Continuing Day 3

Being an amateur blogger, I have been experiencing a few minor setbacks today on getting my post and pictures to load, but I'm back up and typing this morning ( Wed, Oct.31st).  To wrap up my day 3 update.  I believe I left off at Avery Island and the Tobasco Factory.  We toured the facility and then sampled several different varieties of sauce along the my favorite of the day, Jalepeno flavored ice cream. On to our next stop in Erath, La, which Stuart tells us was meant to be spelt Earth, La. In Erath we met up with the Duplantis Family who raise purebred Brahma's under the Ranch name D Bar Ranch. The Duplantis family also raise sugar cane which is a main commodity produced in this part of Louisiana.  In pictures that are posted you can see the cane fields and we are here in the middle of the cane harvest, very interesting to hear about the harvest and the marketing of sugar from the mills which the cane is taken.
Our next and final stop of the day took us to Hank Moss's farm in Henry, La, pronounced Henry just like in Alabama. Hank Moss is a world famous cutting horse trainer and judge.  He travels all over judging shows and trains horses here on his farm in Henry. In the pictures from the prior post Hank is the man in the black cowboy hat. What he has experienced through the hurricanes is a whole different story. I also posted a picture of Hanks house that Hurricane Rita took out. Rita has been referred to by the farmers down here as the forgotten Hurricane. She came along about a month after Katrina and completely devastated the agriculture industry in the part of the state, but yet the media kept their focus on Katrina and New Orleans. Hank Moss has rebuilt his farm 2 times in the last 7 years. He is the 4th generation in the last land and he believes he will be the last, due to the tough times his kids watched him go through after Hurricanes Rita and Ike.  Hank has a unique farm. His pastures have levies around them and canals that run through them.  These canals fill up everyday with water and he pumps the water out into the delta/marshes, that flow into the gulf. He can grow Bermuda grass knee high 9 months out of the year, and that's his focus on his stocker operation.
Now we are off to an Alligator farm before boarding a ferry and watch cows graze on the beach. I will add more blogs and pictures throughout the day. Be sure to check out #beeftour12 on twitter and look at our pictures on www.flickr.com/photos/beeftour2012