

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is purchasing up to USD 36 million (EUR 33 million) of wild shrimp from the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and the South Atlantic, U.S. Representative Garret Graves (R-Louisiana) announced in a press release.

The purchase is possible thanks to funds available under the USDA’s Section 32 Funds for Strengthening Markets, Income, and Supply, Graves’ office said.

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AquacultureAllie Shipley
Three Decades Later, Mark Shirley Still Finds Joy in Teaching 4-H’Ers About Louisiana Marshesthree Decades Later, Mark Shirley Still Finds Joy in Teaching 4-H’ers About Louisiana Marshes

In the late 1980s, a group of 4-H Junior Leaders in Vermilion Parish was itching to do something fun for a summer club activity.

“They did not have the resources to take a trip to, back then, Six Flags in Houston,” recalled Mark Shirley, a coastal specialist based in the parish. “There wasn’t a Blue Bayou Water Park in Baton Rouge yet or things like that.”

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Allie Shipley
Ag Outlook Forum Set For Jan. 10 In Alexandria

The LSU AgCenter will host a daylong agricultural outlook forum Jan. 10 to help crop, timber and cattle producers prepare for economic decisions they will face in 2024.

The forum will be held at the State Evacuation Shelter, 8125 U.S. Highway 71, adjacent to the LSU Alexandria campus.

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don molino
Researchers and a Handful of Farmers Team Up To Develop Industrial Hemp for LA

In St. Landry Parish, where soybeans, rice and sugarcane typically flourish, a new crop is rising high above one field.

On a 12-acre plot in the south Louisiana parish, Pat Deshotels and Matthew Indest have grown hemp three times, but this crop — standing thick in the field with tall, slender stalks leading to bunches of green leaves — is their most successful.

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LSU AgCenter, Hempdon molino