County Agent Todd Soileau updates Rotary on effects of recent weather

By: TONY MARKS
Associate Editor

County Agent Todd Fontenot was the guest of Rotarian Kermit Miller at the Rotary Club’s weekly meeting Tuesday and updated the club on the effects that the recent flooding had on the agricultural landscape of the area.
“This year has been an extremely wet year,” he said. “With many of our weather events, it’s a domino effect in all cases. What happens now is gonna affect us in the future, and we’re seeing some of that impact now. The impact it’s having on our agricultural community is beginning to get really severe.”
Fontenot described the state of rice production since the flooding that occurred in March and April. “The flooding event was very significant,” he said. “We do estimate that we lost approximately 1000-acres of rice. We had estimates of and visual signs of rice being under water for an excess of 12-days, and scientists have said rice can withstand submerged conditions for about eight days.”
“However, some rice did recover remarkably well,” he added. “I think we can attribute that to the cool weather we’ve been having. We did not have excessive heat or excessive sun beating down on the water, so we did have some rice that did recover pretty well.”
Fontenot went on to say that the added rainfall is causing the “rice plants to become more susceptible to disease which is creating the perfect conditions for a perfect storm.”
He added, “It’s also hard for our aerial applicators to get out there and apply the fungicides. We don’t have that window of time where it stays dry long enough to get the applications.”
The county agent then described how the soybean crops have been affected. “A number of soybeans were planted just prior to the large rainfall event,” he explained. “Quite a few acres had to be replanted. We do fortunately have a couple of acres in the parish that look very good also.”
“Moving forward we’re hoping for the weather to straighten up so our producers can make timely applications of fungicides and get the balance of our soybeans planted in the parish,” continued Fontenot.
Upon the request of a couple Rotary Club members, Fontenot addressed issues concerning lawns and gardens. “Even with all the rainfall, gardens seem to have held up pretty well this year,” he stated. “A lot of people have realized the importance of drainage in gardens and fertilizers.”
“Last August we had heavy rainfalls that kinda weakened our lawns,” he continued. “Excessive rainfall and lack of sunshine made the grass not as vigorous. What we’re seeing now is the influx of a lot of weed plants because of the mild winter. They took over because our lawns were already weak. To combat that you can apply herbicides to control these winter annuals and then fertilize your lawn to try to get your lawn grass more vigorously growing and becoming more competitive.”
In other business, Ville Platte Rotary President Peter Strawitz reminded the members of next week’s installation banquet of new officers at La Vielle Banque and shared an article from the Wall Street Journal about Rotary’s involvement in eradicating polio from the face of the earth which is set for 2020.