(Distributed 08/29/07) The LSU AgCenter has extended a popular educational program for current and potential operators of child care businesses in parishes severely affected by the 2005 hurricanes.

(Distributed 08/29/07) Dr. Mike Salassi, an agricultural economist, and Dr. Ben Legendre, a sugarcane specialist and interim head of the Audubon Sugar Institute, were among a team that won a national U.S. Department of Agriculture service award for their efforts in helping the sugarcane industry recover from the disaster caused by hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.

(Distributed 08/28/07) Longtime faculty member Dr. D. Allen Rutherford has been named the new director of the School of Renewable Natural Resources. He took over July 1, 2007, from William Kelso, who had served as interim director after the retirement of Bob Blackmon in 2005.

(Distributed 08/28/07) Participants heard about a variety of studies involving cotton, corn and soybeans during the recent Dean Lee Research and Extension Center Row Crop Field Day.

(Distributed 08/24/07) Persistent rainfall during the growing season and dry weather at harvest time have been good for Louisiana corn farmers, according to the experts. That success comes with a downside, however, since farmers across the state are having trouble unloading their trucks at grain elevators because of backlogs that can’t be shipped out fast enough.

(Distributed 08/23/07) LSU AgCenter wildlife specialist Dr. Don Reed and representatives from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries will conduct a seminar on deer food plots and tagging on Monday, Sept. 10.

(Distributed 08/23/07) A Louisiana youngster was among the winners of various awards at the 28th annual National 4-H Forestry Invitational earlier this summer.

(Distributed 08/23/07) Members of the LSU AgCenter’s task forces aimed at helping coastal Louisiana recover from the 2005 hurricanes met recently (Aug. 16-17) to discuss the progress made over the past two years, but they also agreed their mission still is an ongoing project.

(Distributed 08/23/07) Exurbanization – the movement of people out of cities and suburbs onto lands farther out – is leading to new housing developments that contribute to fragmented forests.

(Distributed 08/23/07) The LSU AgCenter’s Louisiana Forest Products Development Center recently launched a new Web site designed to promote economic development in Louisiana’s forest sector.