Spotlight Series

The Durand family’s 1,300-acre farm in the Atchafalaya River Basin outside of St. Martinville, Louisiana not only grows rice and crawfish, but also produces solutions to protect natural resources. Jeff Durand and his family take pride in producing rice, while also providing a great wetland habitat, with more than 250 species of birds documented on the property. Since 2007, Jeff and his two brothers have tracked the progress of the environmental outcomes of their farming practices to ensure conservation of natural resources while maintaining profitability.

“If we don’t take care of our natural resources and work in a way that we can turn a profit, we won’t be sustainable and we can’t continue farming,” explained Jeff. “It’s up to farmers to look at ways to become more efficient while, at the same time, not reducing our production and ensuring our land is in good shape so the next generation can continue to farm.”

Jeff uses the Fieldprint® Calculator as a tool to evaluate sustainability performance of his management decisions and explore innovative ways to improve the family farm’s productivity and profitability.

“Using the Fieldprint Calculator, farmers can put in different scenarios and see how it improves our bottom line and sustainability,” Jeff shared. “The Calculator is a good tool to work with on the farm and to prove that these practices are beneficial and actually improve the bottom line.”

The Fieldprint Calculator provided the analysis Jeff needed to determine which practices to pursue. He realized that if they took fewer trips in the field, they could positively influence their Fieldprint® score. While not hurting production, taking fewer trips in the field also reduced maintenance on equipment, energy usage and labor. It was not only more sustainable, but cost effective, emphasized Jeff.