MarketMaker will boost Louisiana agriculture, LSU AgCenter gets $518,000 for blueberry Web site, West Carroll students use technology to improve safety, 10 schools get started with Louisiana 4-H Seeds for Service, Valverde's photo selected for virology journal, TGRx gets first $30 million contract

Crawfish aquaculture in Louisianadepends solely on a forage-based foodsystem for supplying nutrients to thegrowing animals. Because of availableplant residue following grain harvestsand because rice exhibits good regrowth characteristics, crawfish production often follows the rice harvest as a common crop rotation practice

Annual ryegrass forage is grown onapproximately 300,000 acres in Louisiana each year. It is planted over the entire state on widely diverse soils.Significant variation in ryegrass performance occurs among these diverse production areas, and reduced forage yields on some soils can limit the benefit of ryegrass for livestock producers.

TransGenRx (TGRx) – a biotechnology company started by licensing technology from the LSU AgCenter – has landed its first contract worth $30 million.

The Journal of General Virology, a prestigious international journal of virus research published by the Society for General Microbiology in the United Kingdom, has selected a photo from Rodrigo Valverde, professor in the Department of Plant Pathology & Crop Physiology, for its October 2009 cover.

The LSU AgCenter, along with a Mississippi agriculture agency and three other southern universities, has been awarded a $518,000 grant to develop an interactive, educational Web site about blueberries.

Louisiana’s agriculture and seafood industries will have a new marketing tool in early 2010 when MarketMaker, a national Internet-driven service, is inauguratedin the state.

Three West Carroll Parish high school students learned enough sophisticated computer technology that they were able to create digital fire district maps, which will be used to improve local services in the parish.

Students at Warren Easton High School in New Orleans along with 10 other schools around the state really know what it means to get down and dirty, thanks to a $25,000 grant secured by the LSU AgCenter’s 4-H Youth Development office.

To help celebrate National 4-H Week in 2009, which was Oct. 4-10, Louisiana 4-H members joined millions of other 4-H’ers across the nation in participating in a science and technology project.

Despite successful production and use of vegetable oil-based biodiesels, the contribution of these alternative fuels (including virgin oil, used cooking oil and animal fat) to the overall transportation fuel scenario is fractional at best. Biodiesel production accounts for about 1 percent of the 50-60 billion gallons of diesel needed annually in the United States.

The LSU AgCenter’s W.A. Callegari Environmental Center has established a well-equipped laboratory to perform biodieselquality control analyses for a nominal charge.

Through hydrothermal processing, plant biomass can be converted into energy and petrochemical products. Hydrothermal treatment involves a chemical reaction conducted in water, which has been heated and pressurized in the absence of dissolved oxygen.

Using biomass as an alternative to petroleum-based products for fuel has attracted interest because of its biodegradable nature and renewable properties.

The Chinese tallow tree is perhaps the most promising oilseed crop adapted to the humid South and capable of producing a sufficient supply of feedstock to meet the needs of the U.S. biodiesel industry. The Chinese tallow tree is an introduced species that grows rapidly, spreads profusely and has become naturalized along the Gulf and southern Atlantic coasts.

Pecans are a possible feedstock for the biodiesel industry. Pecan nuts contain a high amount of fatty acid well-suited for biodiesel production. Given their high value as a foodstuff, the nuts are too valuable to be crushed for oil. However, a significant acreage of pecans is not harvested as food because of disease and insect damage.

Biodiesel, a biofuel derived from vegetable and animal fats, burns more cleanly than conventional diesel in modern diesel engines. It also provides superior lubricity and reduces our dependenceon fossil fuels.

The decline in number of dairy farms in Louisiana led the state legislature to pass Act 461 in the 2007 legislative session. This act created the Louisiana Dairy Refundable Tax Credit Program (LDRTCP).

Switchgrass has many characteristics that make it a desirable cellulosic ethanol feedstock. Switchgrass can be grown with minimal fertilization, and it produces high yields even on marginal soils. It is highly tolerant of flooding and drought and has the potential to produce 1,000 gallons of ethanol per acre, which compares favorably with corn and sugarcane.

LSU AgCenter researchers are investigating production of biodiesel, which has received worldwide attention as a renewable transportation fuel and blending agent.

Making biodiesel fuel from vegetableoil or animal fat is a simple process. Rudolph Diesel used raw vegetable oil when he invented the first diesel engine in Augsburg, Germany, in 1893.

You can make your own fuel to run in diesel engines for a fraction of what regular petroleum diesel costs. In fact, most people making biodiesel are making it for about $1 a gallon.

Biofuels generally are defined as fuels produced from recently derived organic matter versus fossil fuels, which are derived from ancient organic matter. In either case, solar energy is the original energy source. Concerns about increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide released from burning fossilized carbon, mixed with the desire to secure national energy supplies, have driven research on alternative fuels.

The federal mandate for energy security through the development of sustainable biofuels has revived interest in sweet sorghum as a renewable energy crop.

Hydrogen is an appealing energy carrier because of its potential for using the most plentiful resources – water and sunlight– to power one of the most environmentally clean reactions, 2H2O = 2H2 + O2 , in which two water molecules yield two hydrogen molecules and one oxygen molecule.

Louisiana Agriculture Magazine Fall 2009 PDF

Biorefinery technology is a term coined in the 1990s to describe the fabrication of fuels, solvents, chemicals and plastics from renewable materials. By 2020, the United States is aiming to have at least 25 percent of organic-carbon-based industrial chemicals and 10 percent of liquid fuels from a bio-based industry.

The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 is a comprehensive energy-policy law passed by Congress with the primary purpose of increasing energy efficiency and the availability of renewable energy in the United States.

The biofuel industry in the United States has expanded tremendously over the past decade. Consumption of biofuels has increased faster than any other energy source in recent years.

The first caterpillar-resistant transgenic cotton varieties (Bollgard) were approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1996. The Bollgard technology has successfully reduced the frequency of sprays for caterpillar pests by about half.

Helping farm animals have babies efficiently and at the least cost to livestock producers has been the overall goal of the LSU Agricultural Center’s reproductive physiology research program, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year.

Although a valuable source of protein and other nutrients, chicken leg meat is under used in the U.S. market. It is less desirable to consumers and more difficult to remove from the bone than breast meat.

Rice plants showing herbicide damage where no herbicides had been applied for several weeks were first found in 1991 in southwest Louisiana.

Before 1996, farmers controlled weeds following cotton emergence almost exclusively by directing herbicides underneath the canopy to minimize injury to the cotton plant.

Soon a typical home may include a termite detector aswell as a smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector,thanks to Gregg Henderson and Jian Chen of the Departmentof Entomology and Roger Laine of the Department ofBiochemistry.

A historic 150-year-old cotton warehouse on NewOrleans’ riverfront near the Garden District is the test site of a new patented bait system that holds promise of controlling the dreaded Formosan subterranean termite.

Blueberry production contributes to the local economies of several Louisiana communities, particularly in the northwest and southeast areas of the state. In 1997, blueberry production added $1.5 million to the state’s economy

Establishing a full stand of field grown plants is necessary for high yields of vegetables. Unfortunately, the grower can not always control factors that hurt stand establishment, such as soil crusting, temperature extremes and excessive soil moisture.

Planting soybeans after June 15 is a major production problem in Louisiana. For every day that planting is delayed after June 15, a soybean farmer can expect to lose an average of a half bushel of yield.

Eutrophication. Pfisteria. Hypoxia.These environmental problems have plagued the Chesapeake Bay area in recent years. According to reports, the problems may be related to the excessive amounts of nutrients – especially phosphorus – that enter the watershed from areas of intensive poultry production surrounding the bay.

Because the sorghum midge depends on flowering sorghum to lay its eggs, understanding how the length of the flowering period affects damage can aid in developing more effective programs to manage this key insect pest.

Thrips are early season insect pests of cotton in Louisiana.Injury to cotton seedlings resulting from thrips’ feeding can delay crop maturity and reduce yields.

In the Coastal Plain of northLouisiana, pastures of annual ryegrassand cereal rye, alone or in combination,are made in late summer and fall to reduce dairy and beef cattle wintersupplemental ration requirements and toenhance overall herd performance.

The LSU AgCenter Louisiana Outdoor Science and Technology (LOST)Camp is a 4-H program aimed at encouraging seventh and eighth grade students to consider careers in science and technology.

The Formosan subterranean termite is a formidable adversary. Foraging aggressively and quickly reducing wooden structures to paper-thin sheaths,this species of termite has been aparticular menace in the New Orleans area for more than 30 years.

Survival for many endangered wildlife got a boost recently when representatives from the Louisiana State University system and the Audubon Institute in New Orleans signed an agreement to work more closely together on animal reproduction projects.

The sorghum midge is a key pest of grain sorghum in the United States and can cause serious yield losses in Louisiana.The adult midge is a small, red,gnat-like fly about 1.5 millimeters long.

The cotton industry in Louisiana has seen major structural changes in a short time. Total cotton production was reduced by almost 75 percent between 2005 and 2008. This article explores the future of the cotton industry.

Louisiana Agriculture Magazine Winter 1999 (in PDF form)

More than a dozen LSU AgCenter scientists met with two members of the U.S.House Committee on Agriculture Aug. 12 to describe their research to identify appropriate plants as sources of feedstocks to produce biofuels, as well as the technology to convert the plants into ethanol or biodiesel.

Vol. 49, No. 1

Though Doyle Chambers died Sept. 5, 2005, in Baton Rouge, his contributions to the LSU AgCenter, research and Louisiana agriculture will live forever.

South Louisiana rice fields contaminated with salt from Hurricane Rita’s storm surge have shown some improvements, although not as much as expected, and salinity levels actually have increased in some sugarcane fields.

The salt water pushed ashore into the rice fields of Southwest Louisiana by Hurricane Rita may weaken the surge of the South American rice leaf miner – or it may not.

Rice diseases pose a major threat to rice production. The two major diseases, sheath blight and blast, cause significant yield and quality reductions that cost farmers millions of dollars each year.

Seventeen graduates of the LSU AgCenter’s Agricultural Leadership Development Program participated in an 11-day agricultural study tour of China.

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita did not interfere with the LSU AgCenter’s efforts to control Formosan termites in New Orleans. Known as the French Quarter Program, the federally funded pilot test began in 1998.

In its first year, the Master Cattle Producer program has attracted a wide spectrum of participants, from the seasoned to the greenhorn.

To determine the effectiveness of short-duration, rotational grazing systems for cattle in South Louisiana, a three-year study (Phase 1 of a six-year project), designed to evaluate pasture stocking methods and rates, was initiated in the spring of 1999 at the Iberia Research Station near Jeanerette.

Athough it is uncommon in most homes, toxic mold, also known as black mold, has become a major issue for some home builders and homeowners in the United States. The effects have run the gamut from disposal to litigation.

Gerald Roberts, an LSU AgCenter and Southern University county agent in St. Landry Parish, said being chosen as the 2005 “Mr. Yam” punctuates his 29-year career of service to Louisiana sweet potato growers.

Before Command herbicide was labeled for sweet potato production, Louisiana sweet potato growers faced numerous weeds such as annual grasses, cocklebur, morningglory and prickly sida.

Sugarcane is one of the leading row crops contributing to the Louisiana economy. A new variety, L 97-128, released by the LSU AgCenter in 2004, provides an alternative to the popular LCP 85-384, which is the predominant variety in the state.

Credit card use has grown dramatically among college students. This has generated concern that these students are overextended and unaware of the long-term consequences associated with severe indebtedness.

“I’ve never won anything in my life,” cried Tasha Miller, upon hearing that she’d won a new car worth $25,000.But her day had come. Miller, a 4-H volunteer from New Orleans who lost her home in Hurricane Katrina, won a 2006 Toyota Prius hybrid from NBA star Amare Stoudemire.

The development of Clearfield rice, which is tolerant to imidazolinone herbicides, is the most important advance in rice weed management in recent years.

Crawfish farmer Carl Kincaid of Port Barre said he’s never seen a year like this. His crawfish crop on 30 acres isn’t even a third of last year’s catch. He hopes his crawfish may just be late in developing and that he will see an improvement.

In their quest for finding new therapies for treating cancers, researchers in the LSU AgCenter and the LSU Health Sciences Center have found several natural compounds that can reduce tumor development by inhibiting angiogenesis. One of the latest is an extract from the black raspberry.

A large segment of the beef cattle industry is adopting expected progeny differences (EPDs) as a valuable selection tool in improving calf productivity.

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and their aftermath created a flood of questions for LSU AgCenter agents about mold, particularly in New Orleans, where homes and buildings sat in water and intense heat for several weeks.

The Formosan termite is a devastating pest that consumes wooden structures and woody plants and causes hundreds of millions of dollars of damage each year. The LSU AgCenter is making progress slowing its spread in the New Orleans' French Quarter, despite the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

LSU AgCenter weed scientists began working with Grasp in 2003, but it wasn’t until 2004 that in-depth research could be conducted because of limited product availability.

Zachary Cecil, a 4-H’er from Vernon Parish, rode on the side of a boat one morning during Marsh Maneuvers camp at Avery Island, La.

Stephen A. Harrison, James R. Fuxa and the Experiment Station's Sugarcane Breeding and Variety Development Team won the top research awards presented as the LSU AgCenter's Annual Conference Dec. 11 and 12, 2000.

The LSU AgCenter has released three new peach varieties, which will be available commercially in the fall of 2001. Their names match their characteristics somewhat, says Charlie Johnson, horticulture researcher and developer of the varieties. LaSweet is low-acid and very sweet. LaRouge has a bright red skin. And LaBelle is a late-season peach that will extend Louisiana’s fresh peach season into mid-July.

Nematode parasites make a big difference in the appetite of beef cattle and thus their weight gain. Left to right are four of the paddocks used in nematode research at the LSU AgCenter’s Dean Lee Research Station near Alexandria. The road about a third of the way from the top serves as one border, and the tree line at the bottom is another border.

Management systems that include reduced tillage and cover crops are gaining popularity. These practices typically increase plant residues at the soil surface and organic matter in the surface soil. In turn, microbial activity is increased, and the soil develops a greater capacity to adsorb and retain many types of farm chemicals, including herbicides.

Discovery of new postemergence grass herbicides (graminicides) in the late 1970s and early 1980s gave producers a highly effective means for over-the-top control of most annual grasses and perennial grasses, such as johnsongrass, in cotton and soybean fields. Continued reliance on these herbicides has brought about increased selection pressure for resistant populations.

The large amount of media attention on human obesity in the past several years has made most of us keenly aware of the health hazards associated with carrying too much body fat. In the world of domestic farm animals, however, emphasis has typically been on how poor nutrition, and specifically poor body condition (little body fat), affect productivity and reproductive efficiency.

Louisiana Agriculture Magazine Summer 2008

Insects that eat soybean leaves, such as the soybean looper, velvetbean caterpillar and green cloverworm, usually attack in late August and September. Because determination of economic threshholds for each specific stage of seed filling is difficult, an alternative approach based on light interception was investigated.

View more photos of birds that are summer breeders in Louisiana.

Louisiana Agriculture Magazine Spring 1999.pdf

View more photos of birds that migrate through Louisiana on their way northward.

Photos of more birds used in the study in the article "West Nile Virus and Louisiana Birds."

View more photos of birds that are winter residents of Louisiana.

View more photos of the birds that are year-round residents of Louisiana.

Because the land is so flat, water flow in Bayou Plaquemine Brule and its tributaries, including Cole Gully, is sluggish and reaeration potential is low. Consequently, inputs of oxygen-depleting materials, such as dissolved or suspended organic material or ammonical nitrogen, are expected to aggravate this naturally oxygen-poor condition.

West Nile virus is a mosquito-transmitted virus that cycles in nature primarily between mosquitoes and birds. It was first detected in the United States in 1999 and in Louisiana in 2001. This article looks at the birds that carry the disease.

Few things symbolize Louisiana culture and cuisine like a festive crawfish boil. Wild crawfish are harvested each year from the vast Atchafalaya River Basin, and approximately 184,000 acresof culture ponds in Louisiana are used to produce more than 100 million pounds of live crawfish annually.

A new technology developed by an LSU AgCenter researcher has serendipitously found its way into the oil industry, resulting in a new company and the re-invigoration of an existing company in Louisiana.

Development of rice varieties helps guarantee continued rice production in Louisiana and in the United States. Release of improved varieties by public breeding programs in Louisiana,Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi and California, in conjunction with advancements in rice production technology, has provided a continuous increase in rice production and quality.

Weeds compete with sweet potato plants for nutrients, water and sunlight and impair crop yield and quality, making effective weed management a critical aspect to successful production.

Eric Webster, LSU AgCenter weed scientist, works at the new weed science building on the South Farm of the LSU AgCenter Rice Research Station near Crowley.

Previous research with sugarcane production in Louisianahas shown that semi-banding 10 tons per acre of composted municipal waste under sugarcane rows or placing 40 tons per acre of the compost on top of cane in opened rows at planting can result in increased sugar yields.

Poultry litter manure is a renewable fertilizer resource that contains all the plant nutrients required for plant growth and reproduction.

Sewage sludge was the first non-farm organic material to be applied to farm land in large quantities, and it became the first organic material whose application was covered by federal regulations. States now also have regulations governing the land application of sewage sludge.

Research at the LSU Agricultural Center and other land grant universities has shown that non hazardous industrial wastes can be used to enhance the productivity of crops,especially forage crops

Previous studies with paper mill sludge have shown that this by product of paper manufacturing decreases cotton yields when it is applied either soil incorporated or as vertical mulch.

Certain soils in the southern states may have low pH, low organic matter content and natural shallow hard pans that limit root development.

Beneficial use in agriculture of organic wastes generated by municipalities, industry and agricultural commodities is receiving considerable attention as an alternative method of disposal because of the rising costs and environmental concerns associated with present disposal methods.

This issue of Louisiana Agricultureis devoted to Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station (LAES) research programs that focus on the beneficial recycling or reuse of organic wastes.

It is like turning a sow’s ear into a silk purse. Participants in the LSU Agricultural Center’s semiannual compost facility operator training school learn to transform garbage into something valued by society.

About 10 percent of the annual channel catfish crop is lost to infectious diseases. The most important of these diseases are Edwardsiella ictaluri, Flavobacterium columnare and channel catfish virus.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the LSU Agricultural Center are beginning a 5- to 10-year project involving drainage systems for sugarcane production that could result in environmental and economic benefits.

Camptotheca acuminata, a deciduous tree native to southern China, contains camptothecin (CPT). In 1996, the FDA approved two CPT derivatives for treating ovarian and colorectal cancer.

News articles in the summer 2009 issue of Louisiana Agriculture.

Understanding basic biological characteristics of economically important insect pests is essential for developing integrated pest management (IPM) programs. The tarnished plant bug is one of these pests.

The first U.S.-bred Jasmine-type aromatic rice variety named Jazzman has been developed at the LSU AgCenter’s Rice Research Station and released in 2009.

Louisiana shares attributes with other states and countries that border the Gulf of Mexico, including Mexico. Louisiana’s coastal landscape has been uniquely shaped by the Mississippi River over millennia.

Fungicides are used to manage diseases in many field crops grown in Louisiana.Until recently, this practice has not been evaluated on corn produced in the state.

To many gardeners and horticulturaloperations, organic matter is considered“black gold.” Since ancient times, it hasbeen used both as a mulch on top of thesoil and as an amendment incorporatedinto the soil.

Automobile tires are accumulating in waste dumpsthroughout the United States. Research exploring the useof shredded tires could reduce the number of waste tires.One use is in horticulture

Can poultry litter be used to fertilize cotton? That’s thequestion an LSU Agricultural Center researcher will attempt toanswer with a new project in northwest Louisiana cottoncountry.

An LSU Agricultural Center professor received the 1999 Dean Foods Awardat the American Dairy Science Association’s Annual Meeting in Memphis, Tenn.

Dairy heifers are at risk for mastitis long before parturition. Recent studiesdocument that these animals can become infected with a variety of mastitispathogens. If undetected and untreated, these infections can often persist through calving and into the first lactation.

Soft-shelled crawfish, often referred to as soft crawfish,have been consumed in Louisiana for many years. Commercial production of soft crawfish follows the annual molt cycle.

Most commercial cow-calf herds in Louisiana and in the southeastern United States include fewer than 100 animals and consist of crossbred combinations of Brahman, British, Continental and possibly dairy breeds.

Cotton is a perennial that continuesto grow vegetatively during reproductive development. A consequence of this characteristic can be excessive vegetative growth under conditions of above optimumsoil moisture and fertility,thereby delaying maturity and increasing the incidence of lodging.

Nursery crop production in Louisiana and across the southeastern United States has experienced unprecedented growth in the past decade. In 1998, Louisiana ranked 17th nationwide in wholesale sales of nursery crops with more than $107 million and 20th nationwide in retail sales of lawn and garden products with $1.4 billion.

Row crop producers have always had an idea of how yield varied in different parts of their fields. By looking at the crop before harvest and visually monitoring yield during harvest, they could see general yield patterns and speculate on why they occurred.

New technology using computers and satellites has madeit possible to measure the variability of nutrients within a fieldand vary the rate of applied fertilizer based on need.

In 1998, the equine industry contributed an estimated $41 million in gross farm income and an additional $89 millionin value-added and related activities to Louisiana’s $1.5 billion animal industry.

The furniture industry uses overlaid panels as flat, straight elements in furniture and cabinet construction. The panels are often in 3-ply or 5-ply construction with a thick core and thin overlays. Occasionally, 2-ply overlaid panels, which are particle board or medium density fiberboard overlaid on the visible face only, are used for economical reasons.

Itchgrass, often referred to as Raoulgrass, is a major weed problem in south Louisiana. Yield reductions attributed to itchgrass competition have been as high as 43 percent in sugarcane and 30 percent in corn and soybeans.

The tarnished plant bug is becoming a major cotton pest in the mid-South states of Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana. In 1998, the tarnished plant bug caused a loss of more than 14,000 bales of cotton in Louisiana, even though more than $5.5 million was spent to control it.

Patents are becoming increasingly important to the LSU Agricultural Center and similar institutions across the country, as the cost of research increases and public financial support faces competition from other segments of society.

Finding new uses for sweet potato components, such as starch, would increasethe demand for sweet potatoes and save processors money by finding a use for the waste produced during cutting and canning.

During 2007, significant foliage loss and stem injury on soybean seedlings were observed in research trials and production fields within Franklin Parish. The cause was an insect confirmed as the pea leaf weevil.

While the pharmaceutical industry searches for single-entity drugs that target angiogenesis, many efforts have also been made to search for anti-angiogenic agents from botanical sources based on their medicinal-use records. LSU AgCenter researchers have identified a number of such botanical agents. One that has shown great promise is Chinese sweet leaf tea.

The fall armyworm is a common insect pest of field corn in Louisiana and other states across the South. Conventional chemical control strategies used to manage the fall armyworm in corn generally provide inconsistent results because the larvae feed within the whorls of vegetative-stage plants or on immature grain in corn ears.

The lack of basic leadership skills and economic development knowledge is often identified by focus groups and advisory councils as a problem in rural areas.

From poultry feed to pesticides and from fertilizer to food, the Department of Agricultural Chemistry, which is a joint effort between the LSU AgCenter and the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry, provides analytical support for regulatory activities, research and agricultural extension work.

In the past four years Louisiana farmers have planted and harvested record-breaking amounts of corn, soybeans and sorghum – so much that the state’s storage capacity could not handle it all.

For more than 15 years, Zhijun Liu with the School of Renewable Natural Resources has been investigating plants for medicinal properties. He started by looking at plants that traditionally have been used as folk remedies to treat diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and cancer.

Ken McMillin, professor of animal sciences and food science at the LSU AgCenter and at LSU, has been awarded the 2009 American Meat Science Association Signal Service Award.

Production practices influence grain sorghum yield, and research has found a consistent sorghum yield response to row widths narrower than 40 inches, particularly on alluvial soils – those created by sediment deposited by flowing water.

What do a police officer, an Olympianand a fighter pilot have in common?In this case, they’re all master horsemen.In March 2009, nearly 20 horse enthusiasts,including a National Guard pilot, alocal police officer and a former Olympicequestrian gathered at Farr Horse Park inBaton Rouge for a three-hour session –the last of their eight-class course in horsetraining.

The LSU AgCenter’s Rice Research Station in Crowley, La., is celebrating a century of operation in 2009, making it the oldest facility of its kind in the Western Hemisphere.

LSU AgCenter scientists played a key role in helping to entice ConAgra Foods to locate a new sweet potato processing plant to northeast Louisiana.

Louisiana Agriculture Magazine Summer 2009 (in PDF form)

Systematic research in cotton breeding and genetic improvement began in Louisiana when H.B. Brown joined the staff of the Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station (LAES) in 1926. The objectives of the cotton improvement and breeding program were to increase lint yield, to produce more uniform, longer cotton fiber and to produce larger bolls.

Raising plants in containers creates unique problems for nursery growers. A series of tests were undertaken to help assess the benefits of different growing techniques.

Although some Louisiana homeowners use professional lawn care services, many homeowners maintain their own lawns. While many professional applicators use liquid fertilizers and pesticides, granular products are easier for homeowners to apply. A bewildering array of lawn spreaders is available for this purpose, and many homeowners do not know how to select or effectively use a spreader.

Lawn and garden care practices have the potential to significantly and adversely affect the water quality of urban waterways. The major pollutants found in runoff from urban areas include sediment eroded from bare-soil areas, nutrients from over-fertilization and oxygen-demanding substances such as leaf and grass clippings.

In the past decade there have been major advances in molecular genetics research. A wide variety of DNA-based markers have been developed. These include random amplified polymorphic DNAs (RAPD), amplified fragment polymorphisms (AFLP) and DNA microsatellites. These markers are used to map genes, study population genetics and produce DNA fingerprints.

Historically in Louisiana, producers will double-crop 95 percent of all wheat acreage with soybeans, so proper management of wheat stubble is critical in maximizing soybean yields.

Most producers recognize the importance of managing weeds in corn and grain sorghum and do an excellent job with the tools available. The main weakness in many weed management programs is the lack of early season weed control, which can be critical to maximizing yield.

In 1887, a group of sugarcane growers known as the Louisiana Planters Association set up a research facility in Audubon Park in New Orleans so they could learn more about the granulation process. This was the beginning of the Audubon Sugar Institute. C.W. Stubbs, a professor of agriculture, became the first director of the station. A classroom building in the LSU Quadrangle is named in his honor.

Research into sugar processing has taken place at Audubon Sugar Institute (ASI) for more than 100 years, helping the Louisiana industry improve its efficiency and lower its cost of production. There have been many changes at Audubon Sugar Institute, but in the past few years, both the sugar industry and the research environment have changed significantly

Geospatial tools offer great promise of increasing profitability of cotton production. These tools, however, must be adapted to the specific agronomic and plant protection needs of cotton production and made available in a user-friendly format that can be easily transferred to producers, commercial pesticide applicators and agricultural consultants.

The ability of farmers to burn sugarcane is a significant economic factor for the state’s sugarcane industry. Burning of sugarcane before harvest eliminates from 30 percent to 50 percent of the leafy trash (residue), which constitutes from 20 percent to 25 percent of the total weight of the plant.

The majority of sweet potatoes consumedin the United States are purchased through retail fresh market outlets. They have traditionally been marketed in the form of individual roots stacked in bulk displays and priced per pound.

There was a time in Chris Clark’s life that sweet potatoes made a one-time annual appearance – the Thanksgiving table. Little did he know that this delicious, nutritious menu item would help define his career.

The LSU AgCenter has the most successful record of commercialization of intellectualproperty within the LSU System and, in fact, within higher education in Louisiana. Since 2000, nine new companies have been started based on licensing technology from the AgCenter.

Timberland owners and managers use statistical models to predict growth and yield of their forests. Quang V. Cao in the LSU AgCenter’s School of Renewable Natural Resources has developed a new predictive model that promises to improve on current ones.

Over the past 300 years, tens of thousands of animal and plant species have been introduced in the United States. A small number have proved invasive.

Picture an ideal tree farm with beautifultrees, a stream, some good roads and wildlife.Such a farm exists in the rolling hills of East Feliciana Parish under the watchful ownership of Linda Carruth.

Louisiana Agriculture Magazine Summer 1999

Manag­ing crops on the loess soils of the Mid­south is difficult because they contain little organic matter and erode easily. Generally, these fields are small com­pared to delta alluvial fields; however, they often have considerable variability in soil texture. The variability is often created by land-leveling for irrigation and drainage. Variability presents producers with an opportunity to manage these problems in a site-specific manner.

In the summer of 2000, daylily rust was reported for the first time in the United States. It has since spread across most of the country and continues to present problems for home gardeners, commercial landscapers and daylily growers.

Although he may be known to the culinary world as a leading New Orleans chef, John Besh also is a leading proponent of serving locally grown foods in his four restaurants.

With flu in the news, it’s a good idea to reassure your children you’re going to keep them as safe as possible. This is advice from two LSU AgCenter family life specialists, Diane Sasser and Becky White

David Morrison, LSU AgCenter assistantvice chancellor for research, received the Southern Association of Agricultural Experiment Station Directors Excellence in Leadership Award in mid-April during the association’s meeting in Puerto Rico.

Ornamental sweet potatoes have gained considerable interest among land¬scape industry professionals and home gardeners over the past 10 years. Varieties include plants that are chartreuse-lime green (Margarita), blackish purple (Blackie) and tricolored (Pink Frost).

The LSU AgCenter Pecan Research-ExtensionStation in Shreveport will not be affectedby the alignment of Interstate 69 in southern Caddo Parish after all, according to the Louisiana Department of Transportationand Development (DOTD).

In the 1970s, actor Bill Saluga used the line: “You can call me Ray, or you can call me Jay. . .” When talking about Louisiana sweet potatoes or yams, there seems to be a similar confusion.

Two new long-grain rice varieties could be released by the LSU AgCenter this year if they continue to show solid results, according to Steve Linscombe, LSU AgCenter rice breeder.

Aquaculture is evolving worldwidebecause of a shortfall of fisheryproducts from oceans and inlandwaters. After World War II, it appearedthat the world’s fisheries resources werevirtually unlimited. World landingsduring 1948 to 1952 averaged 21.9million metric tons per year and rosesteadily until 1968, when increasescontinued but at a slower rate.

One problem facing Louisiana’s oyster industry is disease. The major culprits are the protozoans Perkinsusmarinus (Dermo) and Haplosporidium nelsoni (MSX). In the Gulf of Mexico, it is estimated that Dermo infection kills more than half the adultoyster population.

The LSU AgCenter announced the appointment of Mark LeBlanc as head of the Department of AgriculturalChemistry effective April 1, 2009.

For more than seven decades, catfishfarmers have relied on the warming ofspring to trigger spawning in channelcatfish.

Although much genetic research involves developing ways to improve reproduction, it is just as important to develop methods to prevent reproduction.

Profitable aquaculture depends on good water quality.Physiologically, aquatic animals respond more intensely to theirenvironment than do terrestrial animals. The stress of poorwater can lead to disease and poor nutrition and growth ofcultivatedaquaticanimals.

The preferred way to cook crawfishis to boil the whole animal in seasonedwater and then serve it so the consumerextracts the abdominal muscle, or tailmeat, by hand.

In much of aquaculture, animals arein high density production systems. Thiscan result in stress from crowding andsub-optimal water quality conditions andprovide for easy transmission of disease.In response to anticipated disease

The art of feeding fish is thousandsof years old, but the science of fishnutrition began only about 50 years ago.

Geneticists develop maps of DNA molecules to aid in understanding inheritance patterns.One kind of map, called agenetic linkage map, describes inheritanceof observable traits, such as color or shape, and usually involves breeding studiesto compare parents and offspring.

Most catfish is processed into fresh or frozen fillets and whole-dressed fish. Other products include steaks, nuggets and value-added products, which accounted for 21 percent of the total products sold in1998.

Commercially produced sweet potatoes in Louisiana are most often harvested using a two-row mechanical chain harvester,more commonly known as a two-row sweet potato digger.With this method, roots are exposed and then conveyed along a chain, where workers on each side of the equipment sort the roots into various grades

Sustainable and profitable commercial sweet potato productionrequires optimum nitrogen fertilizer. Although sweet potatoes can be grown in marginal production environments, a certain amount of nitrogen is necessary for normal shoot development and photosynthetic activity required for storage-root growth.

Several insects feed on the foliage and roots of sweet potatoes throughout the growing season. The sweet potato root can be injured by several soil insects,including sweetpotato weevils, rootworms, sugarcane beetles, wireworms,whitefringed beetles, white grubs and flea beetles.

Sweet potatoes are regarded as one of the most nutritious vegetable crops. They are known to be an excellent source of vitamin A (orange-flesh types) and dietary fiber and contain significant amounts of vitamin C, vitamin E, vitaminB9 (folate) and various minerals.

Sweet potatoes are susceptible to Rhizopus soft rot, a disease caused by a common fungus that can destroy sweet potatoes after they are removed from storage and washed but before they arrive at the market.

Sweet potatoes, like many commodities, are marketedin a variety of ways, and not all sweet potatoes are identical.

A sweet potato crop is vegetatively propagated, which means it is grown by bedding storage roots and subsequently transplanting vine cuttings into productionfields from the resulting sprouts.

Why do people eat sweet potatoes? Because they are sweet! A new variety, Evangeline, just released by the LSU AgCenter, will satisfy those who want a really sweet sweet potato.

The development of high-yielding and delicious sweet potato varieties beganright here in Louisiana more than 70 years ago. The late Julian C. Miller and others at the Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station discovered how to induce flowering and seed set by trellisingsweet potato vines onto fences.

The LSU AgCenter Sweet Potato Research Station is the only research stationin the United States devoted solely to sweet potato research and development.

Change is going on in the sweet potato industry. The variety Beauregard, released by the AgCenter in 1987 and hailed as one of the best and most popularsweet potatoes, is being replaced in part by two new varieties – Evangeline, released by the LSU AgCenter in 2007, and Covington, a 2005 release from North Carolina.

In 2007, the LSU AgCenter started a verification program for sweet potatoes, similar to the programs for rice, soybean and corn. These verification programs are conducted in collaboration with growers to test AgCenter recommendations.

Although Louisiana already has adiverse aquaculture industry, many morespecies could be grown here or grown ona larger scale. Many prospects present specific problems that could complicate commercial development, but most of these constraints relate to marketing, financing or regulatory considerations, not technical issues.

The two leading diseases affecting the catfish industry are the bacterial pathogens Edwardsiella ictaluri and Flavobacterium columnare(formerly Flexibacter columnaris).

Two serious problems affecting Louisiana aquaculture arethe bacterial pathogens that cause enteric septicemia of catfish(ESC) and photobacteriosis in hybrid striped bass. ESC causes theloss of millions of dollars annually in the catfish industry.

Even though aquaculture, or “farming of the waters,” has been practiced for centuries, it was more “art”than “science” until late into the 20thcentury.

The Aquaculture Research Station is one of 20 branch stations of the LouisianaAgricultural Experiment Station. The facility, which includes more than 200 fish culturetanks, a fish hatchery, an aquaculture greenhouse and a 22,000 square-foot aquacultureresearch laboratory, is three miles south of the LSU campus in Baton Rouge.

When a gene from one species of plant or animal is inserted in to the genome of another species, the resulting plant or animal is then transgenic.

Louisiana Agriculture spring 2009

Many of the problems in the catfishindustry are exacerbated by the uncertainty producers face when planning their operations. The sources of risk are numerous,ranging from weather fluctuationsand bird predation to regulatory policy.

Ornamental ponds and water gardens are becoming increasingly popular. It is estimated thatthere are about 40 new ones per week in the vicinity of Baton Rouge alone. This phenomenon offers entrepreneurial opportunities for those interested in aquaculture. These ponds need to be designed, stocked and maintained. Preferable varieties of fish include goldfish and koi.

Although many advances have beenmade during the rapid growth of thecatfish industry, today’s culture practicesare about the same as those developedover 25 years ago.

Sustainability, a concept much discussed in the aquaculture industry,has become associated with the idea that production systems must be designed and sited with consideration of not only their economic viability, but also their long-term environmental and sociological impact.

The domestic crawfish industry isthe only large-scale, commercially viable crustacean aquaculture industry in North America. With more than 110,000 acresof crawfish ponds, Louisiana’s 1,600 farmers produce 35 million to 50 million pounds annually worth $25 million to$35 million at the producer level.

The most serious problems that face catfish farmers include losses from birdsand diseases, off-flavor and the shortageof labor to harvest fish. These problems have been magnified in recent years asfish farmers have increased stocking andfeeding rates to keep ahead of increasing expenses and competition.

Turfgrasses provide functional, economic, recreational, health and safety, environmental and aesthetic benefits to Louisiana.

LSU AgCenter scientists are launching a series of research projects in 2005 to learn what they can about Asian soybean rust and how this potentially devastating disease will develop in Louisiana.

The LSU AgCenter offers help to nursery owners in their continual battle against pests, especially insect pests.

Efforts in 2003 and 2004 included evaluation of cannas, coleus, angelonias, purslane, lantanas, perennial verbena, annual and perennial salvia, vinca, zinnias, melampodium, petunias, rudbeckia, phlox, daylilies, dianthus, ornamental kale, ornamental cabbage, calendula, violas, pansies, ornamental sweet potatoes, garden mums, African and French marigolds and others.

Interest in daylilies is still strong despite rust problems over the past several years. New daylily selections and All-American daylily winners need to be evaluated in the Gulf South for landscape performance.

Traditional pot-in-pot production in a nursery attempts to combine field and container-growing techniques and offers advantages over both production systems.

Ornamental gingers encompass a diverse and versatile group of plants that are gaining increased popularity in the flowering pot plant, landscape and cut flower markets. They have showy and attractive foliage and flowers, which make them interesting ornamentals.

Genetically engineered plants are an important part of integrated pest management (IPM) programs in cotton production. One such plant, Bollgard cotton, includes a gene from a bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis, that is toxic to caterpillar pests, while being safe for humans, other animals and the environment.

LSU AgCenter scientists have launched a project to explore the use of geographical information system (GIS) and global positioning system (GPS) technologies to manage nematodes that affect cotton production in Louisiana soils.

The search for new markets is a continuing quest. To that end, the Louisiana Soybean and Feed Grains Promotion and Research Board funded a study to determine whether Louisiana soybean farmers could net more money by barging soybeans into Matamoros, Mexico, rather than selling them at harvest to local elevators.

The economic potential of nonindustrial forest land in Louisiana is virtually untapped.

Management of fertilizer nitrogen (N) is one of the most important components in producing maximum yield and profits in corn and cotton. Corn is inherently inefficient in fertilizer N uptake, typically using less than half of that applied. Cotton, on the other hand, has extremely high fertilizer uptake efficiency.

Using computers to translate remote images of crop fields into prescriptions for irrigating, fertilizing and controlling pests is the next technological advance in farming—as soon as researchers can figure out how to do it economically.

Established as the Fruit and Truck Experiment Station in January 1922, the LSU AgCenter’s Hammond Research Station has served the needs of the strawberry and vegetable industries in Southeast Louisiana for more than 80 years.

David Boethel, vice chancellor of the LSU AgCenter, received the Distinguished Service Award at the Tri-State Soybean Forum held in January 2009 in Oak Grove.

As more than 3 billion quart-size, high-density polyethylene motor oil containers head for U.S. landfills each year, LSU AgCenter researchers are looking for ways to keep them out.

Louisiana Agriculture Magazine Fall 1999

More than 14,000 acres of sweet potatoes were planted in Louisiana in 2007 with a farmgate value of $65 million. The sweetpotato weevil continues to be the biggest threat to productivity in the industry.

The growing season in southwest Louisiana is long enough to produce two rice crops. The second rice crop is known by several names including stubble and ratoon.

Roundup Ready soybeans, resistant to the herbicide glyphosate, and Clearfield rice, resisant to the herbicides imazethapyr (Newpath) and imazamox (Beyond), are often grown adjacent to fields of rice varieties susceptible to the herbicides used in these cropping systems. This creates a great potential for damage to rice from the off-target movement of these herbicides.

The Louisiana Legislature created the Dairy Producers’ Refundable Tax Credit Program in 2007.

Louisiana Agriculture winter 2009 web.pdf

Irrigation is an important part of many crop production systems in northeast Louisiana.The amount of irrigation a crop requires is affected by the rate at which that crop uses water.

Mycoplasma mastitis is a unique form of mastitis, which is an inflammation of a cow’s udder. Mycoplasma species differ from the majority of bacteria that cause mastitis by having unique growth requirements and physical characteristics that make them difficult to detect and treat once detected.

Predicted trends in the early 1990s indicated weed control would shift to genetically altered plants with high levels of tolerance to key herbicides. These predictions proved valid, and the vast majority of Louisiana cotton acreage today is devoted to glyphosate-resistant technology.

B. Rogers Leonard, the Jack Hamilton Chair of Cotton Production at the LSU AgCenter’s Macon Ridge Research Station in Winnsboro, has been chosen for the Louisiana Agriculture Hall of Fame.

Creeping rivergrass is an aquatic perennial grass that affects approximately 10,000 acres of rice in Acadian, Vermilion and Jefferson Davis parishes in south Louisiana.

One of the most important practices in drill-seeded, delayed-flood rice production is the timely application of the pre-flood nitrogen fertilizer.

Silicon, a common element in our daily lives, generally exists in nature as silicon dioxide – or silica. Silicon is a major constituent of glass, ceramics and computer chips. It is also something that can affect the growth of rice.

Mastitis – an infection and inflammation of a cow’s udder – is one of the most common and costly diseases in the dairy industry. Therefore, mastitis control should be a continuous process in all dairy herds.

Mastitis is one of the most common and most expensive diseases of dairy cattle in the world. One-third of all dairy cows are estimated to have mastitis.

Growing roses in Louisiana is a challenge for industry professionals and home gardeners. A major problem in production and the landscape enjoyment of roses is disease pressure (primarily blackspot and powdery mildew) brought on by environmental conditions of the region.

For many sugarcane varieties, the rescuer can oftentimes be in need of rescue. Such is the case with LCP 85-384. The release of LCP 85-384 in 1993 was truly a hallmark of sugarcane breeding efforts in Louisiana. By 2003, it was apparent that LCP 85-384 was in need of replacement.

Researchers at the LSU AgCenter’s Audubon Sugar Institute in St. Gabriel, La., are combining their knowledge of sugarcane processing with chemical engineering to develop a synergy between sugar production and ethanol.

Herbicide drift often occurs when it is least expected during a still, calm morning, according to Eric Webster, LSU AgCenter weed specialist.

The green industry (nursery, landscape, greenhouse, sod and allied industries) is growing in Louisiana and nationally. This growth is fueled by changes in consumer incomes and demographics. Consumers continue to allocate a portion of their increased incomes to home improvements, including their lawns and gardens.

Gene Reagan, LSU AgCenter entomologist, has been studying the Mexican rice borer’s spread northward from the Rio Grande Valley for almost 30 years.

Twenty faculty and staff received the top awards for 2008 at the LSU AgCenter Annual Conference Dec. 15-16 in Baton Rouge.

The dynamic of raising soybeans has changed forever with the discovery of Asian soybean rust in the United States in 2004. LSU AgCenter scientists aggressively monitor for any sign of the disease and pursue a rigorous research program to look for solutions to this problem.

When he first went to work at the LSU AgCenter’s Northeast Research Station in St. Joseph, 15-year-old Roger Leonard expected it to be just a summer job during high school. What it turnedout to be, however, was the first step in a career that found him being named in 2006 the Jack Hamilton Chair in Cotton Production in the LSU AgCenter.

Alligators and fashion may bring different images to mind, but the combination offers potential for Louisiana’s economy. A research initiative to explore ways to increase domestic demand for finished products made with American alligator leather began in 1997. The goal is to find more opportunities for Louisiana’s alligator business.

The continuing transformation of U.S. agriculture profoundly affects the economies in rural America. The LSU AgCenter is attempting to bring relief to one of the most impoverished parts of the country through an innovative, economic and rural development educational program.

LSU AgCenter scientists hope they will soon be able to make recommendations for farmers whose fields were hit with saltwater contamination from Hurricane Rita’s storm surge.

The U.S. rural economy is often described as declining, even devastated, and at best as in a state of flux. To be sure, many rural communities in the United States are struggling to exist. Today’s economy is far less local than it ever has been. Because of technology, we can buy and sell almost anything globally in the time it takes to click “send” on our computer screens.

The LSU AgCenter has added strength to its quest to help organize an economic development strategy in the Northeast Louisiana. The added force is James Barnes, new director of the Delta Rural Development Center in Oak Grove.

Research at the LSU AgCenter is focused on how the brain senses macronutrients – protein, carbohydrate and fat – and how this sensing leads to a change in the control of appetite and obesity.

The LSU AgCenter's Smart Bodies program addresses the issue of obesity in Louisiana.

Nearly 2,500 years ago Hippocrates made a profound statement that is receiving much attention today. He said, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”

Diabetes is a serious disease that affects the body’s ability to produce or respond properly to insulin, a hormone that allows blood glucose (sugar) to enter the cells of the body and be used for energy.

The LSU AgCenter’s Smart Portions Healthy Weight Program was developed to help participants learn healthy lifestyle habits to achieve and maintain a healthy weight. Smart Portions, launched in 2007, is the revised version of the Portions Healthy Weight curriculum originally launched in 2001.

Drinking tea to lose weight may not be a farfetched idea if a group of Louisiana researchers can pinpoint and quantify the functional components of Chinese sweet tea and blackberry leaves.

Sugarcane growers are having one of their best years ever when it comes to the level of recoverable sugar per ton of cane, although yields are slightly off the early predictions of 34-35 tons of cane per acre, said Ben Legendre, LSU AgCenter sugarcane specialist.

Following are tips for controlling portion size as you eat.

Some facts about diabetes from the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals.

Heed the following tips to prevent the onset of diabetes.

Definitions are provided for type 1, type 2 and gestational diabetes.

A study on the heating of tomato plants grown in greenhouses by an LSU AgCenter scientist is the cover story of the April-June 2008 issue of HortTechnology, a research publication of the American Society for Horticultural Science that has subscribers in 50 countries.

The LSU AgCenter has named Tara Smith research coordinator at its Sweet Potato Research Station in Chase.

WESTWEGO – “This is all about getting people involved in locally grown food,” LSU AgCenter vice chancellor Paul Coreil said of the newly opened Westwego Farmers and Fisheries Market.

Ten LSU AgCenter faculty members were part of a multi-state team that received the 1st Place National and Southern Region Program Excellence through Research Award at the Galaxy III National Extension Association of Family and Consumer Sciences (NEAFCS) conference held Sept. 15-19 in Indianapolis, Ind.

A compound in the fats in Louisiana oysters could be a key ingredient in treating and preventing cancer, according to Jack Losso, LSU AgCenter food science researcher.

LSU AgCenter researchers are testing how incorporating functional food ingredients into manufactured dairy products could improve their health-giving benefits and how these health-beneficial ingredients affect the physical, chemical and sensory characteristics of dairy products.

One year later and 40 pounds lighter, the chancellor of the LSU AgCenter has changed to a healthier lifestyle.Bill Richardson, who is 6-foot-1 and weighs just under 220, did this by methodically following guidelines prescribed by AgCenter nutrition educators.

To help address the epidemic of obesity in Louisiana, the chancellor of the LSU AgCenter, Bill Richardson, started a blog in October 2007 to document his experiences in making a commitment to a healthy lifestyle. In the daily Monday-through-Friday blog, known as the Chancellor’s Challenge, he used educational information and recommendations that the LSU AgCenter espouses to the residents of Louisiana.

The LSU AgCenter offers nutrition lessons for adults and youth in a program called Smart Choices.

Carol Lammi-Keefe, professor and head of the Human Nutrition and Food Division in the LSU AgCenter’s School of Human Ecology, is the lead editor of a new book published in 2008 – Handbook of Nutrition and Pregnancy.

Food safety is a growing concern in the United States, and the LSU AgCenter has a major commitment to helping the Louisiana food industry control bacteria that cause food poisoning.

Assuring the safety of our food supply is a major program effort of the LSU AgCenter. Extension agents and specialists provide research-based food safety information from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA FSIS), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the LSU AgCenter.

Many diseases and conditions associated with aging and being overweight are associated with chronic inflammation.

After birth, every person’s gastrointestinal tract (gut) becomes filled with microorganisms, mainly bacteria. These are often referred to as our microflora. The majority of these are located in the large intestine.

Our grandmothers were right. A common adage for many of us when we were growing up – especially if we lived in states like Louisiana with coastal waters that provided a living for its workforce – was that fish is brain food.

Sleep is essential for human life and gives the body the opportunity to repair itself. Bodily functions change during sleep: hormones are secreted, blood pressure is lowered, kidney function changes, and memory is consolidated.

Purchasing food at farmers markets can be a way to promote the consumptiion of more fruits and vegetables, which is associated with a reduced risk of stroke and other cardiovascular diseases, with a reduced risk of cancers (oral cavity and pharynx, larynx, lung, esophagus, stomach and colon-rectal) and with a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes.

Rural economic development addresses factors to increase the quality of rural life including the availability of infrastructure. The research and extension activities of the LSU AgCenter have adapted over time to meet the changing structure of our rural economies to promote their growth and well-being.

Louisiana Agriculture magazine fall 2008.pdf

Experiences during the teenage years play a large role in determining whether teenagers go on to become productive and engaged citizens as adults.

The LSU AgCenter's mission is to serve Louisiana. And the employees did. In some cases, they were there to help others after hurricanes Katrina and Rita at great personal sacrifice to themselves. Read about the LSU AgCenter's response.

The LSU AgCenter conducts greenhouse and landscape research on many new bedding plants each year to determine production practices to assist growers and observe performance in the landscape to provide garden centers, landscape professionals and home gardeners information on how these plants will perform under Louisiana’s growing conditions.

Herbaceous perennials are winter hardy ornamental plants that reappear each spring from their crowns or root systems. Many species can be used as groundcovers or landscape plantings to provide color for extended seasons. Some major species in production and landscape use are daylily, lantana, verbena, purple coneflower and black-eyed Susan.

Japanese holly fern is a popular fern in the southeastern United States. This plant is native to Japan. It forms a rounded mound that can be up to 3 feet wide and 1 1/2 feet tall. The foliage is glossy and very dark green.

Access to broadband technology in rural areas remains limited. In the United States, broadband refers to the set of technologies that provide a connection to the Internet, such as phone lines, satellite, fixed and mobile wireless and cable.

When Jere McBride was hired, he was the youngest administrator in the LSU AgCenter at age 36.

The use of the twin-drill (twin-row) configuration on 36- to 40-inch-wide beds is of interest to Midsouth producers, but as yet it is unproven as a yield enhancement practice for most agronomic crops.

LSU AgCenter Master Gardeners and Kids Hope volunteers have helped transform a once dull courtyard at University Terrace Elementary school into a flowering oasis.

A “gorilla” of a barnyardgrass and a “tough critter” nematode are two of the problems being tackled by LSU AgCenter researchers as reported at the June 24, 2008, field day at the Northeast Research Station in St. Joseph.

Farmers must rely on fungicides to protect their crops from certain diseases. One of the most serious of these diseases is Asian soybean rust, which is spread by the fungus Phakopsora pachyrhizi.

Production input expenses for crop producers continue to rise. To reduce these costs, particularly fuel and labor, growers can co-apply multiple pesticides and eliminate trips across fields.

The Chinese tallow tree is a familiar sight growing in yards and along fence rows throughout Louisiana, though some may not recognize this name. In southern Louisiana, it is commonly called “chicken”or “chicken-foot” tree, presumably because its seeds hang in clusters that offersome resemblance to a chicken’s foot.

Once rooted in rural America, 4-H has significantly diversified over its 100 years of existence. Although 4-H has changed as society has changed, much of its success can be traced to its roots and original mission.

Transgenic plants that express insecticidal proteins from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis(Bt) have become standard for managing many caterpillar pests in cotton.

Bill Williams, formerly an associate professor at the LSU AgCenter’s Northeast Research Station in St. Joseph, has assumed a 75 percent appointment as extension weed scientist with a 25 percent research appointment. His office has moved to the Scott Researchand Extension Center in Winnsboro.

Cathleen C. Williams writes about the trip to China by members of Class 10 of the LSU AgCenter’s Leadership Development Program.

Fourteen Bienville Parish 4-H’ers learned about the world of work in professional jobs this summer in a new program that’s a joint venture between the LSU AgCenter and the Bienville Parish Police Jury.

Patrick Colyer is first to be the second regional director in the LSU AgCenter administration.Colyer, a plant pathologist at the Red River Research Station in Bossier City for 25 years, became director of the Northwest Region, one of the AgCenter’s seven regions in March 2008.

New sugarcane varieties are increasing yields, but diseases pose a constant threat, farmers were told by LSU AgCenter researchers at a July 18, 2008, sugarcane field day here.

Sugarcane farmers heard about alternative crops and cane varieties under development during field days July 24 and 25 in Iberia Parish.

“Who likes squash?” asked Emily Neustrom, a project coordinator with the LSU AgCenter. She was holding up a packet of seeds and speaking to students at Baton Rouge’s McKinley High School. They were learning leadership, running a business, gardening and nutrition as part of a service-learning experience.

During the past 20 years, interest has increased in dietary effects of omega-3 fatty acids because they play a major role in human health. Natural fish oils are thought to help maintain heart and vascular health in humans.

Cotton defoliation, a critical step in cotton production, is the process of removing leaves and preparing the crop for mechanical harvest. Leaf removal facilitates harvest and allows for more efficient and faster picker operation, quicker drying of seedcotton, straightening of lodged plants, retardation of boll rot and faster opening of green bolls.

Tarnished plant bugs, which have historically been a mid-season pest of cotton, are now becoming a sporadic pest during seedling development. This is happening as agricultural conditions are changing, making it possible for more tarnished plant bugs to survive. These changes include more plant hosts because of more acres going into conservation reserve programs and an increase in conservation tillage.

To obtain maximum effectiveness of fall/winter herbicide programs, applications should be timed to emergence of winter weeds preferably once temperatures have cooled in late November or December. Producers are cautioned that although effective through winter months, these programs may not eliminate the need for a follow-up treatment before or at planting.

Of all the U.S. sugar-producing areas,Louisiana is the oldest and most historic. Sugarcane arrived in Louisiana in1751 with the Jesuit priests who planted it near where their church now stands on Baronne Street in New Orleans. The Louisiana sugarcane industry is in its third century of uninterrupted sugar production.

LSU AgCenter research has demonstrated that conventional, whole-field soil-sampling schemes and field-averaged yields do not satisfactorily describe the variations of yield and soil attributes present in several sugarcane fields. Research suggests a precision management approach.

Environmentally conscientious sugarcane growers voluntarily use best management practices (BMPs) to control runoff from production areas. Post-harvest residue management in sugarcane is one area in need of research-based information to determine the best management approach.

In recent years purple nutsedge has become more problematic in Louisiana sugarcane fields. Purple nutsedge is considered among the world’s worst weeds because of its perennial nature and ability to produce abundant and viable underground tubers.

In Louisiana sugarcane, row shoulders and middles are intensively cultivated to promote crop growth, eliminate ruts, incorporate fertilizer and control weeds. Sugarcane growers have been slow to adopt reduced tillage practices because of concerns over reduced yields and weed control.

In Louisiana, four to six harvests are made from a single planting of sugarcane. After that, the sugarcane must be replanted because of disease and weed pressure. During the fallow period, weeds must be managed to maximize yields for the next few years.

For more than 50 years, entomology programs at both the LSU AgCenter and U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Sugarcane Research Laboratory at Houma have conducted research addressing the development of new varieties resistant to the larval stages of the sugarcane borer moth. In addition, the two research partners evaluate resistance to aphids and a potential invasive insect pest of Louisiana sugarcane, the Mexican rice borer.

Sugarcane breeding, leading to the release of genetically improved varieties, has played a vital role in sustaining Louisiana’s sugar industry. Past sugarcane breeding efforts have relied solely on traditional breeding approaches.

The United States is the world’s largest producer of ethanol, followed closely by Brazil. We produce about 13 million gallons of ethanol a day. To close the gap between fuel use and available ethanol would require a 50-fold increase in ethanol production. Currently, America’s primary agricultural source of simple sugars used for ethanol production is the starch in corn. But an expansion of this magnitude is well beyond our available corn supplies.

There are likely to be many solutions for achieving energy alternatives, and agriculture is being looked upon for several sources – including sugarcane.

The No. 1 goal of the Audubon Sugar Institute is to keep Louisiana sugar factories profitable.

As Louisiana begins its third century of sugar production, research continues to play a vital role that sustains both growers and processors. Many facets of the industry continue to change.

Rice is one of Louisiana’s leading agricultural commodities, with nearly 532,000 acres planted in 2002, producing an average yield of 5,772 pounds per acre. The 2002 gross farm income reached $122.8 million, and value added in marketing, processing and transportation increased that amount to $159.6 million.

The Biomass Research and Development Initiative in the 2002 farm bill sets a goal of a 12 percent increase in production of chemicals and materials from biomass by 2010.

The Northwest Louisiana Master Gardener Association celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2008. Since it began, 343 gardening enthusiasts have been certified to educate and beautify their communities.

Louisiana landowners are showing interest in carbon trading – an emerging market that pays landowners for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

This year’s AgMagic had a record number of visitors – 13,840– and LSU AgCenter officials are already planning next year’s event.

Weather forecasting is both art and science. But the science – especially long-range forecasting for south Louisiana in the summer – makes prediction difficult. For the past few years, south Louisiana has had blocks of fairly dry weather in the summer, especially when compared to the 1980s and 1990s, according to Jay Grymes,LSU AgCenter climatologist. He expects this pattern of warmer and somewhat drier summers to continue.

Louisiana Agriculture Magazine Spring 2008.pdf

Louisiana sugarcane farmers will have a new sugarcane variety this fall with the release of L 01-283. Developed by the LSU AgCenter in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Sugarcane Research Unit in Houma and the American Sugar Cane League in Thibodaux, L 01-283 is the latest in a series of new varieties for the Louisiana sugarcane industry.

Artificial ripening of sugarcane as a complement to natural maturity is possible because of the development of glyphosate, a plant growth regulator, for use as a chemical ripener that hastens sugarcane maturation and increases sugar yield per ton of cane and per acre.

At one time the Louisiana sugarcane crop was harvested using mechanical whole stalk harvesters, where stalks were piled in the field and burned to remove leaves before transporting to the mill. Beginning in the mid 1990s, growers shifted to chopper harvesters, where stalks are cut into billets, loaded directly into wagons and transported to the mill.

The production of sugarcane in Louisiana is a major contributor to the agricultural economy of the state. In total market value, sugarcane is the leading row crop commodity produced in Louisiana.

As prices for gasoline and diesel fuel climb, Louisiana farmers face increased cost to irrigate their crops. Electricity maybe a more efficient power source, says LSUAgCenter water resources specialist, Ron Sheffield.

The bacteria and viruses that cause diseases of sugarcane in Louisiana are distributed throughout an infected plant.

Sugarcane is affected by two diseases known as rusts because of the color of the lesions caused in the leaves and reproductive spores produced by the pathogens. One disease is called brown rust, and the other is called orange rust, based on differences in lesion and spore color.

LCP 85-384 is a sugarcane variety that will occupy a special place in the history of sugarcane in Louisiana. It ultimately occupied a record-setting 91 percent of the industry acreage in the state during 2004, and its widespread cultivation caused a major shift in harvesting practices that created many new research questions.

Sugarcane Yearly Crop Rotation

In Louisiana and other catfish-producing states, most growers focus on the production of market-ready fish and purchase fingerling catfish to restock their production ponds from a smaller number of farmers who specialize in fingerling production. In Louisiana, fewer than 20 fingerling producers satisfy the annual seed stock requirements for the state’s catfish industry.

The use of plastic mulch is an important cultural practice in the commercial production of fruits and vegetables, but removal and disposal of the mulch cause problems.

Louisiana Agriculture Magazine, Spring 2000

Every once in a while someone comes along who can build a better mousetrap. And at the LSU AgCenter, that person is Richard Cooper, professor in the Department of Veterinary Science who’s come up with a way to get chickens to lay eggs containing human proteins.

A sugarcane-based biorefinery has been discussed for many years at the Audubon Sugar Institute. In the past few years funding has become available and work has started in earnest.

The LSU AgCenter is carrying out a unique program to help ameliorate and prevent obesity in Louisiana's children. The program is called Smart Bodies and is occurring in schools across the state.

Soy flour and more highly purified soy proteins contain a number of constituents that can be used in combating a variety of diseases. Soy isofla-vones may prevent diseases associated with post-menopausal women such as osteoporosis and coronary heart disease.

The Louisiana Master Gardener program started in Baton Rouge in 1994 and was adopted statewide in 1997. The program is offered in 20 parishes, with volunteer participation in 40 parishes.

Bell peppers are grown extensively throughout southeastern Louisiana, with production concentrated in Tangipahoa and surrounding parishes. Gross farm value in 1999 was about $1.6 million.

Brahman-composite breeds were developed from Brahman-crossbred cattle. The Santa Gertrudis, Brangus and Beefmaster breeds were among the first Brahman-composite breeds, all British-based, developed in the United States.

An LSU Agricultural Center scientist played a major role in helping bring to marketa new environmentally friendly insecticide for sugarcane – so friendly that it won anaward from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Males of an animal species have an advantage over females in the propagation of their genes.

The LSU Agricultural Center has started an aggressive plan to improve the state’s water quality with a new approach to best management practices.

James L. Griffin, Terrence Tiersch and the LouisianaAgricultural Experiment Station’s Cotton Variety and Strain Evaluation Team won the top research awards presented at the LSU Agricultural Center’s Annual Conference in December 1999.

As field corn acreage has increased in the mid-South, consultants and farmers have often noted high tarnished plant bug populations in cotton fields adjacent to corn.

Common carpetgrass was introduced into the United States through New Orleans during the 1800s. The Creole citizens referred to it as "Louisianagrass" or "petit gazon," meaning small lawngrass.

Many soil types are present in the Mississippi River Delta of Louisiana. Optimal nitrogen application rates and timing are needed for each specific soil type.

Because of the Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station, the state’s agriculture industry has become world-class and competitive globally. this is the opinion of three former experiment station directors as they reflected on the past.

Beef cattle in Louisiana are constantly infected with gastrointestinal nematodes, commonly referred to as roundworms.

Cotton is the most important textile fiber crop and the world’s second-most important oil-seed crop after soybeans. Cotton is grown commercially in the temperate and tropical regions of more than 50 countries. In the U.S., cotton is a major agricultural crop and was grown on more than 12.2 million acres in 2002. In Louisiana in 2002, cotton was produced on about 490,000 acres, which was well below the 50-year average of about 680,000 acres.

Louisiana Agriculture Magazine Fall 2000

Louisiana Agricullture Magazine 2000 summer

Louisiana Agriculture Magazine Winter 2000

The projected Louisiana gross farm value of forest products decreased significantly Oct. 1 , 2006, through Sept. 30,2007, according to the LSU AgCenter’s 2007 AgSummary.

Between 30,000 and 40,000 acres of sugarcane production in St. Mary, Iberia and Vermilion parishes were substantially affected by storm surge from Hurricane Rita that came on shore in southwestern Louisiana on September 24, 2005.

Louisiana sweet potato producers harvested an average to slightly above average crop in 2007, although acreage was slightly down from that of 2006 with 14,254 harvested acres for 2007.

Stink bugs were first recorded as pests of cotton during the early 1900s. The most common species of stink bug found in cotton fields across the southern United States are the southern green stink bug, green stink bug and brown stink bug.

Farmers have traditionally used harvest aids to desiccate weeds and improve crop quality and harvest efficiency. In recent years, harvest aids have become especially important in producing early maturing soybeans in Louisiana. Excessive foreign material and moisture associated with green plants at harvest can reduce the price producers receive.

The success of early season production coupled with the increasing late-season occurrence of Cercospora leaf blight, Asian rust and stink bugs has led Louisiana soybean producers to consider even earlier maturing varieties to maintain profitable soybean production.

Glyphosate (sold under numerousformulations including Roundup,Touchdown and others) is a nonselective, postemergence herbicide used to control weeds in reduced tillage systems and in glyphosate-resistant soybeans, cotton and corn marketed in the southern United States.

Nitrogen fertilization is a critical component of cultural practices required for producing maximum corn yield.Many factors including climatic conditions,soil type and tillage systems determine optimum nitrogen rates. Nitrogen is typically knifed-in soon after the crop has emerged and an adequate stand is established.

New business formation has always been important for economic growth. Self-employed individuals who have no paid employees operate 75 percent of U.S. businesses. Spurring entrepreneurship activity is an economic development strategy for rural Louisiana.

The coastal plants study team won the LSU AgCenter’s top research team award for 2007. Called the Tipton Team Award, it is named for Kenneth W. Tipton, the former vice chancellor for research.

According to the U.S. Forest Service, timberland nationwide totals 504 million acres. Forests cover 14 million acres, about 50 percent of Louisiana's land area, making it the state's greatest single land use.

According to the theory of clusters in the business world, companies tend to spatially concentrate in places where they experience unusual competitive success. Spatial analysis can be applied to forest products' manufacturing sectors to identify clusters.

Detection laboratory helps meet food safety needs

Consumers continue to demand more convenience with food products, including meat. Safety is a primary concern with precooked, ready-to-eat meat products.

Ciguatera fish poisoning is a typeof food poisoning caused by ingestion of certain tropical and subtropical marine fish that harbor natural toxins originating from microscopic algae (dinoflagellates).

In December 1996, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a requirement that all seafood must be processed using Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) principles. The intent of the requirement is to increase food safety and consumer confidence.

Throughout the various phases ofthe food production and processingsystem, opportunities for contaminationexist. Reliable laboratory and fieldmethods are necessary to rapidly detectand trace the source of contamination.

Cheese is one of the most ancient forms of manufactured food. It is the product of enzymatic action and lactic fermentation of milk using various bacterial cultures.

A partnership between scientists at the LSU Agricultural Center and entrepreneurs in Louisiana’s oyster industry has resulted in a revival of the Gulf Coast raw oyster.

1) Pathogenic microorganism hazards with reduced oxygen packaging of ground beef.2) Influence of display gas mixture on shelf life of ground beefin modified atmosphere packaging

Beef consumers are provided with various kinds of information on the fresh beef sold in grocery stores.

Scientists at the LSU AgCenter have developed a new medium-grain rice variety, named Earl, that offers improved yield and disease resistance.

Ozone is a substance best known intwo divergent ways. It is both beneficial—as in the ozone layer protecting the Earth from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays—or detrimental when ground-level concentrations become excessive, particularly on hot, humid days.

Although Americans enjoy the safest food supply in the world, several recent outbreaks of foodborne illness have heightened concern about food safety.

Food consumption plays two roles in human development: nutrition and disease prevention. Foods provide not only protein, fats, vitamins, minerals andother constituents essential for growth, but also components necessary for prevention of certain diseases.

Recent illnesses and deaths traced to foods contaminated with Escherichia coli (E. coli) O157:H7 have caused processors, regulatory officials and scientists to examine different techniques to control and destroy pathogenic microorganisms.

Aflatoxin is a natural toxin produced by the fungus Aspergillus flavus. Aflatoxin in corn appears when high temperatures and drought stress occur, which favors infection of the ear by the fungus.

LSU AgCenter Extension conducts “Safe Food Handlers” workshops to help people learn to keep food safe.

In late summer of 2005, hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the Gulf states within a four-week period. Although Katrina wrecked the Gulf Coast from Louisiana to Florida, Louisiana was the only state that fell victim to both hurricanes. While Rita was a less severe hurricane than Katrina, it caused further distress to those evacuees from Katrina who had taken refuge in the areas in Rita's path.

Intermittent rains didn’t stop commercial tomato growers from viewing outdoor exhibits and touring the greenhouse tomato operation during a tomato field day at the LSU AgCenter’s Red River Research Station in Bossier City on Feb. 29, 2009.

Consumption of beef in the United States last year was about 67 pounds per capita. Many surveys have shown that tenderness of beef is important for consumer satisfaction. Genetic differences among cattle breeds influence variation in tenderness, as do individuals within those breeds. The Brahman breed has contributed significantly to increased performance in crossbred beef cattle in the South.

For the past 40 years, Don Franke, a professor and researcher in the School of Animal Sciences, has been studying ways to improve beef cattle in the South, particularly the Brahman breed.

Hurricanes frequently cause extensive damage to forests. Such disturbances not only affect the forest industry and wildlife habitats directly, but cause long-term influences on forest succession, site productivity and site drainage.

Soil carbon storage and dynamics represent an important component inthe global carbon cycle. LSU AgCenter scientists are conducting a study to quantify soil carbon storage and investigate its spatial distribution and relationships with land use types across the state of Louisiana.

LSU AgCenter researchers analyzed data from the 2006 Louisiana Health and Population Survey pertaining to age demographics,health insurance coverage and health care access in 18 hurricane-affected parishes in Louisiana.

To help understand the dynamics of the displacement of Louisiana’s population following hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, LSU AgCenter researchers analyzed data from a survey commissioned by the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals and the Louisiana Recovery Authority.

As competition between food and bioenergy drives up prices of corn, soybeans and other farm commodities, Louisiana has untapped land that could be put into production for alternative crops, according to agricultural industry observers.

Photos from the First Millennium

The LSU AgCenter Pecan Research and Extension Station in Shreveport hosted a seminar on pecan growing on Feb. 28, 2008, which was attended by 35 growers.

Richard Fontenot can’t sit still. With more than 2,500 acres to farm, he can’t afford to. But his efforts and contributions to Louisiana agriculture led to his being named the 2008 Louisiana Farmer of the Year.

James L. Griffin, an LSU AgCenter weed scientist, discovered this golf ball in a sugarcane field

A survey of AgCenter employees was conducted to determine basic knowledge about biotechnology and genetic modification, and the acceptance of GM and GE methodology.

Louisiana Agriculture Magazine Winter 2008.pdf

Six individuals and three teams won top honors during the LSU AgCenter’s Annual Conference Dec. 18-19, 2006.

Individual livestock producers have been using animal identification for decades. But not until recently has the need for a more comprehensive, coordinated national animal identification and tracking system been recognized.

Louisiana rice producers have approved five-year renewals of checkoff fees on their crops to fund research and promotion.

More than 135 private landowners, loggers and forest industry leaders participated in the LSU AgCenter’s Central Louisiana Forestry Forum on Jan. 30, 2007,to learn about the challenges still facing the industry more than a year after hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Corn is the cheapest feedstock for ethanol production in the United States. Sugarcane has potential. The article provides information on ethanol production costs and discusses what needs to be done for sugarcane to become a viable option.

An independent lab has determined that rice seed for sale this year by the LSU AgCenter’s Rice Research Station is free of Liberty Link, according to Steve Linscombe, the station director.

A bill pending in Congress will permit the domestic sale of baby turtles in the United States, which would be a big economic boost for Louisiana.

With the 2007 farm bill on the horizon, speakers at the 2007 AgOutlook conference in Baton Rouge on Jan. 23, 2007, talked about issues the new bill may involve as it makes its way through Congress this year.

For more than two decades there was uncertainty about the cause of a common disease among pecan trees referred to as leaf scorch. LSU AgCenter researchers were able to distinguish the cause of the disease, which has improved pecan production.

Alligator processors in Louisiana annually generate about 175,000 pounds of wild alligator bones and connective tissues and more than 1 million pounds of farm-raised alligator bones and associated materials. Although these materials are discarded, they could be the source of a valuable product – collagen.

In the 70-some years since rural Louisianians first gathered turtle eggs, generally along railroad rights-of-way through swamps, and sold the hatchlings as pets, the turtle industry in Louisiana has experienced a roller coaster ride that may be at its lowest point. But legislation has been introduced that may boost the turtle industry in Louisiana from a $5 million business to a $300 million business.

Annual vinca, also referred to as periwinkle by many home gardeners and industry professionals, is one of the best-selling bedding plants in the Southeastern United States. LSU AgCenter researchers are working to prevent on the diseases that plagues this plant, leaf spot.

Any way to add value to rice can be of great benefit to Louisiana’s rice industry. One of the targets for research by the LSU AgCenter is broken rice kernels. From this otherwise value-less product, a valuable food additive can be made – resistant starch.

The 21st century has provided producers with a number of technological advances that affect all aspects of cotton production. Both Liberty Link and Roundup Ready Flex offer the potential to be used as highly effective alternate weed control systems in a weed-resistance management program.

The traditional farming practice for cotton in the South for 200 years was to produce one summer crop per year following winter fallow. Now, year-round systems with summer crops of cotton, corn, soybeans or grain sorghum and winter crops of wheat, rye or vetch are considered best management practices (BMPs) and protect surface water quality from soil and nutrient losses.

In recent years, reports of high yield potential and the advantages of an early harvest have created interest in early planting of soybeans in Louisiana. Little research information is available on the responses of Maturity Group (MG) V soybeans to early planting dates.

Jim Griffin, Lee Mason LSU Alumni Association Professor inthe School of Plant, Environmental and Soil Sciences, received the Weed Science Society of America Outstanding Research Award at the Society’s annual meeting held in San Antonio, Texas, in February 2007.

Louisiana Agriculture Magazine Winter 2007

Mosquitoes in Louisiana may interfere with enjoyment of the outdoors almost any time of year. Yet, if you understand how mosquitoes live and multiply, you have a better chance of controlling their larval development sites and reducing their numbers.

The first step in successfully dealing with insect-related problems, whether in urban or agricultural settings, is identifying the organisms.

On Aug. 29, 2005, when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, floodwaters from storm surge and breached levees inundated New Orleans and surrounding areas with salt water. The red imported fire ant, a flood-adapted species originally from the Paraguay River flood plain in South America, was suppressed and in some cases eradicated. Many native ant species also were eradicated or their populations suppressed.

The Argentine ant is an exotic species brought to New Orleans from South America in the late 1800s. Historically, populations have been high in many areas of Louisiana, and for unknown reasons the populations have been expanding in the past 10 years.

In western Louisiana from Lake Charles all the way north of Lucky in Bienville Parish, a common site near roads and open areas are “towns” of small crater-shaped soil piles with large red ants busily moving particles of soil.

Collecting and studying Formosan subterranean termites from their native China may help entomologists find new ways of combating these invasive pests in the United States.

The Formosan subterranean termite has global economic impact as an urban pest. The nesting and feeding habits of this invasive pest leave many factors of its biology literally hidden in the dark.

In many ways plants and insects are intimately related. Possibly the most widely appreciated is the 150 million-year-old mutual dependence of flowering plants and honey bees. Without honey bees, many of our crops would not be pollinated.

The invasive Formosan subterranean termite is destructive to Louisiana trees. The insect eats the centers of living trees and builds carton nests inside them.

Although his title is entomologist his mission is a harmonious environment. Dale Pollet may well be one of the most popular people in Louisiana. That’s because he knows every bug in the state and what to do about them. And Louisiana has a lot of bugs.

Treating rice seed with gibberellic acid has improved rice production in the northeastern rice-growing area. On semi-dwarf varieties gibberellic acid improves seedling vigor by hastening emergence and increasing seedling population.

Red rice, a noxious weed in rice, costs rice producers millions of dollars each year. Red rice is physiologically similar to rice. Consequently, rice andred rice are susceptible to the same herbicides, so controlling red rice with herbicides in rice fields is difficult.

Rural America is turning to nature to revitalize its communities.Ironically, farming communities with enhanced natural amenities may boost business opportunities.

The two-year “Be Child Care Aware!” educational campaign, launched in the fall of 2003, reached at least 205,000 people with information on quality child care.

A rice specialist with the LSU AgCenter, Johnny Saichuk, has won the prestigious 2003 Rice Industry Award, sponsored by Rice Farming Magazine, Syngenta and the USA Rice Federation.

Louisiana Agriculture Magazine Fall 2007.pdf

Following are some facts about insects in the urban environment.

Entomology is one of the LSU AgCenter’s most significant areas of research and outreach. Insect pests can cause devastation to crops and livestock. And insects can wreak havoc at home, too, in the house and in the garden.

A federally funded Formosan subterranean termite pilot test in New Orleans’ French Quarter, known as the French Quarter Program, began in 1998. Featuring various treatments to combat the termites, the program is a partnership among the LSU AgCenter, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service, the New Orleans Mosquito and Termite Control Board, the Audubon Nature Institute and area pest control applicators.

Since 2000, nearly 450 pest control operators and technicians have completed two days of either basic or master training programs on treating for termites and other wood-destroying insects at the Lois Caffey Termite Training Center at the LSU AgCenter in Baton Rouge.

It’s a fact. Most tots and toddlers spend the majority of their waking moments in child-care programs.

Our society has a strong interest in the green industry, defined as the production, sale and maintenance of ornamental plants and their allied goods and services. During the 1990s, consumers’ incomes increased significantly for most demographic groups. They used some of this income to improve their homes, including lawns and gardens.

The LSU AgCenter’s Community Leadership and Economic Development Program received the 2005 training achievements award from the International Economic Development Council during the council’s annual meeting in Chicago in September.

The integrated pest management (IPM) approach to insect control involves multiple tactics. Host plant resistance is one. Pest-resistant plants can reduce pest population growth, the number of pesticide applications and the environmental impact of pesticides. Though some research has been conducted on breeding insect resistance into soybean plants, most soybean breeding programs focus on increasing yield.

The LSU AgCenter has licensed technology to a start-up biotechnology company to produce a precursor for the drug insulin in chicken eggs. This technology was developed by Richard Cooper, a professor in the Department of Veterinary Science.

Weed and insect pests perpetually cause problems for Louisiana farmers. In addition to their individual effects, insects, weeds and their management practices can interact. Uncontrolled weeds can serve as alternate hosts for insect pests.

Stalk borers are becoming more of a problem in corn, grain sorghum and rice fields in Louisiana. The most common insect borer species found in these crops include the southwestern corn borer, the sugarcane borer and the European corn borer.

In Louisiana, southern green stink bugs and brown stink bugs have become common pests of corn, cotton, grain sorghum, soybean and wheat. In corn, an infestation can cause injury to the plant from seedling emergence through ear formation and grain development. Seedlings punctured by stink bugs exhibit small holes surrounded by localized dead tissue.

Farmers using BASF’s NewPath herbicide and Clearfield 161 rice have seen remarkable results controlling yield-choking red rice weeds this year.

The effect of early experiences on a child’s later success is well-documented by social scientists. Because young children are increasingly spending more of their early years in a variety of settings, it is critical that they receive high-quality care and education during these formative years.

The productivity and composition of wetland forests depend strongly on hydrological conditions. Minor changes in the frequency, duration and seasonality of flooding can favor establishment and growth of entirely separate groups of species.

Regional increases in flooding are likely to reduce the productivity of baldcypress-water tupelo swamps in coastal Louisiana. Although these trees are merchantable for lumber production, it will be important to design appropriate management plans for these sites.

Longtime faculty member Allen Rutherford has been named the new director of the School of Renewable Natural Resources. He took over July 1 , 2007, from William Kelso, who had served as interim director after the retirement of Bob Blackmon in 2005.

Rural Louisiana continues to face significant challenges to improve local economies. For example, one out of every four people in rural Louisiana lives in poverty, and roughly three quarters of all rural parishes have been defined as persistent poverty areas.

Northern Louisiana Rural Development Roundtable Results

It’s not unusual for homeowners to have problems with honey bees, said LSU AgCenter entomologist Dale Pollet. Hives often split, and new swarms go looking for new homes. Sometimes those homes can be in people's walls.

Bee colonies in more than 20 states are collapsing. And honey bees are disappearing because of a mysterious ailment. So far, Louisiana colonies don’t seem to be affected by what is being called “colony collapse disease,” according to LSU AgCenter entomologist Dale Pollet.

Sales of greenhouse tomatoes from the LSU AgCenter’s Red River Research Station’s spring crop topped 65,000 pounds in 2007 – making this the best year ever.

When hurricanes Katrina and Rita came ashore in Louisiana in 2005, they were accompanied by storm surges that inundated vast areas in the southern parishes with salt water.

One new sugarcane variety released earlier this year and two sugarcane varieties released in 2006 were featured along with three new releases of energy cane at the annual field day July 18 at the LSU AgCenter’s Sugar Research Station.

America boasts one of the safest and most plentiful food supplies in the world. Unfortunately, food by nature or by accident is vulnerable to contamination by harmful microbes at any point from the farm to the table.

Beef cattle feed goes through a microbial fermentation process in the rumen before being digested by the animal.Since the majority of the cow’s diet is forage, efficient fermentation of this fiber is critical. Diet supplements provide additional nutrients to improve utilization of the fiber.

Pesticides are used in agriculture to control many different insects, weeds and pathogens that cannot be controlled by other practices, such as planting resistant cultivars, cultural management and biological control.

In 2006, the fungus Cercospora janseana, which causes narrow brown leaf spot, did significant damage to the rice crop in south Louisiana. This disease involves linear, reddish-brown spots that usually appear near heading. These spots are slow to develop, taking up to 30 days from infection. Both young and old leaves are susceptible. Seedheads can become infected, causing premature ripening and unfilled grain.

Jupiter is a high-yielding, early-maturing, short-stature, medium-grain ricevariety developed at the LSU AgCenter’s Rice Research Station at Crowley and released for commercial production in 2004. Results from field evaluations conducted in Louisiana from 2002-2006 indicate that Jupiter has good field resistance to bacterial panicle blight, rottenneck blast and sheath blight. Jupiter also appears to be resistant to the physiological disorder straighthead.

At the LSU AgCenter’s Rice Research Station’s annual field day, June 28, 2007, rice breeder Xueyan Sha discussed and displayed ademonstration plot of LA2028, a promising semi-dwarf medium grain experimental line that may be released as foundation seed in 2008.

Louisiana cotton farmers are facing increasing threats from high populations of nematodes – microscopic, parasitic worms that feed on plant roots. Of the two types most common, reniform nematodes are relatively new to the Louisiana delta cotton fields.

The first reported damage by the sugarcane beetle, Euetheola humilis, to crops in the United States was in Louisiana sugarcane plantations during 1880. Since that time, this beetle has been documented as an occasional pest of field corn, rice and more recently sweet potato.

The rice stink bug is the most important late-season insect pest of rice in Louisiana. This insect feeds on rice grains as they develop. Feeding by this insect reduces both grain yield and quality. The rice stink bug is probably present in nearly all rice fields in Louisiana.

Yellow nutsedge is one of the most troublesome and widespread perennial weeds in landscapes and gardens across the coastal plains. This fast-growing weed can be found in nearly all soil types but thrives in irrigated landscape plantings.

While Louisiana faces a short-term healthcare crisis brought about by hurricanes Katrina and Rita, an often-understated, long-term healthcare crisis exists in rural Louisiana.

Cathy Williams was recently designated the Gerald A. Simmons Professor of Dairy Science in the School of Animal Sciences.

More than half of 1 35 Louisiana crawfish ponds tested for White Spot Syndrome Virus so far have shown positive, according to an LSU AgCenter aquaculture expert.

The LSU AgCenter’s dairy farm in Baton Rouge recently reached a milestone in Louisiana agriculture when it recorded the highest rolling herd average milk production ever in the state.

The Louisiana Board of Regents recently approved $28 million for university research to spur hurricane recovery and economic development, including a $915,000 grant to the LSU AgCenter for wetland restoration.

Don’t bother telling Bethany Edler of Iberia Parish that mules are ornery, stubborn and kick hard. She’s heard it all before – and she can prove you wrong.

Louisiana Agriculture Magazine, Summer 2007

The year was 1957. The New York Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers in the World Series. Actress Grace Kelly married Monaco’s Prince Rainier. And a wildly popular singer named Elvis Presley was causing a sensation with his gyrating hips. Not quite as exciting but certainly significant for Louisiana agriculture that same year was the establishment of a quarterly magazine from the LSU Agricultural Experiment Station.

After an exhilarating airboat ride through the marsh, Keith Espadron of Port Sulphur ambled up to the beach, shell fragments crunching under his feet, and gazed at the muddy shoreline that once was grass-covered marsh. The outing was one of several for 4-H’ers participating in the LSU AgCenter’s Marsh Maneuvers camp at the state’s Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge.

Most people don’t give honey bees much thought, but the honey they produce is an economically important agricultural crop, generating $2.5-$5 million annual sales in Louisiana and $150-$250 million annual sales in the United States.

During this time of financial emergency for the LSU AgCenter, it has been difficult to add new staff. But, fortunately, two key positionswere filled that have major implications for Louisiana’s economic development.

Thirteen of Louisiana’s finest farmers have completed the rigorous requirements to become a Master Farmer – a title that means they have not only learned the latest in scientifically based conservation techniques but they are voluntarily implementing them on their farms.

PDF of Louisiana Agriculture Magazine Summer 2006

Gene Burris (standing in striped shirt), a professor at the LSU AgCenter’s Northeast Research Station at St. Joseph, La., explains to farmers gathered for a field day about the research he is conducting to determine how to use technology to better control nematodes.

In a recent report to the LSU System, an auditor of LSU’s technology transfer activities referred to the LSU AgCenter’s Office of Intellectual Property as the “crown jewel” of the system because of its productivity.

Louisiana’s coastal wetland forests are of tremendous economic, ecological, cultural and recreational value. But many acres of these forests have disappeared over the past century, and many more are being degraded or lost each year.

Water quality monitoring efforts in Louisiana’s streams focus on the concentrations of sediment, nutrients and other compounds in the water. However, activities within the watersheds of these streams actually play the most critical role in determining stream water quality.

Rural development makes America a better place in which to live and work. Rural development emphasizes the well-being of people rather than economic growth itself. Development increases real per capita incomes and employment and improves housing, fire and police protection, schools, libraries and other government services. These amenities in rural communities are directly influenced by farmers. Also, the well-being of farmers is affected by communities.

Southern yellow pine (SYP) has for many years provided the homebuilding industry with abundant, cost-competitive wood products. Recent research indicates that softwood lumber, including SYP, continues to lose market share in the U.S. residential construction industry to substitute products such as concrete, steel and plastic and that builders remain concerned about softwood lumber quality and price.

News Briefs: Several LSU AgCenter faculty members receive honors; a new poultry composting process holds promise for Louisiana poultry producers; the Macon Ridge Research Station gets a new lab building.

Louisiana farmers and foresters could find a silver lining in the cloud of rising fuel prices with the development of new fuels from crops they already grow or could grow.

Barry Moser, 50, head of the Departmentof Experimental Statistics, died unexpectedly April 19, 2006, of a heart attack.

Northern bobwhite populations have declined over the past 30 years throughout their range. This decline is due to habitat loss caused by a combination of factors including changes in landscape use from small farms with brushy fence lines and hedgerows to silvicultural practices creating large monocultural stands and, more recently, reduction of fire as a silvicultural tool.

Linda Foster Benedict, associate director of LSU AgCenter Communications,and Rick Bogren, associate professor, received a gold award for their editing of Louisiana Agriculture.

In late 2004, the Governor of Louisiana commissioned a 12-member Science Working Group on Coastal Wetland Forest Conservation and Use. The group completed its work in a year and submitted a report with recommendations.

Several physical, chemical and biological factors can influence corn seedling development and reduce maximum yield potential. Early-season seedling defoliation can make replant decisions difficult. Producers typically underestimate the resilience of corn plants after they undergo early-season injury.

The LSU AgCenter provides forest landowners with educational opportunities to help them manage their timber resources for profit and sustainability. Louisiana has more than 140,000 nonindustrial, private landowners owning 67 percent of the forestland in the state.

Bottomland hardwood forests are distributed along rivers and streams throughout the central and southern United States. These wetland forests contain numerous oxbow lakes, sloughs and other wetlands embedded in a mixture of oaks, sweetgum, hickories, ash, cottonwood, sycamore and other species.

You will see several names given to trees and forest stands that grow in the coastal wetlands of Louisiana. Forest stands are often named for their most common tree species. Sometimes areas of wetland forest in Louisiana are referred to as cypress-tupelo stands.

For many years, sustainable forest management was judged by two simple factors: replacement of harvested trees and consistent yields. Because forestry in the United States originated in response to exploitive logging and land clearing, these were sufficient and effective indicators of sustainability.

Louisiana Agriculture Magazine Spring 2006.pdf

Some of the plants that helped buffer the southeastern Louisiana coast during hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 were planted by youth groups participating in the LSU Coastal Roots program.

View and download the complete Spring 2007 edition of Louisiana Agriculture Magazine.