With the growing competition for Federal dollars, the land grant universities were asked to justify their budget to the Congress and the Office of Management and Budget using benefitcost analysis. The authors review previous studies of returns to agricultural research and present an analysis of corn and soybean research that formed part of these universities' 1978 budget request for Federal monies. New research to increase corn and soybean production would bring very high returns, and consumers would be the primary beneficiaries. The large acreage affected by the research was an important reason for these high returns. Consumers would benefit from lower prices and the resulting increase in consumer surplus.