This Week In Louisiana Agriculture explores the unique agricultural landscape of the bayou state. Every week, TWILA tells the tales of Louisiana’s hardworking farmers and ranchers, sharing their challenges and successes as they work to feed their neighbors and their country. Join hosts Avery Davidson and Kristen Oaks-White for the only show bringing Louisiana farmers and consumers together every week.
Before grilling machines, get-rich-quick real estate programs and swimsuit models hawking weight loss gadgets, early morning television in Louisiana was dominated by farm programming.
On Sept. 22, 1981, “This Week in Louisiana Agriculture” signed on the air with CBS affiliate WAFB-TV 9 in Baton Rouge. It aired at 5:30 a.m., immediately following the national anthem, preceded by the test pattern. Within a year, the 30-minute farm program, produced by the public relations department of the Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation, was on three more stations, KNOE-TV 8 in Monroe, KALB-TV 5 in Alexandria, and KATC-TV 3 in Lafayette. By 1984, Shreveport station KTAL-TV 6 picked up the program, followed by KPLC-TV 7 in 1986.
Today, “This Week In Louisiana Agriculture,” the creation of former Louisiana Farm Bureau PR Director and Regnal Wallace, former host of “This Week In Louisiana Agriculture,” can be viewed across five broadcast stations, three cable affiliates, a webcast, and right here on RFD-TV! The program is one of the longest-running television programs produced in Louisiana.
Produced at its studios at the Louisiana Farm Bureau state office in Baton Rouge, “This Week In Louisiana Agriculture” airs 52-weeks a year. Weekly topics include regular features like its “ISG,” or in-studio guest segment, weekly crop production updates, and livestock prices.
Each week hosts Avery Davidson and Kristen Oaks-White travel the state seeking out farm news. Over the years, the show’s content has moved beyond just row crop production updates to include environmental, legislative, and consumer issues. The program was cited recently by a member of the state’s Senate Ag Committee as a “video lesson on the importance of agriculture.”