Louisiana Agritourism: November 2010

Monday, November 29, 2010

Oh, Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

One family tradition most families celebrate is putting up the Christmas tree. When I was a child we went to the forest to select a Christmas tree, but today 98% of Christmas trees are grown on Christmas tree plantations. The trees grown on these farms take four to five years to mature. During that time the farmer fertilizes, treats for insects, and prunes the trees two to three times each year.

Christmas tree plantations open the day after Thanksgiving and continue to sell trees until Christmas eve. Louisiana has lots of Christmas tree plantations to find one, log onto either of these websites: http://www.southernchristmastrees.org/ and http://pickyourownchristmastree.org/. In addition to helping you locate a tree, these websites offer helpful information in how to select and care for your tree.

If you own a Christmas tree plantation also register your plantation on our new MarketMaker website; registration is FREE. This site is designed to link consumer with producer. Register your Christmas tree plantation in the "agritourism" section.

Contact Dora Ann Hatch at (318) 927-9654 Ext. 229 or e-mail her at dhatch@agcenter.lsu.edu

Monday, November 15, 2010

Natural Resource Enterprise Workshop on Agritourism a Success!

The November 9th workshop in Rayville at Curry Farms attracted 60 people from five states. Experienced agritourism operators shared information on how to start and grow an agritourism business, an attorney explained agritourism liability issues, Louisiana Department of Ag and Forestry explained the 2008 agritourism limited liability law, Representative "Andy" Anders gave the history of the law, USDA discussed value-added grants and the LSU AgCenter provided information on MarketMaker.

Agritourism Law Limits Liability

In 2008, the Louisiana Legislature expanded the limitation of liability found in La R.S. 9:2795 et seq to include certain agritourism activities. The legislation authored by Representative Andy Anders and Senators Francis Thompson and Mike Walsworth provides that the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Foresty (LDAF) will develop a set of rules and regulations and that the LSU AgCenter will define a “plan of operation” for an agritourism venture and review those plans.

More about this law can be found on the LSU AgCenter Web site: www.lsuagcenter.com/agritourism

2012 Agriculture Census Shows Increase in Farming

WASHINGTON, May 2, 2014 –There are now 3.2 million farmers operating 2.1 million farms on 914.5 million acres of farmland across the United States, according to the 2012 Census of Agriculture, released today by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“Once every five years, farmers, ranchers and growers have the unique opportunity to let the world know how U.S. agriculture is changing, what is staying the same, what’s working and what we can do differently,” said Dr. Cynthia Clark, the retiring head of USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, which administered the survey.

Eighty-seven percent of all U.S. farms are operated by families or individuals.
Principal operators were on average 58.3 years old and were predominantly male; second operators were slightly younger and most likely to be female; and third operators were younger still.
In Louisiana agritourism grew from 170 farms in 2007 to 361 farms in 2012.
In Louisiana onfarm agritourism sales jumped from $2,486 to $8,996 in 2012.
In Louisiana the definition of agritourism is broader than the definition in the census; meaning that numbers are greater.