MAURICE, KATC - You’ve probably heard of grass-fed cattle, but what about donut-fed cattle?
Louisiana Farm Bureau 2024 Young Farmers and Ranchers Outstanding Young Farm Womanof the Year Amanda Duhon is making sure everyone in her family, including her cattle, enjoy a sweet treat through the help of donuts.
First-Generation Farmer and Fourth-Generation Cattle Producer Amanda Duhon and her family tend to their sugarcane and cattle farm bright and early.
“I was actually a first-generation cattle farmer until three years ago,” Duhon said. “My grandparents had cattle on both sides, going back a few generations. But my parents didn't have cattle until three years ago whenever they purchased 30 head of cattle for themselves. So, it's interesting to now be a fourth-generation cattle farmer whenever you're 33.”
Understanding that women play an important role in farming operations, she has made it her mission to educate the next generation of farmers.
“I think it’s very important for women to be on the farm. Whether it be wrangling the kids or doing the books or bringing food to the men, we all have an important role to play,” she said.
Managing an 800-acre farm, spanning across Lafayette to Kaplan, is no small feat, but she’s not doing it alone. On a typical day, her husband, Kelsi Duhon, and her three little boys help her run the farming operation.
With the help of her husband, Amanda educated her children, seventh-generation farmers, on the importance of coexisting with a growing community like Mauirce through sustainable practices.
“50% of our farm is no burn and carbon-neutral, which I think it’s a step towards sustainability, as well as helping our neighbors, to where we can stay as farmers in this very urban place. No burning environment is going to help out our soil in the long run and increase our organic matter so that we have organic matter and top soil to pass down to our next generation,” she said.
In 2020, Duhon said she started writing her first book,Case and the Sugar Run, to help educate children about how their food is produced. Duhon is working on her second book about Louisiana’s favorite cuisine, crawfish.
Duhon is also known for her creative spin on cattle feeding. “There used to be a guy that would run around with a whole bunch of bread in the back of his truck and he would go feed it to his cows and they loved it, and I said, could we do something like that,” she said. Three years ago, she started feeding her cattle leftover donuts from Village Deaux, a local bakery in Maurice.
While tending to the farm can be tiresome, she says there’s no place she would rather be.
“It’s definitely interesting raising the seventh generation of farmers, but I wouldn’t have it any other way,” she said.
If you would like to purchase a copy of her book, you can contact her on Facebook.
