Cow Country Reporter: January 2026
HAPPY NEW YEAR! May the year 2026 find you happy, safe, healthy and prosperous! We started the year 2025 with 2% less cattle and calves and ended the year selling 2% more cattle through our 6 Louisiana auctions (Mansura closed July 1, 2025). If we used the last week’s sale in December 2025 and compared it to the first sale in January 2025 in the USDA Southeast Region, 400-700 lb. calves were $500.00-$600.00 per head higher. Throughout the marketing year calves and feeders reached record highs.
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Immigration Sweep in Louisiana Slows Down the Start of Crawfish Season
Seafood spots in New Orleans are beginning to boil mud bugs, but some say they are facing a unique challenge.
Farmers are reporting that their immigrant employees are opting out of work due to the ongoing federal immigration crackdown across Louisiana. As a result, farmers say production is slower due to reduced staff.
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American Farm Bureau Establishes 2026 Policies
Farmer and rancher delegates to the American Farm Bureau Federation’s 107th Convention today adopted policies to guide the organization’s work in 2026. Key topics ranged from labor to animal health to risk management.
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Rollins Touts H-2A Changes As Relief For Ag Labor Challenges
Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins says the Trump administration continues to address labor challenges that are facing America’s farmers and ranchers.
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LSU AgCenter Partners With Crowville Cafe To Promote Healthier Dining Choices
After the feasting that happens in November and December, many people resolve to eat healthier in January.
The LSU AgCenter partnered with a rural restaurant in northeast Louisiana to help locals make healthy choices when dining out.
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Cotton Grower Acreage Survey: American Acres To Hold Flat in 2026
Just as the cotton market has remained stagnant and subdued throughout 2025, so too has enthusiasm for planting the crop as the nation’s producers look ahead to 2026.
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As MAHA Wages War on Pesticides, the GOP Is Caught in the Middle
The Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement’s crusade against pesticides is creating divisions in the Republican Party, as some members back the industry while others stand with MAHA activists.
As the MAHA movement, spearheaded by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., gains power and influence within the GOP, efforts to limit liability for the pesticide industry are also growing on numerous fronts.
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Sticky Fingers: USDA Fraudster Steals $200M in Stunning Scam
Nik Patel steered a series of astonishing agriculture-related scams and racked up a whopping 52-year prison sentence.
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Grower Groups Warn of Deeper Price Pain After Corn Supply Shock From USDA Report
The USDA on Monday projected a record-breaking 17-billion-bushel corn supply in 2025–2026, shocking the market and “raising alarms among the nation’s corn growers,” according to the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA).
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USA Rice & Brazil Rice Industry Sharing Trade Concerns Over India
Last week, a delegation from USA Rice traveled here to meet with the Brazilian rice industry association (ABIARROZ) to discuss cooperation on shared concerns around the deterioration in global rice prices largely due to India’s policies and practices leading to oversupply.
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Cleveland: At Last, A Good Week For Cotton
The market settled 126 points higher on the week at 68.68 cents, basis the December 2025 ICE contract. The market pushed above 69 cents several times during the week’s trading but was unable to hold that level at the close of the week’s trading.
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Students With Disabilities Try Their Hand At Showing Livestock With Help From 4-H'ers
Livestock shows aren’t all about prize ribbons and belt buckles. For Abigayle Forrest, these events are more about the excitement in the air, the chance to meet people, the time spent with animals.
“Even if you don’t win something, you can have fun,” said Forrest, who showed goats as a 4-H’er in Tangipahoa Parish. “It doesn’t matter if you win something.”
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Ag Outlook Forum Next Week At Dean Lee
The third annual Louisiana Agricultural Outlook Forum will be held on Thursday, January 22, 2026, from 8:00am to 2:40pm at the LSU AgCenter’s Dean Lee Research Station State Evacuation Shelter in Alexandria (address: 8125 Hwy. 71 South, Alexandria, LA 71302).
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Louisiana Startup Wins $100K in Ag Innovation Challenge
Louisiana-based startup company, FarmMind has been named the winner of The Farm Bureau Ag Innovation Challenge and will be leaving the 2026 American Farm Bureau Convention with $100,000 in startup funds.
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Record Corn Crop Expected, and USDA Forecasts Price Pressures
Last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released the latest World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates, estimating that the United States will see an enormous 17-billion-bushel corn crop during the 2025-26 marketing year, raising alarms among the nation’s corn growers and triggering an immediate market reaction.
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