(Distributed 01/26/12) Retail garden center owners, wholesale nursery growers and landscapers are cautiously optimistic about having a good year in 2012, according to LSU AgCenter horticulturist Allen Owings.

(Distributed 01/25/12) RAYVILLE, La. – Research by the LSU AgCenter is the reason ConAgra built a state-of-the-art sweet potato-processing facility near Delhi, state Sen. Francis Thompson, of Delhi, said at a farm forum.

(Distributed 01/24/12) WEST MONROE, La – For more than 2,000 first-and fourth-graders from northeast Louisiana, the LSU AgCenter’s Ag Alley at the 30th annual Ag Expo on Jan. 18-19 offered a chance to get up close and personal with plants and animals.

(Distributed 01/24/12) WEST MONROE, La. – With excess houses on the market and no immediate sign of increased housing construction, forestland owners and others were told to be patient at the 2012 Ag Expo Forestry Forum presented by the LSU AgCenter Jan. 20 at the West Monroe Convention Center.

(Distributed 01/23/12) Louisiana rice farmers overwhelmingly agreed to continue paying a nickel for every 100 pounds of rice for research and 3 cents per hundred pounds for promotion for the next five years.

(Distributed 01/20/12) B. Rogers Leonard, associate vice chancellor for research at the LSU AgCenter, has been named the first recipient of the Insect Research and Control Conference Award for Excellence in Cotton Integrated Pest Management.

(Distributed 01/19/12) The LSU AgCenter will be presenting two short courses on food processing sanitation control and safety.

(Distributed 01/13/12) OPELOUSAS, La. – Farmers received recommendations and advice from LSU AgCenter experts at a wheat and soybean production meeting Jan. 12.

(Distributed 01/13/12) LAFAYETTE, La. – Eleven men and women were honored on Jan.12 for completing the Louisiana Master Farmer Program part of the annual convention of the Louisiana Association of Conservation Districts. “This is one of the most rewarding things we do – recognize farmers who have gone through this rigorous program,” said Bill Richardson, LSU AgCenter chancellor.

(Distributed 01/12/12) BUNKIE, La. – Two rice varieties developed by the LSU AgCenter have been approved by the Kellogg Co. for use in their products, rice farmers learned at a meeting here Jan. 11.