(Distributed 02/22/06) A Vermilion Parish 4-H’er recently was recognized as the Louisiana winner of the Prudential Spirit of Community Award, which honors young people for outstanding volunteer service to their communities.

(Distributed 02/18/06) The LSU AgCenter honored a group of outstanding volunteer leaders and 4-H and FFA members Saturday (Feb. 18) for their work with youth livestock projects.

(Distributed 02/18/06) Top exhibitors of market animals received scholastic premiums of more than $44,000 Saturday (Feb. 18) at the conclusion of the 71st Annual LSU AgCenter Livestock Show.The scholastic awards, which ranged from $1,500 to $5,500 for individual winners, went to 4-H and FFA youth who showed champion market animals during the Feb. 11-18 events that included competition for beef and dairy cattle, goats, hogs, poultry and sheep.

(Distributed 02/10/06) Two members of the LSU AgCenter’s 4-H program will show America they can be "Iron Chefs” when a show featuring the teens cooking alligator dishes airs on the Food Network Feb. 28. Claiborne Parish 4-H'ers Christopher Burch and Shelby Harper, students at Haynesville High School, were taped Saturday (Feb. 4) and said they enjoy everything about being in 4-H, including learning beneficial life skills.

(Distributed 02/21/06) "I’ve never won anything in my life," cried Tasha Miller. But her day had come. Miller, a 4-H volunteer from New Orleans who lost her home in Hurricane Katrina, was one of 10 who won a 2006 Toyota Prius hybrid from NBA star Amare Stoudemire.

(Distributed 02/15/06) Owners of South Louisiana property affected by last year’s hurricanes may need to evaluate the termite protection for their homes and other buildings but won’t necessarily need to treat again, according to an entomologist with the LSU AgCenter.

(Distributed 02/21/06) With most of the citrus groves in Plaquemines Parish destroyed by last fall’s hurricanes, growers in the Lafourche-Terrebonne area are preparing to fill part of that market niche.

(Distributed 02/18/06) Six exceptional Louisiana teen-agers were recognized Saturday (Feb. 18) for their knowledge, skills and communication abilities when they were named winners of the Gerry Lane Premier Exhibitor Awards at the 71st annual LSU AgCenter Livestock Show. Now in its ninth year, the premier exhibitor program recognizes 4-H and FFA members who may or may not have champion animals but who have a thorough understanding of animal science.

(Distributed 02/23/06) Where are the crawfish this year, especially after last year’s good crop? That’s the question a panel of LSU AgCenter experts attempted to answer recently (Feb. 22) in meetings held in LSU AgCenter extension offices in Avoyelles, Evangeline and St. Martin parishes. Their short answer is that a large percentage of crawfish died from last summer’s drought, particularly in August and September.

(Distributed 02/01/06) The LSU AgCenter is hosting informational sessions Feb. 10 to assist Louisiana residents interested in applying for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Value-added Producer Grant program.

(Distiributed 02/03/06) Corn producers should think about early-season insect control to help establish healthy stands, says LSU AgCenter entomologist Dr. Jack Baldwin.

(Distributed 02/23/06) Azalea enthusiasts will have an opportunity to take a guided tour of the LSU AgCenter’s azalea collection at the Burden Center in Baton Rouge from 2 p.m. until 4 p.m. March 5.

(Distributed 02/15/06) The LSU AgCenter is providing landowners and others with answers they need to face today’s conditions in the forest industry by offering forestry forums across the state this spring.

(Distributed 02/17/06) Hurricane Rita destroyed homes, schools and barns when it ripped through Cameron Parish last fall. It also bruised and battered the hopes of hundreds of 4-H’ers looking forward to showing livestock.

(Distributed 02/21/06) Will the South American rice leaf miner be affected by salt water pushed ashore by Hurricane Rita? LSU AgCenter entomologist Dr. Boris Castro said it’s possible the rice pest’s population could have been weakened by the high salinity, but there’s no way of knowing yet.

(Distributed 02/21/06) 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.

(Distributed 02/18/06) 4-H and FFA members from across Louisiana participated in the 71st annual LSU AgCenter Livestock Show Feb. 11-18. The competitors qualified for the 2006 show by winning awards at parish and district livestock shows across Louisiana, and, in all, more than 3,000 young people came to Gonzales to compete with 5,300 animals.

(Distributed 02/20/06) Hundreds of young people from across Louisiana were named state champions during a week of competition at the 71st Annual LSU AgCenter Livestock Show.

(Distributed 02/01/06) Farmers are facing uncertainty with expected changes in U.S. farm policy, high energy costs and World Trade Organization talks, a Washington agricultural analyst told rice producers last week (Jan. 26).

(Distributed 02/22/06) The LSU AgCenter’s Baton Rouge Spring Garden Show will bloom again March 25-26 at the John M. Parker Agricultural Coliseum on Highland Road on the LSU campus.

(Distributed 02/10/06) An LSU AgCenter program that tests the performance of bulls benefits cattle producers and the state’s beef industry, according to experts. Known as the Bull Performance Testing Program, the effort operates out of the LSU AgCenter’s Dean Lee Research Station south of Alexandria.

(Distributed 02/02/06) The LSU AgCenter has a variety of resources designed to help agricultural producers with farm management chores, and among those are publications to help them with record keeping on everything from money spent to fertilizer bought to pesticides used.

(Distributed 02/01/06) They can travel across a country or even traverse continents in a suitcase or shoe, and they’re infamous for infesting intimate locations – beds. Now the fabled bedbug is infesting beds around New York City, and some people are concerned if the bugs will spread.