Wildgame Innovations signs deal with New Roads, Pointe Coupee Parish

A deer-feed maker received an endorsement from New Roads Mayor Tommy Nelson at a media event today for the company’s relocation to the city along the False River. Talking about Wildgame Innovations’ Acorn Rage deer-bait, Nelson said: “You put that stuff out, and they go crazy. I have the meat to prove it. It’s in my freezer.” Owners Matt and Ryan Busbice, brothers who absorbed a rival firm with 17 acres on Morganza Highway in New Roads and are consolidating operations there from Broussard, signed a deal today for $92,000 in “manufacturer funds” from the town and Pointe Coupee Parish to relocate an extruder. The device cooks and stabilizes acorns mixed with rice bran and soybean meal to give the deer-feed product an eight- to 14-month shelf life. Ryan Busbice says the company expects gross revenue this year of $18 million to $20 million. The consolidation will retain 33 local jobs and add 23 in the next three years, the company and the Baton Rouge Area Chamber say. “This incentive was all done locally,” says Scott Byrd, economic development director for the parish, noting that no state aid was involved. The Busbice brothers have stakes in a crossbow maker near Tampa and a company near Dallas that makes infrared cameras and other hunting gear; they say they are considering bringing those endeavors to New Roads. “This state is so driven on oil and gas,” Ryan Busbice says. “We’re trying to brings things to the state that are niche market.”—Todd R. Brown