Research $$$$ Help Retain Louisiana Ag Researchers

by Don Molino

Raymond Schexnayder, Junior, Chairman of the Louisiana Soybean and Grain Research and Promotion Board, says the board always tries to make certain farmers check-off funds are spent wisely each year.

"With lower yields and lower prices, the check-off collections drop some," says Schexnayder, "so we're trying to watch our dollars and not do any work that has already been done. We do deny funding on a lot of projects."

Schexnayder says the board is "just trying to do the best we can with what we have and hopefully we can keep the grain farmers in business and help out everybody's net return. That's pretty much our goal."

The board does what it can to support LSU with a lot of research the AgCenter has on-going.

"The budget cuts they've been forced to deal with could become serious," according to the chairman, because "we don't want to lose too many researchers. The better researchers are not only in demand here, but other universities are trying to scoop them up in light of fewer new people getting into ag research."