News

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Sod producers could not grow grass fast enough last spring to keep up with demand, but late-summer sales have plummeted because of enormous water demands during the hot, dry conditions.

Wayne Wells, turf specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service, said 2007 has been a good year for growing sod across the state, and sales were strong during the first months of the year. At the same time, water demands and energy costs have added to the cost of production.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Hot, dry weather has taken a toll of many things in home lawns this summer, but the list does not include mosquitoes.

While mosquito populations in general are much lower in dry weather, the species most commonly found around homes usually does not decline significantly, said Mississippi State University Extension Service entomologist Blake Layton.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Summer's heat tends to drive people indoors, and it can do the same for some unwanted pests.

Mississippi is home to three kinds of large roaches that reach 1-2 inches long as adults. Blake Layton, entomologist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service, said the American, Smoky Brown and Brown cockroaches are all found in the state and look very similar. These winged insects can fly, but they usually don't unless provoked.

By Patti Drapala
MSU Ag Communications

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- A series of career camps with the goal of motivating middle school students to become future Delta medical professionals is raising interest from youth, parents and educators in the region.

The camps are part of Delta Futures, a cooperative project between the Mississippi State University Extension Service and the Delta Health Alliance. The alliance, founded in 2001, addresses issues surrounding the shortage of medical facilities and personnel in the region.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

My recent stroll through the display gardens at Mississippi State University's Truck Crops Experiment Station brought a few pleasant surprises. The biggest was the Persian Shield.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- From the catfish in the smallest pond to the tree with the deepest root system, Mississippi's agricultural commodities are feeling the heat.

Catfish, poultry, livestock, field crops and timber are struggling through the hottest days of summer, much like the farmers who grow them. The damage from heat stress can be seen in a matter of minutes in some of the most vulnerable animals, catfish and poultry; in days or weeks with field crops or livestock; or in months or years in the case of timber.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- When Lauren Beatty decided to go to a football game rather than visit the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she worried she made the wrong choice.

Then Mississippi State University beat the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa 24-16. Beatty was on the sidelines as a Bulldog cheerleader in that November 2006 game.

“The moment was priceless,” she said. “The Alabama fans left the stadium early because they knew they had lost.”

While sports won out over academics that time, that is not the norm for Beatty.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Dancing Flame salvia lives up to its name in a couple of ways. This spectacular variegated salvia with scarlet flowers mesmerizes like a fire dancing at night.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Most Mississippi farmers have never seen Asian soybean rust in their fields and hope to never encounter the yield-robbing disease in their crop.

STONEVILLE -- Mississippi State University Extension personnel found Asian soybean rust on soybeans in Mississippi for the first time in 2007 on Aug. 10.

Retired MSU Extension agent Lee Taylor located the disease on soybeans in a sentinel plot in Pearl River County in south Mississippi. Two days later, Tom Allen, MSU Extension plant pathologist for the Delta, found the disease on soybeans in a sentinel plot at Stoneville in Washington County in north Mississippi.

STONEVILE -- Although Mississippi State University Extension personnel found Asian soybean rust in the state’s largest soybean-producing area, the Delta, they anticipate less than 20 percent of the crop is at risk from the potentially devastating disease.

“We’re not too concerned at this point about having found soybean rust in the Mississippi Delta,” said Billy Moore, Extension plant pathologist emeritus.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Women who work in farming businesses are often the sole decision-makers, and a new three-day program has been created to help them make the best choices.

The Mississippi State University Extension Service, the Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation, and Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce are sponsoring three business management seminars for farmwomen called Mississippi Women in Agriculture – Annie’s Project.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Milk prices are strong, but hot temperatures and high production costs are making it harder for dairy farmers to turn a profit.

Class I (fluid) milk prices are at all-time record levels, near $25 per hundredweight, which exceeds the previous record set in June 2004 by about 60 cents.

As extremely hot temperatures dominate the state's weather, milk production will decrease from the stressed cattle, and dairy producers will have less milk available to take advantage of those record prices.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Like most seventh-graders, Calina Young's choice of future careers changes from day to day. Yesterday it was a nurse, but today it's a Web designer.

Young was one of 45 Mississippi 4-H members ages 14-18 taking part in a technology camp at Mississippi State University this summer. The senior 4-H members, along with eight volunteer leaders, focused on various aspects of technology, including Web design, digital photography, Flash animation and Geographic Information Systems, or GIS.

By Patti Drapala
MSU Ag Communications

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Hurricanes Katrina and Rita packed a one-two punch that washed away the Gulf Coast landscape, but a flood of volunteerism generated by the Mississippi Master Gardener Association aims to restore what the storms destroyed.

The association has set Oct. 24, 25 and 26 as special workdays for Master Gardeners throughout Mississippi and other states to “swarm” the Coast for Operation Rejuvenation, an ongoing project to refurbish public landscapes in Hancock, Harrison and Jackson counties.

CLEVELAND -- Mississippi farmers want to show off their rice crop at its best, served in hundreds of dishes for sampling at the 17th annual rice luncheon in Cleveland.

The meal will be served from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. Sept. 21 at Delta State University’s Walter Sillers Coliseum.

Ben Spinks, Bolivar County director for Mississippi State University’s Extension Service, said the event attracts more than 1,000 people each September, which is National Rice Month.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

I have fallen head over heels in love with Chocolate Mint, a new coleus making its debut this year.

The catalog refers to the leaves as having a chocolate-colored line with mint-green margins, but to me the leaves are a dark mahogany, and the margins are a dark lime-green color.

Chocolate Mint is made for the shade or filtered-light area of the garden. I first thought the plant could not take our intense heat and humidity, but it is a real trooper once acclimated.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Three weeks of rain in July came just in time to salvage acres of the state's soybeans on the verge of drought, and now the overall crop is in good shape.

Dan Poston, soybean agronomist with the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, said the rains were extremely helpful except in low-lying areas.

“The dryland crop really got turned around,” Poston said. “For the earliest planted beans, it was too late, but the crop as a whole was late, so it helped.”

By Patti Drapala
MSU Ag Communications

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Mississippi State University veterinarians are urging pet owners to practice effective tick control on cats after the emergence of a fatal feline disease in the state.

Examinations of several domestic cats suffering unexplained deaths in the state and a recent cat patient that died at the MSU College of Veterinary Medicine's Animal Health Center revealed cytauxzoonosis, a parasitic blood infection that is a “death sentence.” 

By Patti Drapala
MSU Ag Communications

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- They still have three years of classes ahead of them, but members of the Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine's class of 2010 have already made a positive impact.

The class has pledged $10,000 to the Pegasus Partners Endowment Fund.

“We were speechless at first,” said Dr. Robert Cooper, associate dean at the college. “No entering class had ever proposed an ambitious undertaking such as this one.”