LSU AgCenter hires agronomist for sugarcane, soybeans

LSU AgCenter hires agronomist for soybeans, sugarcane

By Kenneth Gautreaux

Andre Reis was born and raised in the big city of Sao Paulo, Brazil, but at 16, he decided he wanted to go to the countryside and study agriculture. His career path has taken him to many places, the latest being the LSU AgCenter Dean Lee Research and Extension Center near Alexandria.

Reis’ role with the AgCenter will involve him working with soybeans and sugarcane in central Louisiana, two crops that make up significant acres in Louisiana, as well as his native Brazil. Most of his research work will be conducted at Dean Lee and the LSU AgCenter Iberia Research Station. Reis started with the AgCenter Dec. 1, 2021. Andre Reis One of his first priorities is variety tests for both soybeans and sugarcane. “One of the things I will be doing is observing traits in relation to cold tolerance of different sugarcane varieties,” Reis said. “The length of the growing season is also influenced because of the cooler weather in the central part of the state.”

When Reis moved from the big city, he landed in Piracicaba, Sao Paulo, which is the birthplace of the Brazilian sugarcane industry. In 2002, he began his undergraduate studies, receiving his bachelor’s degree in agronomy in 2007. He received his master’s in 2013 and a doctorate in 2017 in crop science.

Agriculture has brought Reis to many locations, both in his native country and the United States. During his academic career, he spent one year in Michigan working with seed corn production. He also spent time working in the Brazilian Cerrado, one of the most biodiverse savannas in the world.

“I spent seven years working as a consultant in the north area of Brazil,” Reis said. “We were converting pastureland to row crops for the first time. There were many fertility issues involved.”

Reis said the land use conversion did not have a manual, so much of the work involved trial and error.

“We were doing it from scratch,” he said. “I was involved in a lot of on-farm trials, and much of my research focused on soybeans and low-land rice.”

He enjoys doing research because he believes it has a real-world application and can bring changes that benefit farm production.

Reis spent time as an agronomist for John Deere, working for its Latin America Innovation Center. His primary duties were exploring innovative techniques for improving soybean and sugarcane production systems that would lead to higher yields.

Prior to accepting the AgCenter assignment, Reis had a research assignment at Kansas State University focusing on nutrient management in wheat, soybean and corn crops.

Reis’ appointment is 75% research and 25% Extension.

Q & A WITH DR. ANDRE REIS

Q: How do you believe the wide selection of crops you studied and worked with in your previous experience will help you in your current specializations?

A: Dr. Andre Reis comes from an expansive, varied background and a different country. “I can consider myself an outsider,” Reis said. “I am free to challenge, to raise different questions for production systems.”

He stated different environments make a difference, and different practices play into each of those. All his prior experience allows him to bring up different ideas not thought of before to bring what’s worked in his previous experience to his current role.

Q: What innovative techniques are you eager to put into place in both the short term and long term in this position moving forward?

A: As the busy season is ramping up, Reis is just now getting into the day-to-day soybean routine. “That’s tricky,” he said. “I’m really trying to think down the road … 5 to 10 years, rather than just looking at later this year.”

Something Reis said that he is interested in is row spacing being used in Louisiana. “It’s 38 inches here, and that’s really wide,” he said. He mentioned that is not optimal for an efficient soybean canopy, but it makes sense with the environmental factors. To be able to raise the beds and avoid excess water, it makes sense to have those wide row configurations, Reis said.

He suggested his goal is to bring the narrower row spacing concept he’s used before over to Louisiana to help optimize the production system, while simultaneously trying to find alternative solutions for the furrow and water factors that impact soybean row spacing.

Q: What do you believe will be the biggest challenge you face in this role, and how do you suppose you may meet or overcome that challenge?

A: “Weather.” The extreme events (hurricanes, etc.), rainfall volume and rainfall distribution in Louisiana make for a significant challenge, Reis said. “It’s a really unique kind of weather compared to the rest of the United States.”

He said weather is one of the major factors growers look toward when growing a crop. “You’re, at times, trying to minimize risks rather than focus on efficiencies,” Reis said. He said weather is one of those components that makes you think about risks versus efficiency.

Q: How do you see yourself interacting with producers as a part of this position?

A: “Growers are the beginning and the end of all research projects,” Reis said. His goal is to pose questions that will work to address problems and challenges faced by growers. He said he wants to return to them with new ideas on concepts and productions systems that impact their livelihoods.

“On-Farm Trials will be a really strong piece of my research program,” Reis said. He wants to see the growers’ farms and understand their struggles firsthand. Reis said he is ready, as much as possible, to return to the normal, face-to-face life we once lived. “I like the old way to get in contact and have a relationship with people.” — Cassidy Nemec