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Thank you for showing interest in the Iberia Research Station. Formerly the responsibility of the Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, the station is one of 17 research units within the Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station, LSU Agricultural Center. The historical focus of the station has been animal husbandry research, but the scope of research has been diversified in recent years to include agronomic crops of economic importance to the area.
The station is in Iberia Parish, just a few miles north of the Gulf of Mexico. It covers 1,137 acres of older sediments of the Mississippi River, soil that is typically used for sugarcane and pasture. Resources consist of 375 Angus and Brangus breeding females, 900 acres of summer perennial pasture and hay meadow, a 200-head feedlot and 150 acres devoted to research with agronomic crops.
Twenty academic and civil service employees are domiciled at the station. They include three research scientists, four research associates, two clerical workers and 11 other civil servants in support positions. Collaborative efforts are ongoing with personnel in other academic units within the Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station, other state experiment stations, the ARS-USDA and the Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service.
Beef cattle, sugarcane and forage, grain and oil crops are the commodities emphasized in projects designed to address relevant production concerns of growers and ranchers. Animal resources are being used for a genetic evaluation of the relationship of cow milk production and reproductive performance; a comparison of cow-calf grazing management systems; stocker steer forage use; and a study of breed effects on feedlot performance. Sugarcane research focuses on the development of sugarcane cultivars. Emphasis is also given to the evaluation of application protocols for conventional fertilizer and biosolids. Considerable effort is directed toward the screening of adapted forage, grain and oil crop germplasm.
I encourage you to explore our Internet site to get acquainted with our personnel and the contributions they are making to agriculture.
Howard P. Viator
Professor and Resident Coordinator