In a continuing effort to promote Louisiana agriculture, the LSU AgCenter’s Farmer of the Year competition is gearing up for its 13th year of spotlighting commendable farmers in the state.The contest honors a farmer each year who shows agricultural leadership, community involvement and a passion for his profession, said Frankie Gould, director of communications for the AgCenter.The competition is one way for the AgCenter to show how important farming is to Louisiana and the economic value of agriculture — $9.5 billion in 2008, Gould said.But the farmers generating the products to fill that economic need are working harder than ever against the continually rising costs associated with agriculture, like fuel and fertilizer prices, Gould said.”There are high input costs,” Gould said. “Seed costs have gone up because they’re putting a lot of different characteristics in the seeds to make them more efficient and require less herbicides or pesticides.”The constant uncertainty of the environment also poses a problem  for farmers, said Craig Gautreaux, communications specialist at the AgCenter.”Farming is probably one of the biggest gambling occupations you can have,” Gautreaux said. “You can do everything right, but if the weather doesn’t go right, you can lose your shirt.”Environmental variables make things difficult for Ted Glaser, a corn, wheat, cotton and soybean farmer from Oscar, La., who was Farmer of the Year in 2000.”As a farmer, I try to control as many variables as I can,” Glaser said. “I’m hands-on at 4,000 acres of production. But you cannot control Mother Nature.”Environmental uncertainty along with the always-rising costs of agriculture makes farming hard for people already in the business and harder for new farmers to break into it, Glaser said.”[Farming] is the easiest thing in the world,” Glaser said. “I wish I just could sit on a tractor and grow a crop. That’s a minor part. The major part is keeping a handle on the expenses.”Fred Bolding, the 2009 winner from Oak Grove, said the key to handling the business of farming is to start small and gradually expand.”You have to learn to operate a 200-acre farm before you can operate a 2,000-acre farm,” Bolding said.This year’s prize package has not yet been finalized, Gould said, but past winners have received $1,000 cash and use of a John Deere tractor and Dodge pickup truck for a year.The applicants will be narrowed down to three finalists who will be honored at a banquet in February, where the winner will be announced.To qualify, a farmer must live and farm in Louisiana and be the principle decision-maker for an operation at which two-thirds of the income is generated through farming-related activities, Gautreaux said.Applications for the Farmer of the Year competition are being accepted by the AgCenter now until Dec. 11.  
—-Contact Ryan Buxton at [email protected]