Packaging and paper company Hood Container Corporation announced it will invest $118.9 million to modernize its paper mill in St. Francisville, Louisiana. The company said the project would boost production capacity and quality.
Hood Container expects the development to retain 295 positions and add 819 indirect jobs.
Read MoreThe U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is releasing for public comment its proposed registration for three end-use dicamba products for broadleaf weed control in dicamba-tolerant cotton and dicamba-tolerant soybean. EPA has conducted a robust human health risk assessment for these proposed products and has not identified any human health or dietary risks of concern.
Read MoreYesterday evening, President Donald Trump announced the freshly inked trade agreement with Japan that would allow for additional duty-free sales of U.S. rice. USA Rice supports Trump’s major milestone in U.S.-Japan agricultural trade relations and creating new opportunities for U.S. rice exports. The agreement follows just a few short months of negotiation stemming from the Liberation Day announcement on April 2, 2025.
Read MoreFrom July 15 to 18, Seeds to Success: The Louisiana Farm to School Program brought together four dedicated school teams for a multi-day educational retreat at the Wesley Center in Woodworth, LA.
This year’s teams represent the Diocese of Lafayette, Breaux Bridge Elementary School, Central Community School System and Einstein Charter Network.
Read MoreCongressman Troy A. Carter Sr. (D-LA) and Congressman Mike Flood (R-NE) introduced the bipartisan Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Information Act.This bill directs the United States Energy Information Administration (EIA) to include Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) on its weekly and monthly reports, consistent with other fuel types that the agency regularly tracks.
Read More“It’s at work every day; it doesn’t get tired; and it’s consistent,” says Mark Pousson, manager of the South Louisiana Rail Facility in Lake Charles, La. “And it does it quickly – it gives you the measurements you need in about 60 seconds.”
Pousson, who also grows rice on his farm near Lake Charles, was referring to the MachVision Rice Analyzer technology that he’s been working with at the Rail Facility and at the Port of Lake Charles for two years.
Read MoreAmid the business of summer, many farmers take a break from field chores to attend a field day. The opportunity to see firsthand the latest research that can help improve their profitability is a tradition that goes back to the 19th century and continues today.
Seaman A. Knapp planted the seed for Extension by pioneering the idea of demonstration agriculture. Considered the founder of Cooperative Extension, Knapp saw the power of teaching farmers modern, research-based techniques.
Read MoreCoca-Cola announced today it will release a new version of its classic soda sweetened with U.S. sugar, which could benefit Louisiana’s sugarcane industry. Louisiana ranks second in the country in sugar cane produced, nearly 14 million tons of sugarcane each year. Agriculture Commissioner Mike Strain is excited about the news.”
Read MoreHay! Sign up for Grassland CRP to conserve grasslands while also continuing most grazing and haying practices on your working lands. The sign-up runs through Aug. 8, 2025.
The Grassland Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is part of CRP, a federally funded voluntary program that contracts with agricultural producers so that environmentally sensitive agricultural land is not farmed, but instead used for conservation benefits.
Read MoreThis year’s annual field day at the LSU AgCenter Sugar Research Station featured a stop that highlighted several conservation practices.
Kenneth Gravois, AgCenter sugarcane specialist, joined Brenda Tubaña, AgCenter soil scientist, and Bruno Nicchio, AgCenter postdoctoral researcher, to explain how sugarcane farmers can benefit from implementing these practices. The July 16 event drew a record-breaking audience of more than 300 people.
Read MoreForisk Consulting will hold a webinar on Timber Market Analysis Class in October and COFC foresters and Master Loggers can earn 3 CE credits to attend one day of the two-day event or 6 CE credits if they attend both days.
The live Zoom webinar will be held frm 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. CDT Oct. 1 and 2. It is designed to help attendees "understand, track and analyze the price, demand, supply and competitive dynamics of local timber markets and wood baskets though the use of case studies," according to the Forisk website.
Read MoreWe turn off the highway and drive a couple of miles on a gravel road through the tall longleaf pines of Louisiana’s Kisatchie National Forest. This area in Vernon Parish is home to the once-endangered red-cockaded woodpecker. But now the small woodpecker is making a comeback. Thanks in part to the efforts of humans. Biologists have been tracking these woodpeckers for years, finding their nests dozens of feet above the ground in the trunks of tall pines. They raise a camera to peek inside.
Read MoreAlmosta Ranch, a farm located in Calcasieu Parish, is just a thirty-minute drive from downtown Lake Charles, where kids ages five and up can experience life in the country.
Each day of the camp centers around a new animal and gives kids a full experience from going inside their pens, to feeding and, of course, petting them.
Read MoreIn the year ahead, the United Soybean Board (USB) will boost demand for U.S. Soy, drive on-farm resilience and bring value to the nearly half a million U.S. soybean farmers. Led by its 77 farmer-leaders, USB recently approved a $121.3 million budget for the 2026 fiscal year, strategically allocating funds across vital research, promotion and education investments. This spans the food, feed, fuel, industrial, exports and sustainable production market segments.
Read MoreFarmer Clint Judice represents the seventh generation of his family to farm sugarcane in the heart of southern Louisiana. Challenging soils and proximity to the coast, along with this year’s blizzard bringing 10 inches of snow, make producing nature’s sweetest crop a challenge.
St. Mary Parish, where Judice farms around 4,000 acres of sugarcane, is one of Louisiana’s top sugar-producing parishes. In January, it also was home to the county’s southernmost blizzard warning.
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