The Louisiana ATV/UTV Safety Task Force held their statewide kickoff event at the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) headquarters building in Baton Rouge on June 10. The ATV/UTV Safety Task Force will highlight the growing need for youth ATV/UTV safety education and injury prevention efforts across the state.
Read MoreThe beef is safe to eat. Local livestock and pets aren't yet at risk. A reemerged pest hasn't yet found its way to the Ark-La-Tex.
But the concerns are mounting. If its flesh-eating babies appear in northwest Louisiana, an important piece of the local economy is at risk.
Read MoreThe New World screwworm has arrived in the United States.
For years, ranchers across Southern states have prepared for a potential invasion of the flesh-eating parasite that can wreak havoc on livestock, pets and even humans.
Though the United States went decades without a confirmed case of the invasive pest, it’s now made its way across the U.S.-Mexico border.
Read MoreTexas rice producers enter a new crop year with a watchful eye on prices, yield potential and the threat of rice delphacid, an invasive planthopper that wreaked havoc on the 2025 crop, according to Texas A&M AgriLife experts.
Read MoreAnother bout of heavy rain is on the way for Louisiana as tropical moisture interacts with a late season front. The worst of this will happen between Sunday and Tuesday, as the moisture from the remnants of Tropical Storm Cristina move northward toward the Gulf Coast.
Read MoreLily Perrin is the 2026 recipient of the Dwayne A. Zaunbrecher/Vermilion Farm Bureau Federation Young Farmer and Rancher Memorial Scholarship and the Linda and Wayne Zaunbrecher Scholarship.
Dwayne Zaunbrecher was a life-long member of Vermilion Parish Farm Bureau and his goal was to establish an educational scholarship to help young people interested in agriculture.
Read MoreLouisiana Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner Mike Strain joined Talk 107.3 to discuss several issues affecting the state. He covered the growing threat of New World screwworms, hurricane preparedness, mosquito control, and the importance of supporting local farmers.
Read MoreThe Food Bank of Northeast Louisiana received a beef donation. Last month, the Louisiana Tech University School of Agriculture, Sciences, and Forestry hosted its annual farm production sale.
During the sale, Louisiana Land Bank and Century Next Bank purchased cattle to be donated that were processed into beef products.
Read MoreResidents in St. Martin Parish have raised concerns about odors, dust and potential health impacts they say are linked to a large sugarcane bagasse storage site owned by the Louisiana Sugar Cane Cooperative.
The site, located off La. 31, has drawn scrutiny from local officials after residents reported issues with bagasse becoming airborne and creating nuisances in the surrounding area.
Read MoreThe H-2A program allows agricultural employers to hire temporary foreign workers when there are not enough available U.S. workers to fill seasonal farm jobs.
Widely used across Louisiana agriculture, the program helps support industries such as sugarcane, crawfish, forestry, nurseries, and vegetable production during peak planting and harvest seasons.
Read MoreMore than 120 agricultural and conservation organizations are urging Congress to address staffing shortages at local USDA offices, warning that reduced personnel levels are making it harder for farmers and ranchers to access critical programs and services. In a letter to Senate agriculture appropriations leaders, 123 groups called for adequate fiscal year 2027 funding for the Natural Resources Conservation Service and Farm Service Agency.
Read MoreSouthwest Livestock Exchange is a sale barn about 15 miles from where the first case of New World screwworm (NWS) was detected in Texas last week, and it held a cattle sale the day after the USDA confirmed the case.
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When people talk about New World screwworms in the United States, one date gets repeated over and over: 1966.
That is the year the U.S. Department of Agriculture now says the U.S. was declared free of indigenous, or self-sustaining, screwworm populations. It is also the date appearing in many modern explainers — from media outlets to scientific journals to animal health giant Zoetis — as screwworms again threaten livestock and livestock.
Read MoreFor nearly a decade, LSU AgCenter entomologist Blake Wilson has been facing an uphill battle over stem borer and rice weevil infestation in rice crops, particularly the most popular variety in the state, PVL03. For the last three years, a formerly effective insecticide has become decidedly less so in controlling the pest.
Read MoreA market analyst says tight margins is contributing to the decline of of small cow-calf operations.
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