Welcome to the Louisiana Delta Crop Podcast covering
agriculture and all things related in West Carroll,
Morehouse, East Carroll, Madison, Tensough, Concordia,
and Catahoula parishes. Hello, everyone. Thanks
for listening, because I think this is our first
podcast this year, maybe? Well, the new year,
yeah. It's been a minute. It's the new year.
Here we are in the end of February. Yeah. Well,
January is pretty wild for us, but now that I
guess all those mandatory meetings are slowing
down. We can get started back on our regular
schedule program. But anyway, thanks for listening.
And my name is Kylan Miller and I've got, we're
in Winnsboro. We just finished up a fun little
training, I guess. I'm gonna say, we'll be polite.
We'll be polite. It's a day long training. I'm
Bruce Hall, everybody recognizes me. Yeah, we've
been here since. early morning doing our day
-long training and we decided we'd go ahead and
throw together a quick podcast. Sun's shining
today. I know guys what today is February 25th.
I know some guys are probably chomping at the
bit today to put corn in the ground. It's still
wet everywhere. I mean soil temperatures are
hovering in the 40s. So, you know, guys just
give it a little bit more time. That's what I've
just been telling folks, just wait. That little
chance of rain at the end of the week, many have
been thinking about it. It's warming up. We'll
see ground temperatures coming up, I think, starting
this week. We're supposed to be in the 60s and
70s. Sunshine, that's good conducive drying,
good ground warming, but we're still looking
at real chilly. Ground temperatures, I think
statewide, in the northeast part of the state,
I did check some soil temperatures first part
of the week, and they were in the upper 30s.
So, you know, grain of salt, we're getting there.
It'll be here before we know. Yeah, and with
everybody getting rolling, like I said, I'm joking,
I've seen a lot of them. planters backed up to
the front doors of shops. Oh yeah, we're working
on them. And getting bushings and bearings and
grease and everything ready to go. I guess we're
getting close, but still not quite. You know,
in the years past, we got to the 25th of February,
there was a lot of cold weather. Valentine's
Day is what Neil will always talk about. I think
he planted one year, no, or somebody was planting
one year around that time. I think that was up
by a year actually. We had some guys that went.
Early, yeah, it was Valentine's Day a little
bit after, and then on March the third, we had
23 degrees that morning. It just, it burned it
back to the ground. A lot of that corn had to
be replanted. That's a whole lot of discussion.
Shelly's not with us today. She's at a conference
that she can discuss. She can talk about the
challenges of planting that early corn with cool
temperatures. It's easier for me to sit back
and say, don't do it and wait. But I know when
you got to get over a lot of ground, sometimes
it's hard not to go. Talk about meetings for
a second. We've got a lot of meetings that have
taken place. I'll mention pesticide recertification.
Guys, if you're looking at your card, you haven't
been to a pesticide recertification meeting yet.
And your card says that it expires March 31st,
2025. We've got to get you any contact, your
local extension office. We'll try to find you
a meeting somewhere in the state. I know here
in the northeast part of the state, we're probably,
I don't know if I'm saying probably, but I don't
know for sure. We're going to try to have a meeting,
kind of a wrap -up meeting sometime in March.
Don't bet the farm on that. If you can find a
meeting that we can get you to and get you certified
before it expires, let us know. We'll try to
find a meeting for you to get to. Most of ours,
we've already had ours. I shoot for the first
week of February, I think. Me and you are always
the same, yep. We shoot the same time. Other
agents, we're in that mid -February. So we're
kind of past them right now, but I promise you,
we can find them even if you need to be certified.
And I don't mind hosting another one, because
I think there's in our area a fair amount that
haven't gotten it. And I certainly don't mind
hosting another one, but... I don't want to do
it if you're not going to show up. Right. Because
it's a lot. It's a lot for us to try to get put
together. So yeah, if you need help trying to
get a meeting, give your local extension agent
a call, give me a call, get Tyler a call, whoever
where the parish you're in, I'm always glad to
try to find you. We can find anyone somewhere.
It may be in Calcasieu Parish, and you may have
to go out and eat crawfish for lunch one day,
but anyway. So what else we got Kyle down on
as far as meeting goes? I see. Well, first off,
too, I want to remind everybody if you need WPS
training for your guys, to reach out to us. I
know, I don't know how you do yours, Bruce, but
typically if someone needs WPS training, they
can either come to my office and we can knock
it out in 30, 40 minutes, or I can go to the
farm, or if you and your buddies want to get
together and y 'all meet up and shop, you know,
a neighbor or whatever. I've done that too and
I can train like 10 or so guys at a time. Just
however is convenient for y 'all because I know
you are busy and I'm willing to work with y 'all.
I do it the exact same way. If you've got guys
that we catch a rain morning and need them to
give me a call, a lot of times I can try to do
them that day. Just like you if you need me to
come out to the farm, I'll be glad to come out.
All I need is a So yeah, if you need WPS, please
reach out. If you're here in the college area,
reach out to us. If you're one of the other areas
of the state, reach out to your local kind of
agent and he can get you set up to get trained.
That's real important. I mean, that's one of
the things that when LDAF comes in and does a
check, one of the first things they're going
to ask you for is that piece of paperwork. And
they are asking. They are asking. I'm gonna ask
you for that piece of paper where your guys have
had WPS training. And it's an easy thing. It's
free. It doesn't cost anybody anything. Don't
let it be a big deal. We can take care of that
for y 'all real quick. All right, the next thing
is we have a regional rice growers meeting at
the Delhi Civic Center on March the 5th. And
that's gonna start at 9 to go to 1230. If you
need more information on that, you can contact
Nate Jennings. He is in the Richland Parish office,
or one of us who can get you a flyer. There's
a beef and forage youth field day coming up on
March 19th, and that's gonna be here at the Scott
Center. If anybody is interested in that, that's
gonna be, I think, from 10 to one. I think they're
doing a sign -up list, like they have a total
or something that they mentioned today. Either
way, if you're interested in that, Also reach
out to us. And that's pretty much all the other
events that we can kind of get to our, I guess,
what we're here to talk about. We've got one
meeting coming up that's going to be the first
part of May. And that is the, I'll let our guest
talk about that. And I'm going to use his official
title. He's Dr. Luke Stamper. Yay! For me and
Kylie, he's Luke and... I think he started about
the same time. They were the same time, yeah.
So it's cool to have a co -worker that has gone
on and done better things. But Luke is the new
wildlife specialist for the state, not just the
Northeast region. So for us, it's just a cool
time to sit down and catch up with a co -worker,
but wanting to bring him on and kind of talk
about his programming and kind of talk about
how he got where he's got, type of thing. So,
Lou, welcome. Glad you're here today. Yeah. Thank
you, Bruce. I appreciate you having me. I guess
I am a little glutton for punishment there, I
suppose. So, you're all correct. We, you know,
I've been working or employed by the AgCenter
for many years now and kind of chipped away at,
you know, some extra education there. And as
luck would have it, I guess we've wrapped that
up. And here recently I've taken on a new position
here within the AgCenter. as the statewide extension
wildlife specialist. Now, my appointment will
be primarily extension. So I'll have heavy -handed
and extension programming around the state. Fortunately,
I will still be housed here in the Northeast
region, which don't hold it against me, but I
would have to say this is the... the greatest
region in the state when it comes to wildlife
management. We have some serious wildlife managers.
This is the Delta portion of our state. From
an economic standpoint, from a sustainability
standpoint, we have a lot of wildlife opportunity,
I'll say, here in the region. So a good place
to be housed out of. We want to get across the
entirety of the state and offer some programming
and give everybody an opportunity to learn and
be maybe better educated. You know, it's a, you
touched on it. I mean, almost every farmer or
landowner that I know has some sort of wildlife
enterprise, be it duck lines, be it CRP ground
or timberland that they either lease out or make
arrangements for the folks to come on property
and hunt. I had a guy I tell him years ago out
in the Little Missouri area, talking about hunting
duck hunting. And he made the comment to me,
he said, you know, he said he used to lease out
the duck blinds and that was just extra little
laying out. And he said, but now this is like,
this has been 20 years ago. He said, now that
duck lease is part of the farm population, that
they took that money. And I said, this has been
20 years, so I imagine now it's even a bigger
part of what these guys are, it works into the
budget. Of course, when you're looking at $10
,000 to $1 ,000 for a bottle of duck wine, $8
,000 to $10 ,000 for a bottle of duck wine, that's
going to be real money. They invite me to come
up with it. I wish I could say I still duck up
like I used to. It's amazing. My first daughter
was born, and I stopped playing golf. And when
my second daughter was born, I stopped duck hunting.
I still fish though, so I didn't even a third
of them. That's right. I don't say that economic
phrase loosely there. A lot of people may think
of Wildlife Mansion maybe as a byproduct of something,
but there's a lot of people that depend on this,
whether it's from a recreational standpoint or
from a business standpoint, but there's a lot
of dollars that go into this. It's us as Accenture
employees and Extension personnel, it's our duty
to... put forth these best management practices
so that stakeholders can make their best decisions,
because it does. Especially in this day and age,
it can get rather expensive, and you definitely
don't want to be backtracking. You want to be
making progression. Well, yeah. I'll say that
after this one, but I think about Jeff Simmons
and Baxter. Jeff's a cattleman. Jeff runs a bunch
of cows across northeast Louisiana, but he also
has a big sporting install. And sometimes I wondered
which one supports which. With the price of cattle
right now, I wonder if Jeff isn't supporting
the store offer of cattle prices. I don't know,
I was in there during Christmastime and it was
standing room always. You bought a cow, I'll
tell you why. Yeah, they just take old Will and
they keep him. I just learned a long time, but
sometimes you just don't try to justify the cost
of walking and sporting goods store, especially
one that has good stuff. We talked about the
economic side of it, from a programmatic side
of it. I mean, I hate to bring this up, but chronic
wasting disease, that seems to be something that
is everybody's, if they're deer -huntered now,
seems to be something we're talking about, at
least in North Louisiana. What do we see? What
are your views there? What can we do and not
do or do differently? Yeah, well, you know, that's
a real open -ended question there with that particular
disease and where we're going. I will approach
it from this viewpoint. You know, we are in the
epicenter of the state where we first had our
first positive out of Tensile Parish. We're not
far from there. But I can say that my phone rang
off the hook after that because some of the regulation
that is involved with that particular disease
limits some of our landowners in the way that
they conduct business. So habitat was one of
the first things that I got lots of calls on.
So speaking from that standpoint, landowners
are wondering, what can I do differently? We're
in a quarantine zone or maybe we're on the outskirts
and we want to start being more proactive towards
this to have maybe a sounder herd health going
on and just trying to make the best decisions
that are put forth by our ... our state wildlife
agency. So one of those things, it comes back
to, you know, just being a land manager, you
know, creating, you know. things that are important
to a white -tailed deer herd that takes place
on somebody's property. So, you know, speaking
from that standpoint, that's what I really got
a lot of questions on. That's why people are
kind of rethinking the way that they're doing
things when they're hunting properties. That's
kind of where we start. But, you know, that's
a proactive disease on what we're going and we're
kind of managing it day by day and kind of following,
you know, what our state agencies is putting
forth. Michelle, you touched on it right there.
It's a year -round management mindset. Yeah.
herd health, but it's playing that food plot
that's going to provide the nutritional needs
for that white -tailed deer during the year when
he needs it to keep the animal healthy and possibly
not have them clump up around a central site.
needs with that disease, it's what we talk about
distribution. So one thing that landowners can
do is try to create a more even distribution.
That's very difficult to do. We're talking about
a social group of animals and a white -tailed
deer. But where I was going with that is we even
have landowners that I'm working with outside
of some of these regulatory areas that are looking
down the road and saying, hey, what if we get
a positive or what if this thing kind of moves
one way or the other, what can we be doing right
now to be And then bringing it right back home
to this northeast part of the state. especially
in a Delta, we deal with some really high deer
densities. So a lot of landowners are looking
at that. They're trying to maybe increase their
antlerless harvest on their properties. They're
trying to bring overall population numbers back
within carrying capacity or where they should
be. And these are all things that we can be doing,
be thinking about and just try to maintain the
best we can and look at it from that standpoint.
Well, I think that's the thing that we're going
to at least Because I'm the same way. I get phone
calls and I'm guilty because sometimes I'll say,
look, we need to call Luke. Because I mean, a
lot of the questions that they're asking are
walking up to that regulatory line. They're willing
to know, hey, what can I do? And I don't want
to tell somebody. I mean, I talk to you. I get
information from you and I say, look, I've told
folks, look, it's a whole lot easier when you've
seen Luke. Because Luke is going to be the guy
that's been sitting in the meetings that have
been there talking about it. So, you know, I
encourage everybody to definitely keep your ears
open, read everything that comes down the pipe
because I don't think anybody can tell anybody
what the future is when it comes to managing
this disease. We're talking to, you know, tomorrow
we're talking to Will Strickland about poultry,
specifically about avian flu. So, and that's
a whole other... That's a whole other thing to
think about when you start thinking about duck
populations. Absolutely. You said it best there.
I mean, education is always a great need to combat
some of these issues. And trying to bring that
back around to our extension programming needs
and efforts. I always try to have somebody on
at least an annual basis at some of these meetings,
especially here in this region where the first
detection was found. We try to get... updates
often, you know, what are the best management
practices? You know, who do we call in some of
these situations and issues? You know, what are
we doing going forward? So, you know, checking
us out, looking at the meetings, being in attendance,
like you said, doing as much reading as you can,
and we try to put information out there that's
going to keep our clientele up to date. Yeah,
I think this may be our fourth or fifth year
doing this now. It's a very well -received meeting.
It goes back to that wildlife overlapping with
so many different disciplines. We can find it.
So you really get a wide general audience that's
interested in some of these topics. But we kind
of rotate that around the region and we may be
rotating that around the state some more now.
But this year is going to be held at the Northeast
Research Station. We're going to have it sometime
in the first two weeks of May. We haven't nailed
that date. down but as soon as I do here in the
next just few days I'll let you guys know and
maybe you can at a later date you can you can
solidify that but we'll have multiple speakers
multiple topics we'll have some indoors and then
we'll have a field day component too or we can
take folks out and you know how like the Northeast
Research Station for even from an agronomy standpoint
but you know look at these different wildlife
topics too. The diseases, and I guess the third
one I'll bring up that I guess could be a scourge
or disease is feral hogs. Yeah, absolutely. I
have a guy, a colleague, I'm talking about being
around a long time, being old before we started
recording. About 10 years ago, 15 years ago now,
a US Wildlife and Fisheries agent. He made a
presentation and he said, there's two kinds of
landowners in Louisiana when it comes to feral
hogs. I mean, what is he talking about? He said,
those have got hogs now, and those are gonna
have hogs. And that was 15 years ago, and I wish
I could say that has not proved to be true, but
it tends to prove them to be true. Feral hog
population still is growing. Especially, that
affects a lot of things. It affects row crop,
it affects agriculture, but it affects turkey
hunters. It affects anybody that's trying to
establish a quail covey, any kind of ground nesting
birds, any kind of ground burrowing animals.
Anything that would tear up a raccoon or armadillo.
I mean, that's pretty tough. Or just the landowner
in general. I mean, they mess up. I mean, they
just tear up everything. I know that the educational
efforts there are just ongoing, always. But can't
we just hunt them out? You know, no. I wish that
was the answer. That was the comment I got when
we did that meeting. What was that two years
ago with with what he came up to talk about the
bait? Yeah, Glenn can talk about that and The
you know, there's a lot of people for it, but
I was shocked There was just as many people against
it because of the honey like that We like to
hunt and we want to you know, I don't think you
can kill the number of hogs that you need to
kill The way they reproduce the way the hogs
reproduce is, for lack of a better word, just
like rabbits. But that's what Dr. Gentry was
talking about, was that they did some work down
in South Louisiana, one of the wildlife management
areas, where they did a hunting, an intensive
hunting, one island, one marsh, and a marsh.
And at the end of the, I think, I want to say
at the end of the... at the end of the period,
I think the population is going up. It's a job
though. So we farm and it's a lot to work all
day, hunt all night. You can't keep up with what's
going on day and night. Well, if you use a plot
this or look at this in comparison to other wildlife
species, I mean, it's what we call an exponential
growth curve. So you're not seeing that on a
linear progression or anything like that. So
it's very difficult to get out ahead of the recruitment
rate that they can have. They are adapted for
some of this environment. They are able to breed
almost year round once they become reproductive.
So it does begin to get very... difficult to
stay out ahead of them. It is something that
takes, we talk about this year -round endeavors
in wildlife management, feral hogs are absolutely
something that is a year -round endeavor. Now
one common thing that, you know, you call them
an invasive species and they absolutely are,
they're non -native invasive species. And whether
you're talking about plants or animals, there's
one thing that they have in common and that's
they displace more native species. So they tend
to out -compete a lot of our native species for
resources that are, you know, just like a plant,
an invasive species plant, competing with another
plant. They're competing for that same light,
space, resources, nutrients. It's no different
with a feral hawk. So, you know, you just kind
of, you got a toolbox there. You got to try to
pull everything out of the toolbox, hit them
from every angle, do the best you can. And, you
know, I always tell folks, you know, depending
on what, every scenario is different, but you
know. Put some pressure on that's what you got
to do. Yeah, you know no matter the scenario
Now, if your neighbor can get on the runoff and
the third neighbor, that's even better. But no,
it's a tough game, really tough. Make sure you
have two neighbors at any time if you buy beans
and broccoli. And we mentioned Dr. Gentry. He
has worked on the bait to help control the population.
This is with him back in the summer, and he told
me next to Bruce, he said, we're still... fighting
this to get it through the EPA and get it through
all of the steps we have to take it to get it
to where we can produce it to have it available
for public use. And I was trying to get him to
commit to a timeline. He's like, man, I wish
I could give you a timeline. It's been years.
It's just going to take, it's a time thing. And
he was listed on all of those trials they have
to do. Part of the issue is off -target consumption
by other animals. So they think they've figured
out that, you know, how to use the bait and how
to move the bait and how to broadcast the bait
or whatever. So it's a more complicated issue
about the baiting side of it to eradicate them
than it is. It's just a matter of literally just
running them off to the bait. We talked about
two bad, you know, three things are kind of down.
Then I'm gonna bring up a fourth thing that some
people may, yeah, but I think it was exciting.
We completed our first bear season. We have.
Oh, that was fun. I mean, to see, I think for
them to, there's some information that's having
to be rewritten about the size of bears after
bear season this year. I think there was some...
I can think of two, one that was a 697, 98 pound.
I haven't heard the Boone and Crockett final
yet, but it was going to be, everything I heard
was going to be in the top three in the nation
for size. And there was one before that that
was in the 500 pound range. Last time, last thing
I read, black bears are cool. No, it is some
interesting results coming from that first bear
season. One thing I will say is we are trying
to have the program leader for... for the large
carnivore program, I believe it is, with the
Department of Wildlife and Fisheries come to
this wildlife field day. Now, I'm not a large
carnivore guy, I can't give you a whole lot of
insight into that, but he'll be there and hopefully
we can get some season updates on how this past
season went, what we're looking at in the future,
maybe surrounding this next season, and some
basic bare biology for folks, because I know
that it has generated a lot of interest from
a social media standpoint. It was, it was exciting.
to see some of those things, some of the ages
that they correlated with these bears and some
of their weights. So I know it'll be a well -received
topic and a lot of questions from stakeholders.
Do you know how many they killed? I can't remember
anymore. No, I'm pretty sure I know, but I'd
hate to say and be held to it. It wasn't high
numbers in this first season. I think there were
10 or 11. I was thinking 10, but I really don't
remember. I don't. I don't remember, I remember
hearing, I want to say there were 10, either
10 or 11 tags and something about that 11th one,
I'm not sure why that worked out that way. But
yeah, it was just to watch those numbers come
in on Facebook, on different social media posts
of bears that were taken. The story's with him.
It's the classic thing about hearing about somebody
being corn fed. Some of those bears were corn
fed. You got almost a 700 pound black bear over
here. That rascal was corn fed. He has eaten
a lot of corn on the cob and some corn fields
to get to that size. Just no doubt. I guess they
say bears are carnivores, but they're omnivores,
they don't eat anything. You talk to different
guys, they'll eat telephone poles, they'll eat
diesel fuel lines, they'll eat parts off of diesel
pump motors, and just whatever. But I know in
my part of the world, it was a, we see bears,
I'm not gonna say, I'm gonna say I see bears
on a daily basis, but on almost a weekly basis
in Western Paris, out in the fields. during planting
and during water and then at the end of the seed
and harvest, almost on, well, during harvest
almost on a daily basis. They are definitely
a resounding success story for recovery from
the brink of extinction. It depends on what numbers
you believe or what numbers you listen to. But
I know now that, boy, I've seen some tracks and
seen some bears that make me want to go back
and get in the truck. No, I've got a weak heart.
I had a heart surgery. When I see a 400 or 500
pound bear, I really don't want to, you know,
say, hey, how you doing? I'm going in the truck,
so. I saw one once on Bo Hutton's, and I can
remember, like, I think I even got the screen,
the conversation in Texas was screen -shotted,
like, hey, it's... you know everything got quiet
all of a sudden the birds stopped chirping everything
just kind of shut off and then the next second
was a bear walking out go ahead you don't really
have anything on the other end you know yeah
i'm sure everybody's seen the videos of the bear
climbing the tree the guy sitting i love that
video yeah he's sitting in the climbing stand
the bear climbs the tree looks at him Yeah, you
definitely hear stories like Kylie's very regularly.
I work with a lot of deer managers for several
years now. I don't have any hard data to back
this up, obviously, but from an anecdotal standpoint.
You hear about more observations, more people
seeing them, having interactions. With this first
bear season, they've kicked something off. It
seems like a positive thing. I'm looking forward
to getting more information on that as well.
Well, we've kind of glossed over a lot of topics
today. Luke, I appreciate you. I'd like to have
you back as we move through the coming year and
you develop your program. It's a cool thing,
again, to have a co -worker that has moved up
through being an extension agent, county agent,
and into a specialist position. That's me for
me as a professional. I want to have you back.
as you grow your program as you have. Yeah, I
know you're 100 % extension. You're still going
to do a little bit of research? Oh, yeah. We'll
do some applied research, for sure. I've got
some pilot sky things that we're wanting to accomplish
and collaborate with. And we've got a really
great team here in the Northeast, from agent
to more specialists. I'm looking forward to collaborate
with folks and have a strong program. So we'll
definitely come back and give us some updates
on what we're working on. So no doubt about that.
Well, I haven't said wildlife was here before
us. There's always been a buzz, like anytime
you throw a glen or anybody in there, that would
bring the crowd, so you should, and your field
day's a really good one, so. I appreciate you
staying time to talk to us today. Where can they
reach you? Which office are you gonna be? Yep,
I'm still housed in the Caldwell office there,
it's in Caldwell Parish, you know, but. Being
a statewide specialist, contacting any of them,
especially here in the Northeast region where
I'm going to be housed, contacting any of the
agents there, they can get in touch. I've got
an email there, probably a quick Google search
to our website. We'll probably offer up my email.
That's a great way to get in touch with me. I'll
put it in the show cap. Yep, absolutely. Thank
you for coming. Just good sitting down with us,
Kyle. Thank you. We're going to kick off. We've
been kind of daring up this past couple of...
Well, we have two people retire, we've brought
on Shelly. It's just meetings time of year. It's
meeting season. I mean, we literally have been,
we've had Aggie adventures last week and it's
been re -certification meetings, this, that,
and the other. So we're going to get back on
a little bit better schedule as we start, as
we move into planning season. I think we're going
to sit down with Shelly in the next week or two,
talk about some core planning. Talk about some
of these things that we're looking at in the
market. Might even try to have Dr. Del Berto
on at some point. I know that came out in my
advisory set. Yeah. I know you're on that. Yeah.
We want to hear from Dr. Del Berto. He's the
economist, the profit analyst. That's sometimes
the sole point right now with guys, but we'll
try to have Dr. Del Berto on to talk about the
economy and the life thereof. So thank y 'all
for spending some time with us and I'll throw
it around to everyone one last time. Yeah, y
'all join us again next time. We appreciate you
listening and thanks again Luke for coming. Yeah,
thanks for having me. The Indiana Delta Crop
Podcast is produced by the LSU AgCenter Extension
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