Search
LSU AgCenter scientists are working to help Louisiana producers learn to grow industrial hemp profitably.
From Saturday night in Tiger Stadium to golf courses, lawns, cemeteries, sod farms, airports, roadsides and parks, turfgrasses provide environmental, economic, recreational, employment, health, safety and aesthetic benefits to Louisiana.
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.
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.
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.
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.
This issue features research and extension programs conducted to help bring about economic development in the landscape and nursery industry. Two research stations featured are the Burden Center in Baton Rouge and the Hammond Research Station in Hammond. 36 pages.
This 40-page magazine features a variety of articles related to rural and economic development, including an article about the beginnings of the LaHouse housing project.
Louisiana Agriculture Magazine Summer 2005
Louisiana Agriculture Magazine Winter 2005
The Mexican rice borer was first detected in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas in 1980. The insect caused yield reductions in sugarcane of up to 50 percent before the end of that year and now represents more than 95 percent of the sugarcane stalk borer population in the valley.
Nearly all of the rice grown in Louisiana was developed at the LSU AgCenter’s Rice Research Station in Crowley.
In 20 years, the LSU AgCenter’s small-grains breeding program has grown from nothing to being the source of the most widely planted wheat variety in Louisiana.
About three quarters of Louisiana rice is grown in the southwestern region of the state. In recent years, ratooning (a second harvest from the same planting) has become a common practice for many rice growers in this region. Ratooning allows Louisiana growers to compete with rice growers in other states where the environment is more favorable for rice growing.
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.
LSU AgCenter and Mississippi State University researchers are starting a project to measure how well nonindustrial private forest landowners understand certification programs.
It is hypothesized that the level of environmental degradation will increase as per capita income increases up to a certain level. Then, the level of degradation will decrease with further growth in income, which would be beneficial to the environment. This relationship between environmental quality and per capita income would thus assume an inverted U shape.
Sea oats studied as coast ‘preservers’. Farm Bureau gives $4,000 to Master Farmer Program. Turning alligator waste into ‘gold’. Vandeveer lauded as teacher, researcher. New sugarcane varieties take pressure off 384
These articles were published in the summer 2005 issues of the Louisiana magazine.
Louisiana produces about a million pounds of alligator waste – primarily carcasses– each year.
The United States produces about 10 million tons of rice annually, with about 1.4 million tons in Louisiana. Rice straw can be made into valuable panel products for construction with characteristics superior to wood. Manufacture of rice straw panel products would also be good for the environment, making valuable use of a waste product.
Lonnie R. Vandeveer, a professor inthe Department of Agricultural Economicsand Agribusiness and a frequent contributor to Louisiana Agriculture,died on May 5, 2005, from a heart attack.
Plastic mulch has been used in the production of warm-season crops such as watermelon and other horticultural crops to reduce water evaporation, decrease soil compaction and fertilizer leaching, modify soil temperature, control weeds andincrease yield. In general, black plastic mulch is recommended in Louisiana for spring and fall vegetable production while white plastic mulchis recommended for the summer growing season.
The Clearfield system, which involves herbicide-resistant rice, offers for the first time the ability to selectively eliminate the weed red rice from a production rice field with the use of an herbicide. But the system must be used following strict guidelines. Otherwise, its future as a way to prevent red rice is limited.
Most of the sweet potatoes produced in Louisiana are marketed within the continental United States. However, domestic per capita consumption of sweet potatoes has remained mostly stagnant during the past several decades, hovering around 5 pounds perperson per year. A market development within the past several years has been the significant increase in fresh sweet potato import volume by the United Kingdom (U.K.).
Wood is a renewable natural resource typically preservative-treated to ensure structural integrity in many exterior applications. LSU AgCenter researchers studied attitudes toward treated wood, including surveying a national sample of homebuilders.
Ricestar (fenoxyprop), a relatively new selective herbicide, is used for postemergence control of grasses in rice. It provides good to excellent control of major grasses such as barnyardgrass, broadleaf signalgrass and sprangletop.
Cotton is a perennial plant capable of recovering from many stresses during Louisiana’s long growing season, including insect damage. However, as plants near maturity, their capacity to recover from stresses is reduced.
What to do with decommissioned, preservative-treated wood has become a burning issue. Well, not burning, actually. That’s one of the methods that can’t be used any longer, according to Todd Shupe, a forest products researcher in the LSU AgCenter’s School of Renewable Natural Resources. Shupe has been looking for answers for what to do with the products no longer serviceable.
LSU AgCenter sugarcane researchersshowcased new varieties at the sugarcane field day held July 20, 2005, at the Sugar Research Station at St. Gabriel.
The LSU AgCenter’s Master Farmer Program received a $4,000 check from the Louisiana Farm Bureau during the bureau’s annual conference in July 2005.
School gardens are used as outdoor classrooms around the United States to supplement the curriculum. Educators have reported that school gardens can be used to teach across the curriculum and that concepts and skills from virtually every subject can be learned through a school garden.
Adequate and timely fertilization is an important component of small grain cropping systems. Much research has been conducted on nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium; however, less information is available on the need for the nutrient sulfur.
Most greenhouse tomato operations in the southern United States are small. These growers have to hold down production costs to compete well in a market dominated by more efficient, larger operations. One way they do this is to reuse the root medium (perlite) for growing the greenhouse tomato plants.
Listeria monocytogenes is a bacterium that can cause illness when consumers eat refrigerated, ready-to-eat foods contaminated with this micro-organism. Eating foods contaminated with L. monocytogenes normally causes flu-like symptoms in healthy adults.
The flower structure of most commercial tomato cultivars assures self-pollination and virtually eliminates the opportunity for outcrossing.
Research has found a consistent sorghum yield response to row widths narrower than 40 inches, particularly on alluvial soils. On Macon Ridge soils, narrow rows tend to yield better than wider rows in years with adequate rainfall, while wider rows are superior to narrow row widths in rain-deficient years.
Research has found a consistent sorghum yield response to row widths narrower than 40 inches, particularly on alluvial soils. On Macon Ridge soils, narrow rows tend to yield better than wider rows in years with adequate rainfall, while wider rows are superior to narrow row widths in rain-deficient years.
Bedding plants are widely used in landscaping or in containers. Two-thirds of the value of U.S. floriculture production in 2002 consisted of bedding plants. Salvias have been one of the most common bedding plants used in landscaping and as a pot plant.
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.
The following news articles appeared in the winter 2005 issue of Louisiana Agriculture.
The top research awards presented during the 2004 LSU AgCenter Annual Conference.
The Mexican rice borer has been the major economic pest in Texas sugarcane since it became established in 1980, quickly surpassing that same year the sugarcane borer in economic importance. Even though the insect has not yet been found in Louisiana, scientists from both states and from the U.S. Department of Agriculture are working together to conduct research on the areawide population dynamics of the Mexican rice borer and to develop cultural and production practices to reduce its spread.
Boris Castro, LSU AgCenter entomologist, has discovered a new pest of rice – a tiny fly.
Current technologies for the prevention and treatment of cancer are far from being effective at safe, non-toxic doses. Standard chemotherapeutic drugs are all designed to be toxic, harming cancerous and healthy tissues to varying degrees. Targeted therapies such as angiogenic inhibitors directed toward specific receptors or growth-factor pathways offer hope in managing cancer.
Plant pathology researcher, Ray Schneider, discovered the presence of a soybean disease new to this country at the perfect time, so the agricultural industry could gear up to prevent potentially catastrophic losses.
LSU AgCenter researchers are assisting a humanitarian group with a genetically engineered product known as“golden” rice that could help reduce malnutrition.
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.
Because of the significant impact of Hurricane Mitch in October 1998 on the entire agricultural sector in Honduras,representatives of the LSU AgCenter contacted Honduran President Carlos Flores to offer assistance to and collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock.
During the winter of 1999, the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry (LDAF) entered into a compliance agreement with the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) concerning a pheromone trapping protocol that would allow sugarcane produced in Southeast Texas to be transported to mills in Louisiana for processing.
Charles R. Looney, president andfounder of OvaGenix of Bryan, Texas, has established a graduate assistantship in theDepartment of Animal Sciences. The first recipient is Casey Ballard from Atlanta,Texas, who began his program of study fall semester 2004.
The LSU AgCenter will have a $1 million endowed chair in cotton production as the result of industry donations honoring a man who was a driving force in Louisiana cotton production.
How the Asian soybean rust discovery in Louisiana will affect the agricultural outlook for the state in 2005 is difficult to predict.
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.
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.
Experiences during the teenage years play a large role in determining whether teenagers go on to become productive and engaged citizens as adults.
Rural America is turning to nature to revitalize its communities.Ironically, farming communities with enhanced natural amenities may boost business opportunities.
In February 2005, the Louisiana Board of Regents granted conditional approval for the Louisiana Center for Rural Initiatives, a rural development researchand outreach center located within the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness.
Eight more LSU AgCenter scientists became members of the “Patent & PVP Club” in 2005. They joined the 35 who have already received patents or have been awarded plant variety protection (PVP) certificates for their inventions.
Louisiana continues to suffer from a persistent poverty rate within 24 of its 35 nonmetro parishes.
Factory-made wall, ceiling and roof panels are among the four building systems of the LSU AgCenter’s state-of-the-art demonstration house that can withstand Louisiana’s climate and harshest elements, including hurricane winds.
These articles appeared in the fall 2005 issue of Louisiana Agriculture.
Financial security plays a major role in a person’s overall feeling of well-being and satisfaction. The Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy is a partnership comprising representatives from business, industry, government, education and nonprofit groups that seeks to improve the personal financial literacy of young adults.
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 lack of basic leadership skills and economic development knowledge is often identified by focus groups and advisory councils as a problem in rural areas.
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.
With recent hurricanes battering the state, Louisianians are increasingly concerned about how to protect themselves from strong winds. An innovation at the LaHouse project is called a "safe room."
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 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 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.
It’s a fact. Most tots and toddlers spend the majority of their waking moments in child-care programs.
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.
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.
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.
The primary mission of the LSU AgCenter is to enhance the quality of life for people through research and education. This issue of Louisiana Agriculture concentrates on the AgCenter’s research and education efforts to enhance the social and economic development of families and their communities.
Sustainability in housing (meeting current needs without jeopardizing future generations) is an emerging necessity. Natural disasters such as hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 cause billions of dollars in damages to homes.
(additional photos)
The National Science Foundation has awarded a $336,898 grant to Robert Laird through LSU A&M. Laird has a joint appointment with the LSU AgCenter, and the grant will allow him to continue his research on parenting teenagers.
“Don’t give up” was the message from North Carolina's 4-H’ers to those in Louisiana who were affected by the recent hurricanes.
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.
Losing the roof on your home to high winds can be an expensive proposition. High winds can literally lift the roof off a house. Then you not only have to take care of the damage to the roof itself but also the damage to the inside of the house.
For decades, globalization and advances in information and communication technology have been creating two different kinds of jobs in the United States. Primary sector jobs are high-skilled, high-paying, stable and offer opportunities for advancement. Secondary sector jobs are low-skilled, low-paying, unsecured, monotonous and offer few opportunities to advance.
In the nursery business, as in the rest of agriculture, uncontrollable events such as weather, changes in markets or currency valuations cause product prices to rise or tumble. The risk may be managed to a certain extent by individuals and government-sponsored programs.
The LSU AgCenter has long had an All-America Rose Selections Display Garden, first at the Hill Farm location on the LSU campus and now at Burden Center in Baton Rouge. Many rose varieties have been evaluated over the years.
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.
Traditional pot-in-pot production in a nursery attempts to combine field and container-growing techniques and offers advantages over both production systems.
Specialty cut flowers, or nontraditional cut flowers, have become increasingly important in agriculture. Typically, specialty cut flower growers are owners of small acreages that have the basic equipment for producing a horticultural crop.
Additional images for "Weeds in Container Nursery Crops"
Additional images for "Weeds in Container Nursery Crops"
These articles appear in the spring 2005 Louisiana Magazine.
LSU AgCenter researchers recently completed a study that shows promise for the economic feasibility of using sugarcane rind as a supplemental raw material for manufacturing oriented strand board(OSB) and similar products.
From Saturday night in Tiger Stadium to golf courses, lawns, cemeteries, sod farms, airports, roadsides and parks, turfgrasses provide environmental, economic, recreational, employment, health, safety and aesthetic benefits to Louisiana.
Weeds compete with nursery crops for water, nutrients and light and can potentially harbor insects and diseases. They are common in all container nurseries and can cause significant losses in product quality and quantity.
