Voorhies Trahan (July 1, 1897 – September 16, 1963) was, along with his second wife Aloncel "Ciel" Trahan (Credeur), instrumental in pioneering the
crawfish
Crayfish are freshwater crustaceans belonging to the clade Astacidea, which also contains lobsters. In some locations, they are also known as crawfish, craydids, crawdaddies, crawdads, freshwater lobsters, mountain lobsters, rock lobsters, mu ...
farming industry in
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
rice fields.
Shortly after the end of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, Trahan was the first farmer in the state of Louisiana to start producing crawfish in the same fields that he planted rice. This was done by
rotating the crops. The rice was a summer crop, while the crawfish were a
winter crop
Winter cereals, also called winter grains, fall cereals, fall grains, or autumn-sown grains, are biennial cereal crops sown in the autumn. They germinate before winter comes, may partially grow during mild winters or simply persevere under a suffic ...
. According to biologist Percy Viosca Jr., Trahan was given "full credit" for pioneering this method of producing a crawfish crop. Trahan's rice fields were located about six miles south of
Duson, Louisiana. This method of crawfish farming continues today and has grown into Louisiana's largest
freshwater crustacean industry, with annual revenues that exceed US$300 million.
References
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Article on vermiliontoday.com by History columnist William Thibodeaux
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Trahan, Voorhies
1897 births
1963 deaths
Aquaculture in the United States
People from Louisiana