Brent Theunissen is the new farm manager at the H. Rouse Caffey Rice Research Station.
He assumed the new job in April with the retirement of Bill Leonards.
The job is “everything you do on a farm,” Theunissen said.
Theunissen ensures all the field work is carried out for research projects to be conducted. During the winter months Theunissen's crew will be in the fields, plowing and laser-leveling, then pulling levees and preparing the ground for planting.
During the growing season, the farm crew will make sure irrigation is provided for the research projects, maintain the station’s roads, trim trees and cut grass. It assists with harvest and then clean seed for the Foundation Seed Department.
“All the projects come through us,” Theunissen said. “If they need water, they come to us.”
Theunissen started working at the Rice Research Station in January 1999 with the breeding program under Steve Linscombe, and about three years ago he moved over to the farm crew.
Farming is second nature for Theunissen. His dad, Sam Theunissen, works with farmer Buck Leonards adjacent to the station, and Brent Theunissen helped them plant, grow and harvest rice.
“That’s what I grew up doing since I was a kid,” Brent Theunissen said.
He graduated from the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette) with a business administration degree in 1997. He and his wife, Amanda, have two children, Brant and Krysten.
Don Groth, resident coordinator of the station when Brent Theunissen was chosen for the new job, said the new farm manager did an admirable job in his first year.
“He was the right choice for that position,” Groth said.
Groth said because Brent Theunissen was assistant farm manager under Leonards, the transition went well.
“Brent is a real asset to the station,” Groth said. “He’s very progressive and looks at ways to be more efficient.”
Brent Theunissen
The LSU AgCenter and the LSU College of Agriculture