Agriculture

Breaux Bridge – A rice production meeting has been planned for Tuesday, Feb.y 9 at 6 p.m. at the county agent’s office, 114 Courthouse Street.

County Agenty Alfred Guidry invites all producers and agribusiness people to attend this very informative meeting.

Sugarcane growers are nearing the end of the harvest season with the last mill set to shut down around Saturday.
Growers have a “really good crop” this year, but trying to compare the 2009 crop with 2008 is a “tale with two endings,” said Dr. Kenneth Gravois, the LSU AgCenter’s new sugarcane specialist.

By Dan Gill
LSU AgCenter Horticulturist

At the beginning of a new year it’s tempting to look back on the previous year and think of ways to do things better. A worthy goal for gardeners is to keep better records of their gardening activities.
Why? Because keeping good records can help make you a better, more successful gardener. Records help you remember what worked and what didn’t, and this makes your gardening efforts more effective and helps you avoid past mistakes.
You should keep track of a number of important things, such as:

Hurricanes marred agriculture production in 2008. In 2009, it was rain – and plenty of it – that created challenges for Louisiana farmers.

Persistent rain during fall harvest season caused significant damage to several crops and brought more financial problems for farmers, according to LSU AgCenter economist Dr. Kurt Guidry.

Fields of sweet potatoes, cotton and soybeans did not get harvested because of poor quality.

By Allen Hogan

We are moving into the last days of autumn, when things usually get drab and dull, as far as the weather is concerned. This is not normally the time of year that we think of planting vegetables.
While it might not be the optimum time of year, there are still opportunities for certain vegetables that may be started before winter sets in. Orange trees have had a rough time this summer and fall and are showing the results.

By Allen Hogan
AgCenter Agent