Increasing: Acreage on south Louisiana farms devoted to sugarcane increased this year, making room for a crop experts say has excellent potential. At a recent sugarcane field day for Iberia, Vermilion and St. Mary parishes, LSU AgCenter experts estimated about 440,000 acres is being used for sugarcane, roughly 30,000 acres up from last year. Kenneth Gravois, an AgCenter sugarcane specialist, says in an LSU news release that the extra crop comes from new farmers starting to grow sugarcane this year for the first time, along with the mild winter that allowed older sugarcane to produce an extra year of crops. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates Louisiana could produce 1.6 million tons of sugar this year.
Progressing: LSU AgCenter researchers are still working on new varieties of rice, and told attendees at a recent rice field day that the new CL153 strain is showing good yield potential with fewer problems and less disease susceptibility than CL151. “Overall, it probably has the highest yield potential,” LSU AgCenter rice breeder Steve Linscombe says in a news release. AgCenter researchers are also progressing on a Clearfield Jazzman line and hope to have one or two lines selected for a seed increase this year. Researchers created the Clearfield Jazzman line to compete with Thai Jasmine rice, but the demand has not materialized. “One of these days, that market is going to turn around for us,” Linscombe says.
Rejected again: Monsanto rejected a second and richer takeover bid from Bayer today, The Associated Press reports. The German drug and chemicals company last week boosted its offer from $62 billion to about $65 billion, or $125 per share. Monsanto Co., a seed company, called the revised offer inadequate, as it did the initial bid. The St. Louis company said that it remains open to talks with Bayer and others about a deal. In a statement, Bayer says it was disappointed with the second rejection. Monsanto has a manufacturing plant in Luling and recently green-lighted a $975 million expansion of the St. Charles Parish plant to produce the chemical dicamba, a key ingredient in its Roundup Ready Xtend Crop System. See the full story.
