Farmers from across Louisiana are gathering in New Orleans today to try to figure out how to move their sector forward after two years of bad weather.
“Basically, we’ve been getting hammered in the north and the south,” Caddo Parish cattle rancher Marty Wooldrige tells the USA Today Network of Louisiana. “There has been drought, floods and now back to drought in some areas.”
Acadiana farmer Richard Fontenot says flooding in southern Louisiana has been relentless. “I thought 2016 was rough, but 2017 comes and here we go again,” he says.
And that’s from two of the state’s most talented and productive producers.
Wooldridge was named one of the top five Best Young Farmers and Ranchers in the United States last year by Progressive Farmer, while Fontenot was named 2016 Rice Farmer of the Year by the USA Rice Federation and Rice Farming magazine.
Most of Louisiana’s top agriculture talent, as many as 2,000 producers and their families, will try to sort out their issues as they gather today for the 95th Annual Farm Bureau Convention. Destructive weather hasn’t been farmers’ only worry. Woolridge says cattle also are trading as cheap as they were 10 years ago.
“All of our farmers are on their heels trying to figure how to move forward,” says 5th District Congressman Ralph Abraham, R-Alto, who family farms in northeast Louisiana. “The last two or three years have been devastating.”
