After driving past the sign for what felt like the hundredth time, I finally pulled over to see Raccoon Bend Farms for myself, right here in Bossier. And spoiler alert: there are, in fact, zero raccoons for petting. However, you can walk through a field of flowers and pick your own, and honestly, that brings just as much joy, if not more.
When my friend and I decided to check out this Bossier gem, we had no idea what to expect.
Read MoreA local farm using its own rice to make whiskey and vodka was featured on “Farms of America” on the Cowboy Channel Monday night.
Frugé Aquafarms is a full service seafood company covering major markets in Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma, which began when Mike and Mark Frugé first started crawfish farming to make money in college.
Read MoreThe Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is a program administered by the Farm Service Agency (FSA) to conserve farmland for future generations while providing habitat for wildlife, reducing soil erosion, and improving water quality. Regular maintenance on CRP acres is needed to ensure the acreage continues to provide conservation benefits and remains in compliance with the CRP contract.
Read MoreFrom the fields of Louisiana to kitchens across the country, rice is a staple in the Bayou State.
For many family farmers, rising costs and changing conditions are making it harder to keep the crop — and a way of life — alive. That’s where the Rice Stewardship Program comes in.
Read MoreThe Louisiana Master Farmer Program has won the prestigious 2025 Conservation Innovation Award from the Soil and Water Conservation Society for its work in advancing conservation practices across the state.
The Louisiana Master Farmer Program has provided voluntary certification opportunities for producers and landowners across the state for more than 24 years.
Read MoreThe largest rice-specific event in North America, the USA Rice Outlook Conference, is heading to New Orleans later this year and registration opened today. As always, the conference will feature a mix of insightful speakers, carefully curated educational programming, business meetings, a 24,000 square foot exhibit hall, and networking events in the city Travel + Leisure Magazine has ranked the #2 destination in the United States.
Read MoreCotton’s good news: the December futures contract settled the week near the upper end of last Friday’s trading range. That’s always a good sign, and the first one that suggests prices might be higher tomorrow. Good news also came in the form of a 24-point increase in prices for the week.
Read MoreAccording to USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, as of last Sunday all of the Louisiana soybean crop was blooming, which is also the five year average for this time of year. 94-percent was setting pods, same for the five year average. That crop was rated 8 percent fair, 90 percent good and two percent excellent.
Read MoreFrom 2018 – 2022, U.S. farms where most of the ownership lies outside the producer’s household or relatives (nonfamily farms) operate more land than family farms, across all production scales (small, medium, or large). Nonfamily farm operations accounted for 13.4% of total production value during that period even though they make up only 2% of farms in the US.
Read MoreThanks to Buck Leonards and the staff at Louisiana Farm & Ranch for making the digital edition available here
Read MoreA tale of two sawmills shows lessons learned that helped with the startup of Bienville Lumber Co., the second endeavor of a partnership of Hunt Forest Products and Tolko Industries of Canada.
The partnership of the Ruston-based Hunt Forest Products and Vernon, British Columbia-based Tolko Industries began around 2016 with a decision on its first sawmill in Urania — LaSalle Lumber Co. — soon followed. Testing at that mill began in late 2018 and it became fully operational in 2019.
Read MoreThe 2026–2030 Louisiana waterfowl zone and split structure will remain unchanged.
At their monthly meeting on Thursday, Aug. 7, the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission voted to keep the current configuration in place.
Read MoreAn LSU AgCenter field day held at a commercial sugarcane farm in Erath focused on climate-smart agriculture solutions that any farmer can implement.
Attendees were transported from the venue location to the field in air-conditioned, yellow school buses — a welcome getaway from the summer heat.
Read MoreManulife Investment Management (Manulife IM), a company of Manulife Wealth & Asset Management, announced today the closing of a Louisiana timberland transaction on behalf of a client. Under the terms of the agreement, Manulife IM, the world's largest timberland investment manager,1 acquired approximately 50,000 pine timberland acres in southwestern Louisiana, expanding acreage under management in Arkansas/Louisiana/Texas/Oklahoma to over one million acres. The timberlands are near existing Manulife IM managed timberland assets and are well placed to be incorporated into ongoing regional operations.
Read MoreAfter a 10-day delay, inshore shrimp season opened Monday. Louisiana Shrimp Association President Acy Cooper says the later start to the season is actually a very good thing.
“They wanted to open August 1, and everybody was pretty much against it because we still had a lot of small shrimp. So they wanted to leave it closed for a couple more weeks to see if we could get a little bit bigger size,” Cooper said.
Read More
