Before the roar of the crowd and the band takes the field, Louisiana farmers are already hard at work — growing the food, raising the livestock, and harvesting the crops that make game day possible. From rice in your jambalaya to beef on your grill, every bite at your tailgate starts in a Louisiana field.
Meet the farmers behind the food you enjoy at your tailgate!
Rice
From flooded fields to your favorite tailgate recipes, Louisiana rice farmers make jambalaya, gumbo, and étouffée possible. Their harvest is the base of so many game day traditions.
Gerard Frey & Garrett Cormier
Before rice makes it onto a dinner plate, it spends months growing beneath a Louisiana sky, dependent on weather, water, markets and the people who work the fields.
For Gerard Frey and Garrett Cormier, it is also the center of a life they have chosen to build around family, hard work and the land.
Read more about Gerard and Garrett here.
Jeffery Sylvester
The fields looked right. That was the strange part.
Jeffrey Sylvester had watched his rice crop grow into the kind of stand that usually means a good check at the elevator. Then the combine rolled through the field.
Read more about Jeffery here.
Beef
Louisiana cattle producers keep the grill fired up with burgers, steaks, and brisket. Their hard work in the pasture fuels your favorite game day bites.
Matt & Macy Rushing
There is a certain irony in the fact that one of the most recognizable pieces of equipment on the Rushing family's cattle farm may be a feed truck with a broken door.
For thousands of people who follow Macy Rushing on TikTok, that truck has become a familiar part of their day.
Read more about the Rushings here.
Robert & Rachel Duncan
On a farm in Rapides Parish, the next generation is already learning the family business.
Robert and Rachel Duncan's three young daughters follow their parents through soybean fields, check cattle and find plenty of ways to get their hands dirty.
For Robert, watching them experience farm life brings back memories of his own childhood.
Read more about the Duncans here.
Crawfish
Louisiana crawfish farmers put in the work months before football season so tail meat is ready for your étouffée, gumbo, and dips. Their catch brings a taste of Louisiana to your tailgate spread.
Dylan Benoit
By the time most people sit down to a plate of crawfish or a bowl of rice, the farmer who produced it is often far removed from the meal.
For Dylan Benoit, that connection is a little more direct.
Read more about Dylan here.
Sugarcane
From the field to your glass, Louisiana sugarcane farmers are behind the sweetness in your tea, desserts, and sauces. They make sure tailgates taste like home.
Frankie & Mallory Sotile
In the sugarcane fields where the fertile soil meets the steel skyline of industry, Frankie and Mallory Sotile are holding on to a crop and a way of life.
The Sotiles are the winners of the 2025 Louisiana Farm Bureau Young Farmers and Ranchers Achievement Award, a recognition that honors not just production, but leadership, innovation and dedication to community. As fourth-generation farmers, they represent both deep roots and fresh vision.
Read more about the Sotiles here.
Poultry
Wings, tenders, gumbo — Louisiana poultry farmers raise the chicken that’s always a crowd-pleaser. They work year-round so your tailgate menu never misses.
Dylan & Shelby Laster
Dylan and Shelby Laster’s farm in Marion is a place where tradition meets innovation, where technology works hand-in-hand with hard work, and where family roots run deep. As finalists for the Louisiana Farm Bureau’s Young Farmers and Ranchers Achievement Award, the Lasters are not just raising chickens and cattle — they’re raising a future.
Their broiler houses are empty now, but that’s no sign of rest. For Dylan Laster, the work doesn’t stop when the chickens leave. It only begins.
Read more about the Lasters here.
Butch Oaks
Butch Oaks remembers when farming meant five-gallon buckets.
As a boy in northeast Louisiana, he spent time around the small dairies and farms that dotted the area. If he wanted to make some spending money, he could ride his bicycle to one of roughly 25 dairies nearby, many of which milked a few dozen cows and also raised chickens.
The work was simple, but it wasn't easy.
Read more about Butch here.
