John Denison is an inductee to the Agriculture Hall of Distinction

A life long dream of John Denison’s was growing rice and raising cattle.

Denison fell in love with farming when he was big enough to sit up on a tractor at about 6 years old. He grew up on a rice and cattle operation. Now, 60 years later, he has added 400 acres of crawfish.

He is involved in the wholesale of crawfish, thanks to some help from his grandson. The switch has been very successful for him.

Excellent record keeping and business management has always been Denison’s strengths.

“Farming has always been a challenge. Always been ups and downs,” he said. “Many times prices did not equal what production costs were, and so, I had to be very studious in record keeping and know where the dollars needed to be put to serve me best.”

He has held leadership positions throughout his career, including 34 years on a school board, chairman of the U.S. Rice Federation, and a founder and chairman of Louisiana Rice Research Board.