M.P. Hayes

As students transition between educational programs and career pathways, there is a degree of on-the-job training that is lacking — experience. While most students rely on summer internships to explore posteducational opportunities, the LSU AgCenter hosts federally funded experiential learning programs that enhance the future workforce with practical skills from diverse stakeholders. These programs initiate stakeholder, student and faculty interaction to prioritize on-site technical assistance and expand sustainable practices by engaging students in place-based learning. This approach fosters practical and creative problem-solving for issues that immediately impact stakeholders. Students with backgrounds in engineering, environmental science and business actively participate in assessments to learn from content experts in the various agricultural fields.

This educational platform allows students to learn from peers, faculty and industry personnel as they enhance communication skills, broaden critical thinking and develop local networks for career opportunities. The lead faculty in these university programs have specializations in diverse fields that build a foundation for both teaching and research partnerships. Faculty work with students to identify sustainability-based recommendations in energy, water, waste and productivity that will turn into scoped, or clearly defined, projects for businesses to assess for implementation. Overall, these programs allow for open communication between students, academics and industries for long-term research collaboration, implementation of forecasted projects and building a stronger agricultural workforce with practical knowledge.

The most recent experiential learning program led by the LSU Water Quality Extension Lab occurred through the U.S. Department of Agriculture Renewable Energy for America Program (USDA REAP). This funded program focused on water and energy conservation for rural agricultural stakeholders and included eight site visits in the first year of funding. By utilizing a strategic network of community partnerships and associations, the university-based programs provide an innovative networking platform to promote work in the rural and urban agriculture sector, including plant nurseries and seafood processors. At these facilities, best management practices in conservation and the adoption of technology in agriculture can lead to the nexus of water and energy. The university team has outlined recommendations, including conserving water through recycling opportunities, utilizing water quality sensors to optimize dissolved oxygen and opportunities to install floating photovoltaics (solar panels) for energy resiliency.

Case study: A seafood processing facility

For a partnering seafood processing facility, water quality sensors were recommended to measure critical parameters — including ammonium and dissolved oxygen — that require energy usage for aeration and long-term maintenance on retention ponds. The sensor packages needed for this type of treatment facility include temperature, pH, ammonium and dissolved oxygen (DO) sensors. Generally, the hesitation of most rural facilities for technology adoption arises from the lack of hands-on training availability and the initial implementation cost. Part of the Water Quality Extension Lab’s programmatic field is bringing field-based equipment for students to operate and collect data during site visits. This allows facility personnel the opportunity to see the equipment in use and learn applications specific to their facility. This also allows the team to incorporate field data into the reporting processes to make templated recommendations more tailored to the facility’s water footprint.

Data collection

With the field data taken and the operating practices described by the facility personnel, savings can be generated for projects of immediate interest. Typical operations at this facility were to take single-point samples multiple times per day to test for different water parameters and manage the health of the facility’s pond.

The partnering facility shared that the average dissolved oxygen testing showed a concentration of 6 to 8 milligrams per liter for the pond. In this case, ammonium was the major parameter being processed. Based on the literature, for 1 milligram per liter of ammonium, the optimized dissolved oxygen concentration is 2 to 5 milligrams per liter. In most cases, facilities will generate more dissolved oxygen than needed to ensure proper treatment. This helps account for unknown amounts of ammonium in the inflow of the pond. Aeration in the pond was driven by nine 20-horsepower water aeration devices that run about 6,480 hours during the year.

Response by the team

To better understand water variability and optimize the oxygen profile in the pond, the team crafted a recommendation to install a water quality sensor network to provide real-time water parameters through supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) software. This type of software is standard at many manufacturing facilities and allows for the process to be controlled from a central location. Implementation would allow for automatic adjustment of dissolved oxygen based on monitored water inflow concentrations. Conservative estimates of a 25% reduction in dissolved oxygen were estimated after discussing trends in pond health with personnel. The university report provides detailed calculations for the facility personnel to adjust for lower or higher targeted values to fit financial feasibility.

Recommendations

For implementation costs, a variety of manufacturers build each type of sensor and unit recommended. The implementation cost was calculated for four total sensors, where two sensors would be placed in each treatment pond at the inflow and outflow. This would allow the facility to make decisions for preventative maintenance and aeration based on input and processing. The implementation cost incorporates pricing for a full network, but calculations are provided if the facilities need to modify values to scale up or down based on their immediate funding situation. Most sensors and monitoring stations are versatile and can operate on batteries, through hardwiring or through solar panels if the facility chooses. For this recommendation, the turnkey sensor station and units would come with small solar panels, which means no additional cost is added for energy usage. The team encourages partnering facilities to reach out to a leading water quality sensor provider for a quote package for their facility. Based on the average commercial prices available at leading providers’ websites, Table 1 estimates the implementation cost of the sensor network.

Grants available

An additional benefit for partnering agricultural stakeholders is that they are often eligible for stakeholder grant opportunities by working with university experiential learning programs. University programs affiliated with USDA REAP and the Department of Energy Industrial Training and Assessment Center Implementation Grant Program will provide reports formatted to transition into federal grant opportunities for stakeholders. These programs have match grant opportunities to help industries reduce the payback period of projects and provide financial support to implement energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. Students affiliated with the program are trained to write recommendations used for these funding opportunities, which allows them to make an immediate impact when hired after graduation. Many students have the skills to forecast projects with real-world values and find sources of funding for potential implementation. Federal match grants have drastically improved the implementation rate of recommendations and built a foundation for students to understand the entire process of recommending, calculating and acquiring funding for industrial-level projects.

To help build the next generation of agricultural professionals, stakeholders can check program eligibility for the LSU AgCenter’s various hosted experiential learning programs. Recent funding through the Environmental Protection Agency Pollution Prevention Program has developed a new experiential learning program though the LSU AgCenter specifically for food and agricultural rural manufacturers to explore opportunities in sustainability recommendation. These programs develop critical field-based skills, build foundational partnerships for continued collaborations and provide access to implementation funding for sustainability projects on-site.

M.P. Hayes is a dual-appointed assistant professor in the LSU AgCenter School of Plant, Environmental and Soil Sciences and Louisiana Sea Grant.

This article appears in the winter 2026 edition of Louisiana Agriculture.

Students participating in the Water Quality Extension Lab program visit a seafood processor with wastewater treatment ponds that utilize aeration for effluent treatment. Photo by M.P. Hayes

Students in M.P. Hayes’ Water Quality Extension Lab program visit an insect-rearing operation to learn about their business, process and career pathways. Photo by M.P. Hayes