Michael Deliberto hates public speaking.

The agricultural economist is most at home in his office at LSU in Baton Rouge surrounded by stacks of file folders and note pads, his base for writing newsletters and articles about the ways weather, global forces and policy decisions affect Louisiana agriculture.

“I'd rather write a 20-page paper than get up in front of a roomful of even four or five people,” he said.

Yet his job often leads him to meeting rooms full of interested farmers and ag industry professionals who rely on his analyses to decide how to plant and bring the best return on their investment of money, sweat and time.

In early January, Deliberto spent more than an hour behind a lectern at the Louisiana Agricultural Outlook Forum, where he looked ahead at the market conditions for corn, soybeans, rice, cotton and sugarcane. He occasionally glanced at his notes and his charts and graphs projected onto the screen behind.

Costs of farm inputs — fuel, fertilizer and seed — are leveling out, he said. South American agriculture powerhouse Brazil has become a major force on the global market in several crop areas. Cotton acreage is trending downward.

“His presentation and information make me more intelligent about making a decision,” said John Fontane, an agricultural landowner in Pointe Coupee Parish and retired farm supply business owner who sought out Deliberto for one-on-one questions during a coffee break. “Now, I try to read as much as I can, but I want to hear it firsthand.”

Clientele outside the university know Deliberto’s work is relevant to their livelihoods, said Michael Salassi, an economist who serves as the executive associate vice president for agriculture and director of the Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station.

“He's very detailed and thorough in what he does,” said Salassi, who taught Deliberto in graduate school. “He understands our basic mission of doing work for the ag industry and maintaining contacts and relationships in the industry to stay abreast of current issues.”

Deliberto discovered economics as a forestry major at LSU. He grew up spending time outdoors — especially duck hunting and fishing — and after a few buddies from Hammond got jobs cruising timber to help establish forest valuations, he thought working in the woods sounded like an interesting way to make a living.

In an agricultural economics class for his major, he became fascinated by the discipline. For his electives, he delved in further. He loved the analytical nature of economics and the dissection of agricultural policy.

“I really met some amazing people along the way,” he said. “And I had the ability to see what they did firsthand. I saw their level of involvement with not only one industry, but industries across the state and saw their involvement with stakeholder groups and the level of work that they were doing and the impact that it had. And I thought I, you know, would love to be a part of this one day.”

Deliberto went on to earn master’s and doctoral degrees in agricultural economics from LSU. He joined the LSU AgCenter as a research associate in 2007 and joined the faculty after completing his Ph.D. in 2015.

In Deliberto’s office in Martin D. Woodin Hall, the shelves that don’t overflow with files and notebooks hold duck decoys and photos with his wife, Bianca, a curriculum instructor at the Central Community School System. While they met as undergraduates at LSU, she grew up in Ponchatoula, just a few miles from Deliberto’s family home in Hammond.

Deliberto still enjoys his time outdoors, especially fishing and duck hunting with his 5-year-old German wirehaired pointer, Gus.

“It gets me outside,” he said. “I can drink my coffee and watch the sun come up and relax.”

Deliberto jokes that he never wanted to “do homework for a living,” which is what economics appears to be for some. However, applying mathematical principles and creating spreadsheets to analyze real-world problems and help the state’s agricultural industry stimulates his mind.

“Ag economics is really the practical side of the practical application of finance, budgeting, accounting, management, decision-making, risk, uncertainty,” Deliberto said.

While teaching university courses in farm management, agricultural policy and other topics at LSU, Deliberto advises agricultural producers across the state both directly and indirectly through speaking engagements and acting as a resource for the state’s soybean, rice, cotton and sugarcane grower groups.

He regularly publishes the Agricultural Policy and Market Situation Newsletter that interprets the national and international economic news from a Louisiana perspective. Each year he also develops free tools in spreadsheet form that assist growers in budgeting their costs of fuel and other inputs along with land, seed, chemicals and dozens of other needs. Other tools he creates help producers understand the effects of crop insurance and other risk management tools on their businesses.

In 2022 Deliberto was named the Louisiana Farm Bureau Endowed Professor in Agricultural Policy. Andy Brown, the Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation commodity public policy and national affairs director, works closely with Deliberto to represent farmers.

“We've really considered Dr. Deliberto as part of our team,” he said. “He's our first call pretty much any time when we need a good analysis. He understands the policy side. He's not just an economist. He gets the whole picture of where those things play into in D.C. or in Baton Rouge or even on the local level.”

In his young career as an economist, Deliberto has made connections throughout the agricultural industry.

“I'm very fortunate and blessed to be here and have expanded on those relationships and made a lot of new ones over the years,” he said, "and really just love agriculture through and through."

Kyle Peveto is the editor of Louisiana Agriculture.

This article appears in the winter 2024 edition of Louisiana Agriculture.

Video by Olivia McClure

In his office at Woodin Hall on the LSU campus, Michael Deliberto reads voraciously about the forces affecting Louisiana agriculture. Photo by Olivia McClure

Michael Deliberto speaks at the first Louisiana Agricultural Outlook Forum in Alexandria in January. Many producers and agricultural industry professionals attended the forum to learn what Deliberto projects will happen in 2024. Photo by Olivia McClure