Rene’ Schmit lived the enviable life of having loved his job.
Over his 16 years as St. Charles Parish’s LSU AgCenter agent, Schmit averaged 21 columns a year with horticultural tips and advice on backyard gardening, landscaping and even provided alerts on impending bug invasions like the chinch bugs in lawns.
These columns spared countless homeowners and their prized yards from natural calamity, as well as how to keep them greener and more abundant.
But, on Oct. 30, Schmit retired from his beloved job because of health issues, leaving all the columns, visits and support for educational programs, as well as the many people in the community who knew they could call him for help.
“I think how blessed I’ve been to have such a wonderful career and enjoy going to work everyday, and all the wonderful people I’ve been able to meet in my career,” Schmit said. “At the same time, I appreciate all the various aspects of the job that I’ve been able to learn, as well as provide assistance to our clientele. It’s been a very rewarding career and I’m grateful for all the support I’ve had over the years, and appreciate the sacrifices my wife and children made in my working weekends and after hours. But I wouldn’t change a thing about it.”
Schmit’s inspiration for his career started with the still airing, but longtime television show, “Green Acres.” When he saw County Agent Hank Kimball riding around and visiting people, Schmit decided that looked like a good job.The idea fit well with real life, too.
A native of Baton Rouge, Schmit spent weekends as a child at his grandparents’ farm, where he had farm chores like installing fence posts, building barns, and feeding and herding cows. It wasn’t until a year after he left the U.S. Air Force in 1974 that he attended LSU and his counselor asked him what degree he was interested in that it all came together.
Initially, Schmit said he didn’t know, but when the counselor asked what he knew about, Schmit replied cows and hay. By 1978, he had a degree in agronomy and later earned a master’s degree in vocational education.
Schmit’s career actually totaled 35 years with the LSU AgCenter.
In 1979, he started as St. John Parish’s county agent. By 1998, he was asked to come to St. Charles Parish as county agent to replace the retiring F.A. Swann, making him the parish’s fifth person to hold the position.
Schmit said there were many highlights to his career, but he especially appreciated working with a great diversity of people from 4-H youths to agricultural growers and producers to parish administrations, as well as the Master Gardener program that was a primary part of educational programs.
“Volunteers are the crux of extension work,” he said of cultivating and directing them as the coordinator. “They are the primary reason for the success of the LSU AgCenter’s outreach.”
A county agent’s primary responsibility is to assist with educational programs that help farmers maximize production and profits in the county’s main crops of cattle, soybeans, sugar cane and commercial vegetable production.
Those responsibilities could extend to assisting in emergencies – and did.
In 2009, he recalled a major rainstorm that flooded the Bayou Gauche area and stranded about 2,500 head of cattle. The nearly seven-day rescue was a major endeavor that involved state agencies and area producers, but they saved those animals with few lost.
“It was a pretty big ordeal at the time, but it showed how things work in various emergencies and agencies,” Schmit said. “The success was due to cooperation.”
While technology has changed, the need for the county agent continues in delivering that information to growers and various clientele.
Another name for county or extension agent is extension educator and that remains a timely application for the AgCenter provides, Schmit said. A good example is the Master Gardener program started in 2002 and now with 53 certified gardeners that he said provide “a tremendous service.”
Schmit reflected on his career, but gives credit to the many staff and residents who helped advance programs.
“I’m especially proud of the involvement I had with starting the farmer’s market in St. Charles Parish,” he said. “It’s been a great success. It’s a perfect example of volunteers who work toward creating something that is a benefit to the parish and people.”
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