I began my professional career in the rice industry almost 30 years ago when I was fortunate enough to be named the statewide rice extension agronomist for the Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service. I was in that position for six years, during which time I gained valuable experience and knowledge of rice production in Louisiana and the United States as a whole. In 1988, I moved to the Rice Research Station and assumed leadership of the Rice Variety Development program. I am still actively involved in the station’s variety development efforts because of an outstanding group of individuals who work with me in these efforts. In 2001, I also assumed responsibilities as the director for the LSU AgCenter Southwest Region, which today stretches from the Sabine River to the Mississippi River. In 2003, I also took over direct administration of the Rice Research Station. These various roles have shown me the many facets of the research and extension activities of the LSU AgCenter and have continually reinforced that the cornerstone of this organization is dissemination of information to the citizens of Louisiana.

Looking back over these 30 years has allowed me to contemplate how the mechanisms of this dissemination of information have evolved in this relatively short time period. When I was the rice extension agronomist, my main focus was providing updated information to the county agents working in rice producing parishes, who would then provide that information to their producers. We worked a lot in a face-to-face setting where I would travel to a rice producing parish and spend the day with that agent traveling to visit numerous rice fields, providing advice on agronomic practices and troubleshooting problematic fields. The only way another agent could get a hold of me back then was if he called my secretary, who would then forward the message to the parish extension office of the agent with whom I was working. I would only get that message if I happened to return to the agent’s office before heading back to Baton Rouge or to the next parish where I needed to be. (Remember that all of these phone calls were via land lines, which may be difficult for the younger generation to visualize). Even if I got the message and stopped at a pay phone to make a call to the agent who was looking for me, there was a good chance that I would miss him because he was probably away from the office doing his job. It might take a day or two to finally make contact, and by then it might be too late to solve a problem. Back then, the Vermilion Parish Extension office had the finest communication system around. All of the agents had radios in their vehicles and could communicate with the parish office as well as with each other. Many times a call would come in to the secretary, and she would relay the question to the agent via radio, get an answer and be able to convey the information to the caller.

If I was in my office in Baton Rouge and needed to send out information to all rice agents, I would write that information in a Circular Letter, as it was then called, and hand it to my secretary to type on an electric typewriter. After several drafts and corrections, she would make the needed number of copies, stuff them into envelopes and mail then to all the county agents in rice producing parishes. Two or three days later, when this information arrived at the agent’s office, and if he decided that it was useful enough to provide to producers, he and his secretary would then customize the information for his parish, make copies for all his rice farmers, stuff it in an envelope and put it in the mail. We hoped within a day or two it would arrive at the rice farmer’s address and be available for his or her use. Bottom line is that it took nearly a week from the time I decided to write a circular letter until it might arrive in the rice producer’s hands.

A desktop computer for a specialist was virtually unheard of in those days. In 1986, I was one of the first to talk my way into one because I was developing the rice DD50 program for Louisiana and argued that it could not be done without access to a computer. While this did not do much for information dissemination, it did allow me to gain a little computer experience (many would argue that little is the operative word here) and prepare myself for the future. It also allowed me to begin to master my two-fingered typing prowess.

How things have changed, and most of these changes have occurred in the past 20 years. Early on, people began to hear the word personal computer more frequently. We had no idea the possibilities this device would someday provide. We also began to see a few vehicles with car (or bag) phones. Suddenly, the concept of being in verbal communication without being tied to a land line was possible. Both of these innovations were terribly expensive, bulky and inoperative a great deal of the time. But, they were precursors of major changes on the horizon. Another major step was the facsimile (fax) machine, which today is a dinosaur. But, think about what a major breakthrough this was. Now, one could provide written information to the intended recipient almost instantaneously. Also, remember what a great day it was when you had your first plain paper fax machine.

We were on the cusp of an explosion in information dissemination and had no clue. We will discuss these tremendous innovations in next month’s issue.

Upcoming Field Days
There are three parish or regional rice field days coming up in the next few weeks:

The Evangeline Parish Rice Field Day will be held in the Mamou area on Tuesday, May 24 (contact Keith Fontenot by E-mail or 337-290-0510). The Southwest Louisiana Rice Field Day will be held in the Fenton/Welsh area on Wednesday, June 1, and the Acadia Rice and Soybean Field Tour will be held in the Crowley area on Wednesday, June 15 (contact Barrett Courville for both of these by E-mail or 337-384-4128).

Permission granted May 31, 2011 by B. Leonards (LA Farm & Ranch) to republish article on www.lsuagcenter.com.