Louisiana’s sugarcane industry has been a top economic driver in the state for more than 221 years and is celebrating the family farmers who have been farming cane for generations in a series of television ads this harvesting season. The ads will feature three farming…
A lot has changed in southeastern Lafayette Parish since Eddie “Boss Man” Lewis Sr., 72, was a young man. Pinhook Road east of the Vermilion River was a two-lane highway all the way to Broussard. Sugarcane occupied the real estate populated by oil field support…
“Farming is a lifestyle that put me in touch with nature, which I see as a privilege.” The average size of the Louisiana sugarcane farm is 1,000 acres so that makes Gene Adolph’s farm an average-sized farm. But Gene the farmer? Gene the farmer is anything but average….
Grower Profile: The Vallot Family “They’ve seen the Vallots work hard all these years.” It’s fair to say the Grosse Isle community of Vermilion Parish is the “country” and it’s where the Vallot family has been farming sugarcane for five…
Sugarcane producer Paul Schexnayder doesn’t call a lot of attention to his farming operation in Pointe Coupee Parish. He’s just concentrating on getting the most sugar out of the land. Like many farmers, he keeps a low profile and seemed a bit surprised that the…
The Lacours of Pointe Coupee George and cour; Gertrude Lacour Hawkins Pointe Coupee grower George Lacour is essentially a first-generation sugarcane farmer. Yes, his family has been in farming for generations in Louisiana but George only began to grow sugarcane…
Retire sugarcane farmer Harold Schexnayder Sr, 85, of White Castle, has been a public servant for his country, state, parish and community for a good portion of his life. After his tour of duty with the Air Force as a captain, Harold left the service and took his…
It was planting time when the Sugar News visited with Ronald R. Hebert Jr. He was supervising planting activities at a field just south of Highway 182 (the old U. S. 90) in Jeanerette. The soldier harvester and hand planters were dodging the August rains but Ronald…
This is the story of four brothers, Dudley, Wilson, Roy and J.C. Viator, who started their farming careers in Iberia Parish in the 1940s. They were the sons of Abara and Mae Viator, descendants of Antonia Villatore, one of the original Spanish families who settled New…