|
August 2024
Rainy Weather Spells New Challenges for Rice Farmers After Last Year’s Historic Drought On a blisteringly hot Wednesday afternoon on the Stelly family farm near Kaplan, barrels worth of golden rice kernels pour into a container to be hauled off for processing. After days of rain, fifth generation rice farmers Sandrus and Adlar Stelly are glad to finally be ramping up their harvest. Read more here. |
|
July 2024
Aaron and Jamie Lee Named 2024 Young Farmers and Ranchers Achievement Award Winners Aaron and Jamie Lee of Vermilion Parish have been named the 2024 Young Farmers and Ranchers Achievement Award Winners, the highest honor given by the Louisiana Farm Bureau to individual farmers each year. The Lees won the award during the organization’s 102nd Annual Convention in New Orleans, La. The young couple are sixth-generation sugarcane, live- stock, rice, and crawfish farmers. Read more here. |
|
June 2024
After the Toughest Season in Decades, Crawfish Farmers Hope for Better Luck Next Year Looking out onto his sugarcane fields from his porch on a warm early June afternoon, Chad Hanks is hopeful. After weeks sprinkled with days of heavy rain, the ground is moist. “The cane is as beautiful as it’s ever been,” the cane and crawfish farmer observed. Last summer, Hanks was looking at a very different picture. “Last year at this time, we were well into subsurface moisture deficiency,” said Hanks. And while Louisiana’s sugarcane industry managed to defy the most grim predictions, producing 1.3 million tons of sugar in the 2023 harvest, crawfish farmers weren’t so lucky. Read more here. |
|
May 2024
Long Known for its Wild Reefs, Calcasieu Lake Now Produces its First Farmed Oysters Hubern Doxey’s family has lived off the land in Cameron Parish for generations. His grandfather was one of the state’s most prolific fur traders. Prior to the 2020 hurricanes that reduced much of the parish to rubble and pushed many of its residents to leave, his family also owned an oyster house in Cameron. Doxey himself is a fisherman who specializes in crabs, shrimp and oysters. Read more here. |
|
April 2024
Wagyu Beef from the Leger County Market The Leger cattle operation near Port Barre has Japanese genetics by way of Australia and Shreveport. Brent and his wife, Marcy, raise Wagyu cattle, a breed that originated in Japan. The Leger family sells Wagyu beef products at the Leger Country Market in Washington. Work is underway to open a store in Lafayette, hopefully by early May. Read more here. |
|
March 2024
The 2024 Crawfish Crop: A Record-Setting Season for All the Wrong Reasons The 2024 crawfish crop has been disastrous so far, affecting farmers and businesses that depend heavily on the crustacean, and the impact on the area economy will be significant. Normally, crawfish pumps more than a quarter billion dollars into the Louisiana economy but that amount this year will be drastically reduced. Eric Thomas, a Rayne crawfish dealer, said the market is looking better than the past 2 months. The price has dropped, and more people are eating crawfish. Read more here. |
|
February 2024
Louisiana’s USDA Honey Bee Lab: Keeping our Bee Industry Humming More than a third of the food we eat comes from crops pollinated by honey bees. That is why Dr. Lanie Bilodeau of the USDA Bee Lab in Baton Rouge works hard to keep our managed bee population healthy. One of Louisiana’s best kept agricultural research secrets is the USDA’s Honey Bee Breeding, Genetics, and Physiology Lab. Read more here. |
|
January 2024
Flying Into 2024 with Reed Aviation Bradley Reed is president of Reed Aviation, and for him, January means that it’s time to begin prepping for the rice-planting season. For over 50 years, the Reed family has been flying seed, fertilizer, herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides, mostly for Mowata and Iota-area rice farmers. They also do specialized work as far as Lake Arthur, Elton, and Duson. Read more here |
|
December 2023
Dreaming of a Citrus Christmas Back in 2017, Louisiana Farm & Ranch Magazine featured Gerald Miller’s expansive and extremely successful orchard. “But look at it now,” he said, pointing to rows of sawed-down tree trunks. “I had about 350 mature trees. I grew tons of satsumas, tangelos, tangerines, red and white grapefruit. I had navels, mandarins, Valencias, and blood oranges. After these last couple of big freezes, all I have left are seven kumquats, maybe ten satsumas, and a navel or two.” Read more here. |
|
November 2023
Guidry Organic Farms: From the Oilfield to the Field of Dreams SUNSET – When Mark Guidry (“Guidry”) and his business partners sold their oilfield casing business of 35 years, Guidry finally had the time to bring his long time dream of farming to life. Decades earlier, he told his pharmacist father, now 95, “I’ll own an organic farm one day.” The notion of producing food always intrigued him and turns out, it was in his blood–though it skipped a few generations. His great grandfather, Dominique Guidry owned farmland which was eventually sold and developed. Read more here. |
|
October 2023
Fall Fun at CM Farms With cool weather around the corner, Chuck and Jackie Melsheimer of CM Farms have just opened the gates to a much-anticipated outdoor activity for the whole family, their annual corn maze. The Melsheimers operate a 1,300-acre farm in Dry Creek, a rural community in the east-central part of Beauregard Parish. On pastureland, the couple raises 500 cattle, which are mainly crossbreds, along with Angus, Hereford, and Brahman bulls. They also have an impressive herd of longhorns. Read more here. |
|
September 2023
Making New Memories at the Roberts Cove Germanfest It's almost time for Germanfest, Roberts Cove’s version of Germany’s world-famous Oktoberfest. Like celebrations in Munich and Stuttgart, Acadiana’s Germanfest features plenty of oompah music and beer. Unlike the storied festival in Germany, which originated as a wedding celebration for a crown prince, our Germanfest began as the family reunion of a group of rice farmers. Read. more here. |
|
August 2023
Alligators: From Marsh and Farms to Hides and Meat Did you know that Louisiana is the largest commercial producer of alligator products in the U.S.? That’s according to Jeb Linscombe, Alligator Program Manager with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF). “Florida gets all the press for alligators,” Linscombe says. “But theirs are mostly tourist attractions. We do a much better job capitalizing on hides and meat. Actually, every inch of a gator has a use.” Read more here. |
|
July 2023
Rapides Parish Farming Couple Earns Farm Bureau Accolades With Agricultural Auggling Act BOYCE– Residents and tourists alike may have the opportunity to experience a unique spectacle in the mostly rural north-central portion of Rapides Parish—a family of jugglers. While you will not find Robert or Rachel Duncan under a circus tent—or even the Rapides Parish Coliseum—what you will find is a happy thriving family that has a distinctively diversified agricultural operation. Read more here. |
|
June 2023
2023 Rice Crop Benefitting From Warm Summer Weather Pattern CROWLEY – As Louisiana approaches summer, warmer temperatures and afternoon showers are nudging the state’s 2023 rice crop closer toward harvest. LSU AgCenter rice specialist Ronnie Levy said rice growers are scouting their crops for diseases as the current warm and wet weather patterns allow fungal diseases such as blast and cercosperaq to propagate. Read more here. |
|
May 2023
Iberia Parish Sugarcane Farmers Carrying on into Fifth Generation of Agricultural Adaptability LOREAUVILLE – On a mild morning in early May in rural Iberia Parish, the damp air carries the sound of distant church bells and the gravely hum of a pump motor. As the pump churns gallons of water and fertilizer in a pair of mounted saddle tanks, something else is churning—the thoughts of Iberia Parish sugarcane farmer Raymond Hebert. Read more here. |
|
April 2023
Christian Guinn: First-year Farmer Endures a Tough Crawfish Season MERMENTAU – This is Christian Guinn’s first year of farming on his own, and the 22-year-old is getting a hard-earned lesson in agricultural economics of supply and demand. While his crawfish catch is respectable, the price isn’t. “It’s been hard this year,” Christian said while driving to check on crawfish and rice fields. Read more here. |
|
March 2023
Coastal Plains Meat Company: Here’s the Beef If you like to buy beef that’s been raised in Louisiana, you have no doubt heard of Coastal Plains Meat Company. Chip Perrin and his business partner, David Billings, are the Eunice-based processing plant’s owners. The two military veterans’ dream of promoting local, sustainably-raised cattle came to life in 2021, when they bought the old Eunice Superette Slaughterhouse on Highway 91. In the short time since, Coastal Plains has become our state’s largest beef processor. Read more here. |
|
February 2023
Fletcher Farm Strawberries: Carrying on a Sweet Tradition William Fletcher owns Fletcher Farm in Ponchatoula and he has been growing southeast Louisiana’s famously sweet strawberries for 25 years. Along with 8 acres of seasonal vegetables, William grows 6 acres of berries. “This farm belonged to my grandfather, George Edward Fletcher,” he says. “He cleared stumps with mules and dynamite. And he grew strawberries.” “I grew up in Ponchatoula,” William says. “I’ve lived other places, but there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.” He and his wife, Ginger, are the fourth generation of family to live in his grandfather’s old house. Read more here. |
|
January 2023
Free Program Aims to Bolster Agricultural Careers in Tri-Parish Community A collaborative effort among LSU Eunice, the LSU AgCenter and a host of agricultural and civic organizations is fostering interests in agricultural careers in the tri-parish area. The Sustaining Future Farms in Louisiana program is beginning its inaugural semester within the school’s Agriculture Department this month. At the helm of this new venture is Program Manager Caitlin Denux. She said the program stemmed from funding from a U.S. Department of Labor grant that was awarded to the college last year. Read more here. |
|
December 2022
Louisiana Well Represented at 2022 USA Rice Outlook Conference AUSTIN, Texas—Tim Walker may not be from Louisiana, but he certainly has some vested interests in the Pelican State’s rice industry. As general manager of HorizonAg, his company has championed the Clearfield, then, subsequently, the Provisia systems that have proven to be vital to Louisiana’s rice industry. He touted these offerings from the HorizonAg display booth at the 2022 U.S.A. Rice Outlook Conference held Dec. 7-9. Read more here. |
|
November 2022
Ronald Dubois Navigates the Challenges of Cattle Production This may seem like an obvious place to start when looking for a story about raising beef cattle in south Louisiana. In the sleepy community tucked away in Vermilion Parish, south of Kaplan, west of Abbeville, you can find the obvious—cows. But there’s also bulls, heifers, a few fall calves and Ronald Dubois. Dubois, a lifelong resident of Vermilion Parish says the area where he raises a 220-head herd of F1 Braford and Brangus cattle has long been considered a prime spot for beef cattle production. Read more here. |
|
October 2022
2022 Sugarcane Harvest Off To a Positive Start for Lafourche Family Farm THIBODAUX – In October 2021, Jason Richard was doing exactly what he is doing this October. He was waking up at the same time before 5 a.m., climbing in the same John Deere, harvesting sugarcane in the same fields and hauling his crop to same place –the nearby Raceland Raw Sugar Corporation. But things looked a little different in Lafourche Parish 12 months ago. Read more here. |
|
September 2022
Late Summer Rains Dampen 2022 Rice Harvest CROWLEY – Louisiana rice farmers are certainly having a sense of déjà vu as this year’s harvest comes to a close. What they’ve seen before is consistent, near-daily rainfall that hampered their operations. In the spring of 2021, steady rains caused farmers to have to delay planting rice, fertilizing fields and applying other chemicals. Mid-to-late August 2022 brought a similar weather pattern that dampened the harvest, rutted the fields and has, thus far, hampered second-crop cultivation. Read more here. |
|
August 2022
Parish Rice Founder Juggles Roles of Farmer and La. Rice Advocate EUNICE – From rural northern St. Landry Parish, there is something growing. Yes, there are soybean and rice fields ready to be harvested. But there’s something else. if you listen closely, you may be able to hear the growing interest into a new more healthful rice. The man behind it, Mike Fruge, wants you—and everyone else--to hear about it too. Read more here. |
|
July 2022
Vermilion Parish Sugarcane Farmers Juggle Crop Production with Leadership to Earn 2022 Farm Bureau Accolades ERATH –The winners of the Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation’s 2022 Young Farmers & Ranchers Achievement Award shared one emotion when accepting their honors at the agricultural advocacy organizations centennial celebration—surprise. Read more here. |
|
June 2022
Tareau Farms: Diversifying to protect the bottom line COLFAX – If you find yourself driving through Central Louisiana’s Grant Parish, you will not find any fast-food restaurants, big box stores or even any traffic lights. What you will find along its bucolic winding highways are fields of corn, soybeans and milo. Read more here. |
|
May 2022
T-Moise Farm: Living high on the hog SUNSET – The T-Moise Farm is a complete farm-to-table operation, from raising the animals to processing meat in a licensed facility for retail sales. The farm’s specialty is free-range, grass-fed pigs. Tim Melancon and his wife, Monica, fell into this niche after buying two Berkshire hogs, Wilbur and Minnie, from a neighbor for $100 each. “That’s how it started,” Tim explained. Read more here. |
|
April 2022
Hebert Farms: Progressing to the Next Generation When it comes down to differing viewpoints, Vermilion Parish farmers Laura Hebert and her father, Dane, may be at opposite ends of the spectrum. It’s new school versus old school, shifting methods versus trusted tradition, introversion versus extrovert. Neither person in the father-daughter duo is afraid to admit that they sometimes butt heads. But despite the quandaries that may sometimes arise from their differing opinions, the pair is progressing to promote what has become a thriving fourth generation operation. Read more here. |
|
March 2022
Canatella Farms: A model of agricultural diversity Along a seven-mile stretch of the meander- ing LA Highway 105 in St. Landry Parish, there’s a lot going on. While some fields look fallow and bare, there are fields with sugarcane stubble gradually emerging from the long rows. There are also recently planted corn seeds just beginning their path to becoming tall stalks. Then there are cattle grazing along the western- facing slope of the Atchafalaya River levee. And making this variety of vegetative ventures possible are the Canatellas. Read more here. |
|
February 2022
Miller family finds niche market for unique dairy products FRANKLINTON – 5 a.m. phone call that prompts Nathan Miller to strap up his boots to bear a 20-degree wind chill in late January can mean only one thing—kids are on the way. While Miller often does welcome school kids to visit Circle M Farms, these kids are of the four-legged variety. Dairy producers have maintained a strong foothold in the rolling meadows of Washington Parish making agriculture the basis of the area’s economy. While barns that house much of the area’s dairy cattle operations dot the landscape, the Millers’ Franklinton farmstead is home to a different cloven-hooved species. Read more here. |
|
January 2022
Agricultural Entities Team Up to Offer Therapeutic Cannabis to La. Patients LAKE CHARLES – Food and fiber are familiar commodities to Louisiana’s agricultural stakeholders, but with recent legislation some agricultural researchers have shifted their focus to something a little less familiar—therapeutic cannabis. Also referred to as medical marijuana, therapeutic cannabis is growing in popularity as patients with debilitating ailments turn to the burgeoning industry for relief. Read more here. |
|
August 2021
Dairy Products From Hill Crest Creamery Are Udderly Delicious DERIDDER – It’s milking time at the Hill Crest Creamery, and as usual the same two cows are always at the front of the line. Number 13 goes in first on the right side. Number 1701, first on the left. Neither is the alpha cow of the herd of 34. “They’re just creatures of habit,” explains owner Daylon Schmidt. Schmidt, 22, has become a creature of habit also, milking the herd at 6 a.m. and again at 4 p.m. Cows don’t have holidays and they don’t take time off for disasters like hurricanes. “We don’t even get off at Christmas,” Daylon said. Read more here. |
|
June 2021
Sara Doherty: The Tomato Lady DERIDDER – It’s a sunny morning at the Doherty tomato farm, and proprietor Sara Doherty is flitting back and forth from field to field like a bumblebee. “I’m sorry we’re so busy, but you gotta work when it’s not raining,” Sara explains. She’s checking on her 16,000 tomato plants, and so far things aren’t looking good. The rainy, cloudy weather has delayed the crop. “This weather has been killing us,” she said. “Too much rain. Too much rot. I’ve had people call from Lake Charles and they lost their whole gardens. But that’s farming. That’s what happens with farming.” Read more here. |
|
May 2021
Boeuf de Bacque – Back to Basics MILTON – Max Bacque takes a minimalist approach with his grass-fed herd of Angus cattle. “Regenerative agriculture is what I’m down to,” he said. “Getting the soil, animals and grass to the point where we don’t need any inputs.” Instead of spraying buttercups and other weeds with herbicides, Bacque prefers mowing. He doesn’t use fertilizer, and his cattle are raised hormone-free. Max said this system has several advantages. “It’s good for the environment. It’s good for the animal. But it’s also cheaper.” His priority is what many consumers want to hear these days. “It all comes down to animal welfare,” Max said. “If the animals are being treated well, I’m OK with it.” Read more here. |
|
April 2021
D&B Farms: A Boyhood Friendship Becomes a Farming Partnership ESTHERWOOD – It all started back about 30 years ago when Trent Broussard and Aaron Dore were in elementary school and they worked as ball boys during Notre Dame Football games. They struck up a lifelong friendship that evolved into the D&B Farms with crawfish, cattle and rice. “Needless to say, we’re like brothers now,” Trent said. Read more here. |
|
March 2021
The Heinens of Hathaway HATHAWAY – On this warm spring day, planting time is just around the corner for the Heinen farm. Will Heinen and his father, Dave, are waiting on seed that will arrive any day now. In addition to working with his dad on 650 acres of rice, Will plans to have his own 50 acres of rice this year in addition to his 70 acres of crawfish. It will be his second year of planting rice, and he’s had crawfish fields for 5 years. Last year, Will’s rice made 49 barrels an acre with no second crop. He said his crawfish production was good, but most were on the small side. He’d hoped to have seed in the ground by mid-March, but he was waiting on his hybrid seed to be delivered for planting with their 20-foot drill. In the meantime, there were fields to plow and laser-level. Read more here. |
|
February 2021
2020 Cane Crop Sets Sugar Production Record Sugarcane farmers breathed a huge sigh of relief after completing their harvest in late January, following the past year’s challenges of a tumultuous hurricane season and COVID. Jim Simon, general manager of the American Sugar Cane League, said the 2020-21 crop fared well, and a big part of that was the weather in the previous year that set up conditions for a good crop with favorable weatherat the right time. “It takes a year’s worth of weather to make or break a cane crop. All in all, we were extremely fortunate.” Read more here. |
|
January 2021
Our Gang Goats - Just Kidding Around YOUNGSVILLE - It all started 12 years ago with three goats after the Cazayoux’s daughter, Aubrie, wanted to show animals for a 4-H project as a high school sophomore. “When we started, we didn’t know diddly-squat,” Renee recalled. “It started out as a project and turned into a passion. ”Neither she nor husband Kurt had livestock experience. Read more here. |
|
December 2020
Howard Cormier: Saddling up for retirement Howard Cormier is retiring from the LSU AgCenter Master Horseman Program, but he is not hanging up his saddle and spurs. “I’m trying to wind things down,” Howard said. “I’ve enjoyed this job but it’s time to give someone else a chance.” His retirement is official Jan. 1. It’s the second retirement for Cormier. Read more here. |
|
November 2020
Phillip Cavins: Rebuilding After Laura Phillip Cavins can trace his interest to growing plants in a greenhouse to a tour of Disney’s Epcot Theme Park about 10 years ago. “That’s what really got me interested in greenhouse production,” As a freshman in high school, he started designing his first greenhouse. Those plans would have to wait a few years but in the meantime, Phillip had a garden and he sold much of what he grew. Read more here. |
|
October 2020
Jim Harper of Cheneyville – Louisiana Farm Bureau's New President CHENEYVILLE – The Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation chose a highly diversified farmer with the selection of Jim Harper as its new president. On a 9,000-acre farm that produces rice, sugarcane, soybeans, crawfish and cattle, Harper has a good grasp of the challenges facing Louisiana agriculture. Read more here. |
|
August 2020
R&Z Farms – Ludwig's Legacy MOWATA - This is what it all comes down to for rice farmers. After all the long days of applying chemicals and fertilizer, enduring bad weather, worry, paperwork, mechanical breakdowns and other frustrations, it’s time for harvest. And unlike last year’s dismal harvest, reports are good from most farmers. That’s the case for R&Z Farms in northern Acadia Parish. The ‘R’ in R&Z Farms is for Keith Rockett and the ‘Z’ is for Doug and Dwayne Zaunbrecher. Also working on the farm are Keith’s son, Jonathan, and Dwayne’s sons, Nicholas and Michael. Read more here. |
|
July 2020
Sugartown Watermelons - Sweetest Fruit on the Vine DIDO – It’s a bright, warm summer morning in a field not far from this Vernon Parish community between Elizabeth and Pitkin. A line of teenage boys tromp through the field, hefting 20-pound watermelons to each other in bucket brigade fashion until the melons are stacked in a trailer. Soon, you might see these emerald orbs sold out of a pickup on the side of a highway. This crop is grown by Jason Green ,one of several melon producers in the area of Beauregard, Vernon and Allen parishes. He has melon patches scattered around the Pitkin-Sugartown area. Read more here. |
|
June 2020
On the Farm - Cattleman Paul Lafleur GRAND PRAIRIE – Paul LaFleur’s cattle operation is based on the land in St. Landry Parish where his grandfather farmed. Paul has named his place, Hosea’s Cattle Farm, after his grandfather, Hosea LaFleur. Paul started raising cattle in 1995. After years of growing sweet potatoes, cutting grass on the interstate and working for a nursery company, he decided to get in the cattle business. “When I started out, I didn’t even have a tractor.” Read more here. |
|
May 2020
Jeremy Craton – Farming Rice and Crawfish in the Pandemic DURALDE -- Jeremy Craton didn’t grow up on a farm. He got a taste of agriculture one summer working for Acadia Parish farmer Bubba Leonards. “That was my introduction to farming.” Jeremy said he wasn’t even able to drive. “I was just 13 or 14 years old.” He said he learned a lot from Bubba and his father, Dennis Leonards, and much of the work was done with a shovel. “I didn’t know there was a top cut or a bottom cut in a field. I’m glad they had patience because I sure needed it.” Read more here. |
|
April 2020
Strain Urges Everyone to Continue to Follow CDC Guidelines Dr. Mike Strain, Commissioner of the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry, is concerned that folks in rural parishes are not abiding by the stay-at-home orders issued to keep the coronavirus in check. It’s a part of the close-knit nature of rural life to socialize and have gatherings for barbecues and crawfish boils. But Strain is advising that now is the time to stay at home so that we will continue to have those friends and relatives for the future. Read more here. |
March 2020
The Duncan Farm: Adaptation and Diversification
BOYCE – Adaptation is the key to Robert Duncan’s beef cattle production on the family
farm of 1,200 acres in Rapides Parish near Boyce.
As the price of ryegrass seed went through the roof, Duncan looked for a cheaper forage for
this year on a 110-acre pasture. He bought wheat seed straight out of a neighbor’s field and
broadcasted it at 90 pounds per acre.
Read more here.
The Duncan Farm: Adaptation and Diversification
BOYCE – Adaptation is the key to Robert Duncan’s beef cattle production on the family
farm of 1,200 acres in Rapides Parish near Boyce.
As the price of ryegrass seed went through the roof, Duncan looked for a cheaper forage for
this year on a 110-acre pasture. He bought wheat seed straight out of a neighbor’s field and
broadcasted it at 90 pounds per acre.
Read more here.
January 2020
Sugarcane Harvest Ends Semi-Sweet Season
Jeanerette – This year’s cane crop for the Patout sugar mill, the Enterprise Factory, between
Jeanerette and New Iberia has not been stellar, thanks to the weather.
Randy Romero, M.A. Patout and Sons chief executive officer, said
the yield of roughly 30-32 tons per acre, was less than his expectation of 35-40 tons.
Patout processed 2.55 million tons of cane last year, but this year’s total will be about 2.1
million, Romero said.
Read more here.
Sugarcane Harvest Ends Semi-Sweet Season
Jeanerette – This year’s cane crop for the Patout sugar mill, the Enterprise Factory, between
Jeanerette and New Iberia has not been stellar, thanks to the weather.
Randy Romero, M.A. Patout and Sons chief executive officer, said
the yield of roughly 30-32 tons per acre, was less than his expectation of 35-40 tons.
Patout processed 2.55 million tons of cane last year, but this year’s total will be about 2.1
million, Romero said.
Read more here.
|
December 2019
Industrial Hemp: Hope or Hype for Louisiana Farmers? The hemp business is coming to Louisiana in 2020. Growers, processors and retail sellers are gearing up for the coming year, even though none of the required licenses have been issued by state agencies. Industrial hemp is the same cannabis species grown for marijuana, but hemp is a different than marijuana. Industrial hemp can produce numerous essential oils such as the chemical compound called CBD (cannabidiol), and it must have less than 0.3% THC (Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol), the chemical compound in marijuana that provides the high. Read more here. |
SEPTEMBER 2019
Fruge Brothers: Rice From the Farm to the Bottle
BRANCH – If life gives you lemons, make lemonade, so the saying goes. Mike Fruge has
made his own version of that saying, using rice to make vodka. (Lots of rice farmers would
say this year’s crop has been a big lemon.)
Fruge said it was the pattern of year-after-year of low returns on rice farming that led him
to look at an alternative way to make money from growing rice.
Read more here.
Fruge Brothers: Rice From the Farm to the Bottle
BRANCH – If life gives you lemons, make lemonade, so the saying goes. Mike Fruge has
made his own version of that saying, using rice to make vodka. (Lots of rice farmers would
say this year’s crop has been a big lemon.)
Fruge said it was the pattern of year-after-year of low returns on rice farming that led him
to look at an alternative way to make money from growing rice.
Read more here.
|
JUNE 2019
The Williams Brothers Farm: An Example of Innovation and Self-Reliance VICK -- The Williams brothers farm in Avoyelles Parish is a long ways from anywhere, and you probably won’t pass by it on your way to another destination. The state highway that leads to their place is as twisty as the story of how the Williams family came to the area on the north side of the Red River. Scott and Alan’s father, Doyle Williams, originally farmed in northeast Arkansas, near Rector, Arkansas, located west of the Missouri bootheel. “Cotton was the bread and butter back in the day,” said Alan, who is 18 years older than Scott. Read more here. |
|
MAY 2019
Four Oaks Farm: A Cornucopia of Crops MORGANZA – Ask Matt or Marty Frey what kind of farmer they are, and they’ll have to look at their watch before they answer. They could be in sugarcane, crawfish, rice, hay, cattle or soybeans, depending on what needs attention on Four Oaks Farm. And while they’re tending to the chores, Marty’s wife, Jodi, and Matt’s wife, Shawn, are back in the office, handling the voluminous paperwork. They are in the middle of a successful crawfish season. Six boats are used to harvest 1,200 acres. They currently use paddleboats, but Matt said he wants to find out about the practicality of airboats that some... Read more here. |
|
FEBRUARY 2020
Acadia Crawfish Co. — A Growing Family Business CROWLEY – The genesis for Acadia Crawfish can be traced back to owner Scott Broussard’s high school days. “You probably won’t believe this but when I was a sophomore in high school, me and two friends, Stephen Moody and Mark Provost, wrote this exact business plan,” Scott revealed. Even as a boy, he knew something about crawfish and farming. “Farming was in my blood.” His family had farms in Allen and Acadia parishes where cattle, soybeans and rice were raised. While in... Read more here. |
|
APRIL 2019
Allen McLain Jr.: A career in crawfish and rice ABBEVILLE – If you want to find Allen McLain Jr., you’ll have to look in several places. He might be checking on his rice crop, or he could be meeting with his crawfishermen. But then again, he could be on an excavator doing dirt work for his father, Allen McLain Sr., or there’s a good chance he’s boiling crawfish. He said the crawfish harvest was slow at first this year because of cold, cloudy weather. But warmer temperatures and sunshine in mid-March gave crawfish a boost. “It seems like every week, they just keep increasing in size. The Good Lord made us struggle for a while but... Read more here. |
|
MARCH 2019
Eunice crawfish company expands EUNICE – The 2019 crawfish season is underway, but it has begun with a below-average start. “It’s slow right now. Normally we would be wide open, but we’re at half throttle,” said Doug Guillory of Riceland Crawfish, based in Eunice. “They’re waiting for that sun so they can come out of that growth spurt.” Mark Shirley, LSU AgCenter and Louisiana Sea Grant aquaculture specialist, said cold, cloudy weather is the main reason the catch has been off so far. “A lack of sunshine days during December and January delayed the..." Read more. |
|
FEBRUARY 2019
Retired attorney finds greener pastures ABBEVILLE - When Joel Gooch retired from four decades of practicing law, he went from the courtroom to his family homeplace in Vermilion Parish. “It’s so peaceful and quiet out here.” Gone were the rancor and conflict from fighting opposing counsel, along with the stress of managing a civil defense caseload. He went from deposing witnesses, filing motions and picking juries to picking bulls, vaccinating cows and... Read more. |
|
JANUARY 2019
Atlas Feed Mill: A St. Martin Parish business endures BREAUX BRIDGE – Barbara Melancon looks back 25 years ago and she still wonders how she kept the Atlas Feed Mill going. “It’s been a hard road,” Barbara confided. “It’s not been easy.” Her husband, Ronald “Boze” Melancon, had died of cancer, leaving her with three girls, ages 1, 3 and 4, and the business. “I didn’t know anything about a feed mill.” But she credits an area businessman, Jessie Smith from the business mentorship organization SCORE, for getting her on track. “He gave me the confidence I needed. I had what it took but I just didn’t know... Read more. |
|
DECEMBER 2018
Bret Allain: Farmer and Legislator JEANERETTE - Like most sugarcane farmers, Bret Allain has faced an muddy, uphill battle this year getting his cane crop out of the field and to the mill. “It’s been a real challenge with all the rain we’ve had. It never dried up.” Allain said if the weather stays dry for several days, he’ll move the harvest to fields with black, gumbo soil that needed time to dry up. “This year, I’ve run out of good ground.” He recalls an even wetter harvest in 1972 when... Read more. |
|
NOVEMBER 2018
A Muddy, But Good Harvest On The LaCour Farm BATCHELOR – This year’s sugarcane crop has George LaCour excited, even though most of the harvest has been in muddy, sloppy conditions. “Tonnage is exceptional,” he said. “The tonnage is way better than we figured.” All the LaCour Farm cane is trucked to the Alma mill near New Roads, about 40 trucks a day. The mill had projected it would grind 1.5 million tons of sugar but... Read more. |
|
SEPTEMBER 2018
2018 Lackluster Corn Harvest Finished FinLEBEAU – Joey Boudreaux and his Dad, Ike, were just two or three hours away from wrapping up their 2018 corn harvest. “I was hoping to have a good day and finish,” Joey said. Then came a breakdown in their combine. Always something. But a glitch was preventing the combine header from lifting. It took 2 hours to find a short in a pesky wire to a solenoid, and that meant completing harvest wouldn’t be accomplished until... Read more. |
|
AUGUST 2018
Thibodeaux Ag Group: A Partnership of Brothers and Sons MIDLAND - Farming 10,000 acres sounds like a lot of work, and it is, but the Thibodeaux brothers and sons have it figured out. They meet daily at 6:30 a.m. to plan their day and to decide who’s going to do what. The brothers are Randy, Dale and Steven. Randy’s son, Eric, and Dale’s son, Ross, also are partners in the Thibodeaux Ag Group. Just keeping up with the acreage is a major undertaking. Their meeting room looks like the... Read more. |
|
JULY 2018
Caddo Parish Couple Big Winners at LA Farm Bureau Convention DIXIE - Usually for Jacob and Kari Rumbaugh, each morning begins with a long list of daily chores on their farm in Dixie, La. On June 22, however, they woke up in New Orleans as the 2018 winners of the Young Farmer and Rancher Achievement Award. The award was presented to them at the Louisiana Farm Bureau’s Organizational Awards during its annual convention. The Rumbaughs were chosen from a highly competitive field for their dedication to farming, family and... Read more. |
|
JUNE 2018
Acadiana Food Hub: Enhancing Access to the Local Food Supply LAFAYETTE – The nonprofit Acadiana Food Hub is the germination of a seed that grew in Zach McMath’s fertile imagination. On this Wednesday evening, he’s receiving orders for customers using Waitr, the online food delivery service, for locally grown fruit and vegetables. Waitr is usually for ordering online from restaurants, but McMath convinced the company to deliver produce as well. Farmers bring their product to the Food Hub’s location off University Avenue. When an order is placed... Read more. |
|
MAY 2018
Mark Zaunbrecher, 45 years of farming BELL CITY – It’s a nice cool spring day, but rice farmer Mark Zaunbrecher is anxious for warmer weather. “I hope I start sweating. That means the rice will start growing.” But it would be a few days of unusually cool weather before he would raise a sweat. Since he planted starting March 14, Zaunbrecher had been expecting the crop to take off, but the young seedlings were stalled by consistently chilly weather. By late April, he would have started flooding fields but even the earliest planted rice was only... Read more. |
|
APRIL 2018
Vernon Fuselier: Reconstruction the Cajun Prairie EUNICE– This 30-acre field might look like a weed patch to some, but to Vernon Fuselier, it’s a work in progress to recreate a habitat that once covered southwest Louisiana. “This is native Louisiana plants,” he said. “Nothing has been brought in from outside Louisiana.” Fuselier, a third-generation farmer, said he just assumed that the land in southern Louisiana had once been forest that was cleared for growing crops. He credits a neighbor, retired LSU-E botany Professor Malcolm Vidrine, with introducing him to the... Read more. |
|
MARCH 2018
Tour groups visit Tall Grass Farms ROANOKE – Two dozen Yankees invaded Jefferson Davis Parish recently to learn about crawfish and rice farming. Most were retired farmers from the Madison, Wisconsin, area. They were visiting the Tall Grass Farm owned by Burt Tietje (pronounced tee-jay) near Roanoke. He’s done tours of his farm numerous times, and he has several more booked this year. “This is our biggest draw in Jefferson Davis Parish,” said Dion Sablehaus with the parish tourist commission. “It’s a very unique experience. Even people from our area don’t know..." Read more. |
|
FEBRUARY 2018
LASUCA: A sugar mill preparing for the future ST. MARTINVILLE – Now that the 2017-18 sugarcane harvest is over, mill operators are turning their focus on maintenance and upgrades in preparation for the next harvest. The work is extensive. Grinders that crush the cane have to be reworked. Steam plants that run the machinery have to be refurbished. “We have to essentially tear everything apart, disassemble the pumps and turbines and inspect the boilers and..." Read more. |
|
JANUARY 2018
Louisiana couple win top honor at American Farm Bureau Convention in Nashville NASHVILLE, TN — Russell and Amelia Kent of East Feliciana Parish are the 2018 American Farm Bureau Young Farmers and Ranchers Achievement Award Winners. They are the winners of a new Ford truck, courtesy of Southern Farm Bureau Life Insurance, and will also receive paid registration to the AFBF YF&R Leadership Conference in Reno, Nevada, Feb. 16-19 “I’m still in shock,” Amelia Kent said shortly after winning the award, “It’s humbling and hasn’t completely sunk in yet. The Kents raise cattle and custom cut hay in East Feliciana and Tangipahoa Parishes. In those lush pastures and... Read more. |
|
DECEMBER 2017
Watkins Cattle Company - Specialists in replacement heifers WELSH - The Watkins Cattle Co. is bullish on Brahman cattle. But there’s not a bull in sight at the WCC ranch. “We don’t even have a bull on this place,” said Stuart Watkins. “The recipient cows will never see a bull, ever.” The ranch specializes in high-quality replacement heifers, using a high-tech system of sexed semen with in-vitro fertilization and embryo transfers. “Our largest market is the replacement heifer market,” Stuart said. “Our goal is..." Read more. |
|
NOVEMBER 2017
Willis Provost: Patriarch of a farm family Willis Provost has been farming sugarcane since he was 16. So for 58 years, he has made a crop. He marvels at the high-tech world that agriculture has become with computers and lasers and the high costs of farming. “In my time, we had all those old tractors and mules.” Provost, 74, recalls raking the cut sugarcane and cutting drainage channels all by mule, then using a shovel to finish ditches. “I don’t believe those kids could bear that now.” He still wears his dark-blue farm outfit with his name and “Willis Provost Farms” monogrammed on his shirts, and he occasionally rides out to the fields to check on the workers’ progress. “They know they’ve got to work if they see..." Read more. |
|
OCTOBER 2017
Ricky and Cory Juneau - Father and son in a sweet harvest HESSMER - Back in August, Ricky Juneau wished the rains from Hurricane Harvey would stop in time to start harvesting his sweet potato crop. Sure enough the rain stopped, and now he would like some of that rain to soften the soil and reduce the dust. “A 1-inch rain would do wonders right now.” Dust from the harvesting machine and wind creates difficult working conditions, and limits the amount of time the workers can stay on the job, Ricky said. “The dust gets up so bad they can’t see anything..." Read more. |
|
SEPTEMBER 2017
Louisiana's Hottest Commodity AVERY ISLAND - Making TABASCO® pepper sauce requires more peppers than Peter Piper could pick, even if he perpetually plucked pecks of properly propagated pungent peppers. And behind that prodigious production is John Simmons, the great-great-great grandson of Edmund McIlhenny, founder of the TABASCO® pepper sauce empire. The McIlhenny Co. remains a family operation run by McIlhenny descendants. John’s father, Tony Simmons, became the... Read more. |
|
AUGUST 2017
Wanda Barras - St. Martin Parish gourmet cheese maker ST. MARTINVILLE – Talk with Wanda Barras for a few minutes and you’ll realize she doesn’t do anything at half throttle. She’s an all-or-nothing kind of woman. “When I do something, I do it all the way. I just get absorbed with something.” So even though she only intended 18 years ago just to get a goat for a pet (to add to her menagerie of miniature horses and a thriving exotic bird business), the plan for just a couple of pets took a big turn... Read more. |
|
JULY 2017
Craig and Kali Zaunbrecher - Like father, like daughter WELSH - Craig Zaunbrecher of Welsh could only look at the dark skies hanging over a field of mature rice, and shake his head. “This is enough to make a preacher lose his religion,” he said with disgust as rain clouds circled around the field where he had staged his combines and tractors. Zaunbrecher started his harvest July 6, and he managed to get 500 acres cut. But rain shut down the harvest after that... Read more. |
|
JUNE 2017
Cane Land Distilling: From the fields to the bottle BATON ROUGE – The Alma Plantation of Pointe Coupee Parish has brought its sugarcane from the field to the bottle. The Cane Land Distilling Co. started up in 2013 by Walter Tharp to make rum from Alma sugarcane. Tharp can trace his family’s ownership of the operation to 1858 when Alma was purchased from the Barrow family. His uncle, David Stewart, is the president of Alma Plantation and sugar mill. Alma’s tradition and storied heritage is being captured in their products. Cane Land currently has four liquors... Read more. |
|
MAY 2017
Brandon Vail - Young farmer juggles rice, corn, crawfish, soybeans and cattle LAKE CHARLES – Brandon Vail, a fifth generation farmer, is only 31 years old, but he started farming 18 years ago. “I grew my first crop of beans at 13,” he said. “It was good enough that I got hooked on it.” At age 17, he made his first crop loan from his dad, Mark Vail, for a 140-acre crop of beans that made 47 bushels an acre and sold it for $8.50 a bushel. He also had cattle starting with show cows, and every year his dad gave him a calf for a few years until he started... Read more. |
|
APRIL 2017
Prairie Ronde Rice from James Farms PRAIRIE RONDE - A New Orleans woman and a farmer from Mexico are unlikely business partners, but they have set out on a venture to grow, mill and sell their own rice raised on a St. Landry Parish farm. “This farm has been a lot of things,” said Beth James, referring to the 1,100-acre farm started by her father, the late Laddie James. He farmed row crops but he also raised prawns, redfish, catfish and frogs on the 1,100 acres in St. Landry Parish... Read more. |
|
MARCH 2017
Staying on the farm with crawfish LAKE ARTHUR – It’s the first day of March and it’s obvious that Joel Trahan is eager to help a neighbor start planting this year’s rice crop. Trahan no longer farms rice, but the opportunity to get on a tractor and plant a crop takes him back to what he knows best, and he doesn’t hesitate to tell you why he likes farming. “You’re out here in nature. It’s just something about the smell of the soil, watching the crop grow and then there’s..." Read more. |
|
FEBRUARY 2017
Rodney Simoneaux's Gold Standard Rodney Simoneaux of Assumption Parish is surveying a wet field on the north side of Highway 38. Even though it’s late November, he’s hoping it will dry up enough to plant sugarcane. The tract was filled with spoil from a summer Bayou Lafourche dredging project. It’s part of the plan to send more water down the bayou for coastal restoration, Rodney said. It was too wet for Rodney to plant in the summer and he was holding out hope that he might get a chance to plant it in December. He’s not sure... Read more. |
|
JANUARY 2017
In retirement Gerald Miller finds a niche Gerald Miller needed something to do after retiring from his 35-year job as maintenance supervisor at a refinery in 2010. He found more than enough work by reviving a citrus orchard that had been started by a cousin in the 1970s. The orchard had been neglected and overgrown for almost 15 years, so Miller had to use chainsaws and a tractor to cut wild growth to find the trees on the 3-acre orchard. “Buddy let me tell you, it was a project. It was fun to get the..." Read more. |
"A farmer has to be an optimist or he wouldn't still be a farmer." - Will Rodgers