Carbon Credit Conference
Mark
your calendar for a Carbon Credit Conference scheduled for May 14 at the C.
Woodrow Dewitt Livestock Facility at the Dean Lee Research Station and Extension Center
in Alexandria.
This conference will help landowners, foresters, farmers and others gain a
better understanding of the carbon market, how it works and if they might
benefit from carbon credits. Target audience is agricultural producers,
agriculture consultants, forestry landowners, forestry consultants, natural
resource management professionals and other interested parties entering the
emerging carbon-trading market in Louisiana.
Conference information with online registration can be found here.
Please forward this information to interested landowners.
Also,
Dr. Coreil will be providing funds for agents to attend the conference on an as
needed basis. Should you need assistance, please reply with justification.
Please
feel free to contact Dr. Carrie Castille should you have any questions.
USDA Expects Corn Acres to Drop in 2008 as Soybeans, Wheat Gain
Ground
On
the heels of last year’s record-high corn production, U.S. farmers intend to plant 8
percent fewer corn acres in 2008, according to the Prospective Plantings
report released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural
Statistics Service (NASS). Producers plan to plant 86 million acres of corn
this year. Although 7.6 million acres fewer than 2007, this would still be the
second-largest area since 1949.
The outlook for corn prices remains strong, thanks to increasing ethanol
production and other factors. Still, favorable prices for other crops, along
with crop rotation considerations and high corn input costs, are motivating
some farmers to switch from corn. Iowa
is expected to see the largest decrease in corn acreage, down 1 million acres
from last year’s record, to 13.2 million acres. Both Indiana
and Minnesota
are expected to drop 800,000 acres from their record highs of last year.
Nationwide, soybean acreage is expected to jump 18 percent, to 74.8 million
acres. This is an increase of 11.2 million acres from 2007 and is just 1 percent
below the 2006 record high. Acreage increases are expected in nearly every
state, with the largest growth in Iowa, up
1.25 million acres, and Nebraska,
up 1.2 million. Increases of at least 800,000 acres are anticipated in Indiana, Minnesota and South Dakota, while Kansas,
New York and Pennsylvania are expected to plant their
largest soybean crops in history.
Wheat acreage is also expected to rise in 2008, up 6 percent to 63.8 million
acres. Winter wheat planted area, at 46.8 million acres, is up 4 percent from
last year. Expected acreage of durum wheat is up 22 percent, to 2.63 million
acres.
NASS estimates 2008 cotton plantings at 9.39 million acres, 13 percent below
last year. Upland cotton acreage is expected to total 9.19 million, the lowest
level since 1983 and down 13 percent from last year. The largest acreage
declines are expected in Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee
and Texas.
The Prospective Plantings report provides the first official estimate of
U.S.
farmers’ planting intentions for 2008. NASS’s acreage estimates are based on
surveys conducted during the first two weeks of March from a sample of
approximately 86,000 farm operators across the United States. Prospective
Plantings and all NASS reports are available online at www.nass.usda.gov.
Source:
USDA
Legislative Session
The
Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation is tracking a number of bills during this
legislative session. Below are updates of bills potentially affecting Louisiana agriculture
and forestry.
The
Louisiana Legislature got down to business this week with committees meeting on
a daily basis and starting to move bills to the House and Senate floors for
consideration. The Senate Ag Committee met and reported a number of bills
out of committee on Tuesday. The House Ag Committee had its first meeting
of the regular session April 17.
HB
360 by Rep. Montoucet
creates the Alligator Council and removes alligator marketing and management
from the Fur and Alligator Council responsibility. This bill was
presented to the House Natural Resources and Environment Committee April 16.
HB
565 by Rep. Hutter authorizes
the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development to enforce weight
and size laws of trucks with mobile scales. This responsibility is
currently held solely by the State Police and DOTD enforces the regs at the
weight stations. This bill was presented to the House Transportation
Committee April 14.
HB
801 by Rep. Anders
provides for oral contracts for the sale of grain. This bill makes it
clear that contracts made orally and over the phone are enforceable without the
producer having to sign the contract at the moment that it is made. This
will continue to facilitate the way grain has been marketed for years. The
bill was presented to the House Ag Committee April 17.
HB
1045 by Rep. Ellington revises the provisions of the Louisiana Aquatic
Chelonian Research and Promotion Board. This bill was presented to the
House Ag Committee April 17.
HB
1116 by Rep. Ellington appropriates funds for Boll Weevil
eradication. This bill appropriates $2 million dollars for FY 2007-2008 to
the Department of Agriculture and Forestry for Boll Weevil eradication
expenses. This was necessary due to the decrease of cotton acres and the
shortfall of funds collected to pay for the program. This bill was
reported favorably and sent to the full House for consideration.
SB
133 by Sen. Donahue
requires the Louisiana Ag Finance Authority to comply with the public bid
law. This bill was reported favorably by the Senate Ag Committee and sent
to the full Senate for consideration.
SB
163 by Sen. Thompson
provides an exemption from liability for agritourism professionals. This
bill was reported favorably by the Senate Ag Committee and recommitted to the
Senate Judiciary Committee.
SB
550 by Sen. Thompson
provides relative to fertilizer regulation and prohibits local government
subdivisions from regulating fertilizer. This bill was reported favorably
by the Senate Ag Committee.
SB
628 by Sen. Gautreaux
prohibits railroads from price gouging. This bill was reported favorably
by the Senate Commerce Committee April 16 and was sent to the full Senate for
consideration.
SB
635 by Sen. Thompson
consolidates the professions of horticulturalists and landscape contractors
into one licensed profession know as "landscape horticulturalists."
This bill was reported favorably by the Senate Ag Committee.
Source:
Lousiana Farm Bureau Federation
LSU AgCenter Internal Leadership Program Enrollment
Through
this memorandum, we would like to encourage eligible faculty member
participation in the next class of the LSU AgCenter Internal Leadership Program
beginning August 5. All interested parties are to submit their application via
the following link by April 30: LSU
AgCenter Internal Leadership Program.
The
program, which includes six seminars over a 12-month period, is designed to
help faculty members become more confident communicators and better understand
the social, economic and political systems in which they work. One of the
seminars will be a study tour to Washington,
D.C.
Eligibility
requirements include at least five years LSU AgCenter/Land-Grant University
experience. For more information, please visit the LSU
AgCenter Internal Leadership Program Internet site or contact Dr.
Bobby Soileau directly via e-mail bsoileau@agcenter.lsu.edu
or phone at (225) 578-5670.
ACE IT SIG Award
Congratulations
to Fred Piazza who received the ACE IT SIG's Award of Excellence for 2007. Fred
is the currently the Chief Information Officer for the LSU Ag Center. He has
provided hands-on direction in the organization and design of the the Ag
Center's Web site, including its continual reorganization, development,
maintenance, visibility and promotion.
Fred
has already earned numerous ACE C&A awards over the past several years and
has been an active member of ACE for 5 years. Fred is currently a member of the
Management and Evaluation Team for the ACE Leadership & Management
Institute for communicators and information technologists. He was involved with
the planning and development phases of the institute and has been a strong
proponent representing Information Technology interests throughout the process.
Fred
has been actively involved with the national eXtension Initiative since its
conception and currently serves on their Technology Advisory Committee.
Verenium completes development of demonstration Cellulosic
Ethanol plant in Louisiana
Verenium
Corporation has completed the development phase of its demonstration-scale
cellulosic ethanol facility in Jennings
and has entered into the "transition to start-up" phase. This
involves the turnover of individual systems and the testing of the functional
capabilities of each system. In total, more than 40 separate systems will be
evaluated over approximately the next three months. Previous details about this
project were in our Nov. 21, '07 issue. (Source: PR Newswire, Apr. 07, '08)
Contact: Kelly Lindenboom, VP, Corporate Communications, Verenium Corporation,
(617) 674-5335, kelly.lindenboom@verenium.com,
www.verenium.com
Flood Recovery Chat Session April 25
As the
floods move through the heartland of America, people are in different
stages of flood recovery. Some are still waiting to re-enter their homes while
others are continuing to discover new flood recovery needs. On April 25, the
Disaster Issues Community will host an encore text chat session on flood
recovery. The session will begin at 1:00 p.m. (Eastern Time) and the topic is
“Encore Flood Recovery: Practical Steps and Useful Resources. This session will
provide a second opportunity for participants to ask questions about their
options for getting help, drying their homes and surrounding structures and
other issues. Questions will be answered by our disaster issues experts
via text chat. Audio will not be available.
Begin by
logging into the chat system a few minutes before the starting time. http://connect.extension.iastate.edu/edenchat
will take you to the chat site. Enter as a Guest. Please enter your first name,
last name and state in the box labeled “Type Your Name”: then click on the
Enter Room button.
Join us
even if you weren't able to join or didn't know about the first Flood Recovery
chat. We welcome all questions. To view the previous flood chat, go to http://connect.extension.iastate.edu/p57654819/
This
session is sponsored by the Extension Disaster Education Network (EDEN).
4-H Billboards in Louisiana
Keep your eyes open for the new 4-H billboards located across Louisiana. Three
billboards have been created to promote 4-H and youth development: on 1-12 at
the Jefferson ramp, facing west in Baton Rouge, I-10 east of the LA 31 overpass
facing west in Lafayette and on 1-49 (one-half mile south of the inner loop)
facing north in Shreveport.
Personnel Changes
Mark
Clevenger
Mark
Clevenger left the AgCenter March 31. He was with the AgCenter almost 11
years and served as assistant director for IT support much of that time.
During this period he demonstrated his knowledge, skill and dedication time and
again. Mark was a major contributor to the growth and strength of AgCenter
IT. He will be greatly missed. I know we all give Mark our very best
wishes as he moves to a new phase in his life.
Bruce
Garner (Regional Technical Support Specialist) is acting assistant director for
IT support. Bruce has a very strong technical background and strong
leadership skills. He can be reached at bgarner@agcenter.lsu.edu
or 225-578-6744. The other techs will be covering Bruce’s support territory
until long-term plans are in place.
Rob
Ferguson
Mr.
Rob Ferguson has been appointed interim coordinator of the LSU AgCenter’s
Soybean, Corn and Grain Sorghum Extension Education Program. Dr. David
Lanclos, who headed up this program for the past several years, left the
AgCenter for a position in private industry. Mr. Ferguson will serve as
the interim coordinator until new state specialists can be employed. A search
committee has been formed, and an active search is in progress for qualified
individuals to fill the positions of state soybean specialist and state corn
and grain sorghum specialist.
Mr.
Ferguson has extensive experience in farm management and in providing support
for the soybean, corn and grain sorghum extension educational programs. He
has worked the past four years as the associate to Dr. Lanclos in this
program. Rob has compiled an impressive record of publications and
presentations in the relatively short time that he has been an employee of the
LSU AgCenter. He has authored or co-authored 59 articles, newsletters or
technical publications and has presented information at 21 field days, grower
meetings and conferences.
In
his interim position he will provide statewide leadership for all soybean, corn
and grain sorghum programs. An additional associate has been employed to assist
Rob with his expanded duties. His domicile will continue to be at the Dean Lee
Research and Extension Center at Alexandria.
He can be reached there at 318-427-4424, by cell phone (318-308-4191) or by
e-mail at referguson@agcenter.lsu.edu.
Feel free to contact Rob for any information or assistance.
Rob
stated that he is very excited about this opportunity to provide leadership for
educational programs serving clientele engaged in producing these major
commodities. He believes these new expanded responsibilities will allow
him even more opportunities to provide education information for the benefit of
state growers.
Rob
is looking forward to working with county agents, consultants, agribusiness
personnel and producers to carry out the mission of the LSU AgCenter. He
has already begun the process of assuming his new role in this very important
educational program.
Daniel
Stephenson
Dr.
Daniel Stephenson has been appointed assistant professor at the LSU AgCenter’s
Dean Lee Research and Extension
Center, effective May 1.
He will be replacing Professor Roy Vidrine who headed up this research and
extension program for the past several years. Vidrine retired after 36 years of
service.
Dr.
Stephenson brings extensive experience in weed science and row crop agriculture
to this research and extension program. He has worked the past three years as
an assistant professor of research/extension for cropping systems agronomy at
the University of Arkansas Research and Extension
Center in Keiser, Arkansas.
He completed his graduate degrees at the University
of Arkansas and Auburn University.
Dr. Stephenson has conducted or been involved with field research in corn,
cotton, grain sorghum, peanuts, rice, soybeans, turfgrass and wheat.
Dr.
Stephenson will be responsible for developing a weed control research program
in corn, cotton, soybeans and grain sorghum. His research will focus primarily
on, but not limited to: evaluation of weed control and crop response of
experimental preemergence and postemergence herbicides; weed control programs
utilizing newly developed herbicides; developing weed management systems;
evaluation of reduced rates, adjuvants and herbicide combinations; and weed
management programs utilizing genetically transformed varieties while
monitoring for weed shifts and herbicide resistance. He also will provide
assistance for the coordination, development and promotion of statewide extension
education programs for row crop weed control using best management practices
(BMPs).
His
domicile will be at the Dean Lee Research and Extension
Center at Alexandria. He can be there at 318-427-4424.
Feel free to contact Dr. Stephenson for any information or assistance.
Dr.
Stephenson stated that he is very excited about this opportunity to work for
the LSU AgCenter and to provide leadership for research and extension programs
serving row-crop clientele. He is looking forward to working with county agents,
research scientists, consultants, agribusiness personnel and producers to carry
out the mission of the LSU AgCenter
Please continue to visit the director’s website.
If you have any comments or suggestions to improve e-Directions or
the director’s website, please contact me at pcoreil@agcenter.lsu.edu.