(Distributed 08/24/07) Persistent rainfall during the growing season and dry weather at harvest time have been good for Louisiana corn farmers, according to the experts. That success comes with a downside, however, since farmers across the state are having trouble unloading their trucks at grain elevators because of backlogs that can’t be shipped out fast enough.

(Distributed 08/16/07) Visitors to the Parkway Partners monthly plant sale Saturday (Aug. 11) purchased scores of vetiver grass plants to add to their landscapes. Planting vetiver grass as a termite barrier is part of a grassroots effort by Dr. Gregg Henderson to encourage people to use the plant as one of the tools to control Formosan subterranean termites.

(Distributed 08/14/07) Work with your neighbors and diversify your tradition-based agricultural economy were some of the words of advice given at the recent Miss-Lou Regional Tourism Summit in Vidalia, La. The conference, Aug. 7-9, was held to help community leaders in eastern Louisiana and southwestern Mississippi develop “agritourism” opportunities, said Dr. Kay Lynn Tettleton, LSU AgCenter community development agent and one of the conference planners.

(Distributed 08/17/07) Dani Anderson of Oak Grove was only 11 when she won first place in barrel racing at the Southern Regional 4-H Horse Championships in Memphis July 31-Aug. 5. Dani, who turned 12 on Aug. 10, competed in the 19-and-under category with 101 mostly older 4-H’ers from 13 states.

(Distributed 08/20/07) The LSU AgCenter has renewed and expanded its partnership with the State Fair of Louisiana and will coordinate the competitive educational exhibits portion of the Agricultural Building for the 2007 show. The fair, held in Shreveport, will run from Oct. 25 to Nov. 11. LSU AgCenter agents in Bossier Parish, Jeannie Crnkovic and Terry Foster, have assumed leadership for this endeavor.

(Distributed 08/28/07) Longtime faculty member Dr. D. 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.

(Distributed 08/29/07) Dr. Mike Salassi, an agricultural economist, and Dr. Ben Legendre, a sugarcane specialist and interim head of the Audubon Sugar Institute, were among a team that won a national U.S. Department of Agriculture service award for their efforts in helping the sugarcane industry recover from the disaster caused by hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.

(Distributed 08/14/07) Louisiana had three first-place winners in the Southern Regional 4-H Horse Championships in Memphis, held July 31-Aug. 5. They were Dani Anderson, West Carroll Parish, first in barrel racing; Aaron Burns of Rapides Parish, first in tie-down roping; and Angelique Sellars, Lafayette Parish, first in pole bending.

(Distributed 08/08/07) Forty-two employees at the Wal-Mart in Minden, La., are learning to eat healthier – on work time – by participating in a series of “Smart Portions” classes taught by Joan Almond, an LSU AgCenter extension agent who specializes in nutrition and health issues and teaches healthy eating as one of her responsibilities in Claiborne and Webster parishes.

(Distributed 08/30/07) The LSU AgCenter recently partnered with the St. Mary Parish School System to provide a Junior Master Gardener program for third, fourth and fifth graders.

(Distributed 08/30/07) A retired Louisiana 4-H specialist is among 20 people who will be inducted into the National 4-H Hall of Fame this fall. Joan McCrory of Baton Rouge, who retired from the LSU AgCenter as a professor in 4-H Youth Development in 2005, has been selected as a member of the 4-H Hall of Fame’s "2007 class," which will be formally recognized Oct. 5 at the National 4-H Center in Chevy Chase, Md.

(Distributed 08/30/07) Louisiana’s cotton acreage dropped dramatically this year as growers planted around 325,000 acres – only slightly more than half of what was planted last year.

(Distributed 08/29/07) "The hurricanes aren’t coming back, are they?" a preschooler shyly asked of his teacher. That question demonstrates the fears and uncertainty faculty members in the LSU AgCenter and the LSU School of Human Ecology have been trying to combat for the past two years.

(Distributed 08/29/07) The LSU AgCenter has extended a popular educational program for current and potential operators of child care businesses in parishes severely affected by the 2005 hurricanes.

(Distributed 08/28/07) Participants heard about a variety of studies involving cotton, corn and soybeans during the recent Dean Lee Research and Extension Center Row Crop Field Day.

(Distributed 08/23/07) A Louisiana youngster was among the winners of various awards at the 28th annual National 4-H Forestry Invitational earlier this summer.

(Distributed 08/23/07) LSU AgCenter wildlife specialist Dr. Don Reed and representatives from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries will conduct a seminar on deer food plots and tagging on Monday, Sept. 10.

(Distributed 08/23/07) Members of the LSU AgCenter’s task forces aimed at helping coastal Louisiana recover from the 2005 hurricanes met recently (Aug. 16-17) to discuss the progress made over the past two years, but they also agreed their mission still is an ongoing project.

(Distributed 08/23/07) The LSU AgCenter’s Louisiana Forest Products Development Center recently launched a new Web site designed to promote economic development in Louisiana’s forest sector.

(Distributed 08/23/07) Exurbanization – the movement of people out of cities and suburbs onto lands farther out – is leading to new housing developments that contribute to fragmented forests.

(Distributed 08/20/07) The LSU AgCenter’s annual field day and open house at the Red River Research Station will be held Thursday, Sept. 6, at the station in Bossier City.

(Distributed 08/20/07) More than 80 hunting and wildlife enthusiasts braved 100-degree plus temperatures in mid-August (Aug. 13) to find out about planting food plots to attract doves.

(Distributed 08/01/07) It could be a “harvest and wait” situation if farmers growing corn don’t have enough storage capability. Those farmers will have to truck their harvest to local bins for storage or use temporary measures, said Dr. David Lanclos, a corn specialist for the LSU AgCenter. "There is going to be a bottleneck come harvest time because the infrastructure isn't there."

(Distributed 08/16/07) Fifty-seven 50-year-old pine trees at the LSU AgCenter Hill Farm Research Station are being cut down and sliced to get wood quality data. Over the years, the trees had been used in numerous research studies that were recently concluded.

(Distributed 08/16/07) Officials joined in a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday (Aug. 15) for the Louisiana Emergency Shelter to be constructed at the LSU AgCenter’s Dean Lee Research Station here. Located just south of the LSU-Alexandria campus, the $26 million, 230,000-square foot, climate-controlled shelter is being built to provide a place for citizens seeking refuge during emergencies such as hurricanes and other disasters.

(Distributed 08/15/07) The U.S. House of Representatives passed its version of the new federal farm bill in late July. Although farmers were hoping for an extension of the 2002 farm bill, that is not quite what they have so far, experts say. But LSU AgCenter economist Dr. Kurt Guidry says Louisiana producers could find some satisfaction with the current draft.

(Distributed 08/10/07) The LSU AgCenter is one of five partners in the Delta Nutrition Intervention Research Initiative being conducted in Franklin Parish where an office was recently renovated at the Courthouse Annex to house the community program.

(Distributed 08/01/07) Persistent rainfall this year has been both good and bad for Louisiana farmers growing corn and grain sorghum. It has been good to help them produce the crops, but it could be bad if the rain continues and delays a bountiful harvest, experts and farmers say.