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Damage to Louisiana’s cattle industry from hurricanes Katrina and Rita was about $44 million. Three of the articles in this issue concern the cattle industry. One article gives an overview of the preliminary results of a long-term look at stocking rates. Another examines improvement in calf productivity. The LSU AgCenter’s new Master Cattle Producer program helps the industry become more efficient and profitable. Vol. 49, No. 1
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.
Though Doyle Chambers died Sept. 5, 2005, in Baton Rouge, his contributions to the LSU AgCenter, research and Louisiana agriculture will live forever.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
In its first year, the Master Cattle Producer program has attracted a wide spectrum of participants, from the seasoned to the greenhorn.
A large segment of the beef cattle industry is adopting expected progeny differences (EPDs) as a valuable selection tool in improving calf productivity.
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.
The following news articles appeared in the winter 2006 issue of Louisiana Agriculture.
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.
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.
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.
