The loss of China as a dominant buyer has left a hole in U.S. soybean demand that hasn’t been easy to fill. While export sales have held up better than expected elsewhere in the world, farmers and industry leaders are still asking the same question: Where will the next big wave of demand come from?
Read MoreDriving along the River Road, you can't help but notice how lush and fertile everything looks. There's a reason for that – the Mississippi River has been flooding these banks for thousands of years, each time leaving behind another layer of nutrient-rich sediment. It's like the river has been preparing the perfect recipe for agriculture, depositing silt, minerals, and organic matter to create some of the most productive soil in North America.
Read MoreMrs. Heather's is a family-owned and operated farm near Hammond, Louisiana. During the summer, Mrs. Heather's is the go-to spot for picking your own strawberries. As the seasons change, Mrs. Heather's transforms into the best pumpkin patch in Louisiana, where kids of all ages can experience an old-school day of fun on the farm.
Read MoreThe latest U.S. Drought Monitor shows much of Louisiana is abnormally dry. Ag Commissioner Mike Strain says last week alone, 43 wildfires broke out which consumed 274 acres.
Read MoreSouth Louisiana Rail Facility (SLRF), an agricultural export and processing company, announced it will invest $2.1 million to further expand its Jefferson Davis Parish operations. The project includes new bagging and warehouse equipment designed to increase efficiency and open new marketing opportunities for Louisiana rice producers.
Read MoreThe American Soybean Association today expressed concern following reports that President Trump has canceled his planned meeting with Chinese President Xi amid escalating trade tensions over rare earth mineral restrictions.
Thanks to Buck Leonards and the staff at Louisiana Farm & Ranch for making the digital edition available here.
Read MoreNorth Louisiana fields are busy with harvest and fall planting decisions, yet a possible federal shutdown would tangle that work with red tape and uncertainty. The issue is not politics. It is timing.
Farmers live by seasons and cash flow. When federal services pause, everyday decisions about credit, insurance, and marketing get harder across Caddo, Bossier, DeSoto, and the Delta parishes.
Read MoreCongressman Rick Crawford (AR-01) and Congresswoman Julia Letlow (LA-05) introduced the Bridge the Gap for Rural Communities Act (H.R. 5710). This legislation helps farmers bridge the safety net gap until the updated farm provisions in the Working Families Tax Cut Act take full effect next year. The legislation suspends the payment limitation for the Price Loss Coverage (PLC) program and the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) program for the 2025 crop year and provides farmers the option to elect by December 1 if they want a 50% partial payment by the end of the year instead of waiting until October 2026.
Read MoreThree Louisiana men were recently cited by Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries enforcement agencies for fishing more than 150 pounds of brown shrimp over the legal limit.
Agents cited Jose Ernesto Canales, 38, Victor Funes-Carcamo, 43, both of Baton Rouge, and Roy Junior Rowley, 48, of Denham Springs, for violating Wildlife Management Area (WMA) rules.
Read MoreThe 2025 USA Rice Outlook Conference kicks off soon in just over two months, and programming that jumps from the field to the supermarket has been announced.
Digital marketing specialist and 2024 Outlook speaker Eric Martindale returns to the education stages to lead the session, From Shelf to Shopper: Navigating Grocery Retail Trends.
Read MoreOctober is Italian American Heritage Month, a time to honor Italian traditions and their impact across the country. In Independence, Louisiana, one family’s story shows how those roots continue to grow strong, five generations later.
Read MoreThe American Farm Bureau Federation sent letters to President Donald Trump and Congressional leaders to emphasize the severe economic pressures facing America’s farmers and ranchers. Falling crop prices, skyrocketing expenses and trade disputes are creating conditions that are too much for farm families to bear.
Read MoreDry weather is settling in statewide, after some spots actually saw too much rain! That's hard to believe from here in central Louisiana, where we have stayed quite dry. The drought monitor shows several areas of moderate drought, and it looks like this will worsen in the coming weeks. I've shared a map that shows most of the state has seen less than half of the rain it should see in the last 30 days, with some exceptions in southeast Louisiana, and up near the Arkansas border.
Read MoreThe weekly update of the U.S. Drought Monitor was released this morning ... and that corresponded with the issuance of burn bans in Caddo and DeSoto parishes.
Burn bans were already in effect for Acadia (since mid-September) and St. Landry (as of Oct 8) parishes.
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