News

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Mississippi's sod producers are experiencing significantly higher production and transportation costs with little opportunity to pass their expenses on to consumers.

Wayne Wells, turfgrass specialist with Mississippi State University's Extension Service, said the cost of fuel impacts the cost of nitrogen fertilizer, which requires natural gas for production.

By Keryn B. Page
Ag Communications

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- On June 23, it had been 7 long months since Navlean Pittman had seen her son, and she felt like hugging the television.

Pittman was one of the first two Mississippians to take part in a Freedom Call, which connects soldiers serving in Iraq to their families back home through videoconferencing technology. Interactive videoconferencing allows people in different locations to see and talk to each other over a television in real time, just as though they were face to face.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Tree losses in South Mississippi from Hurricane Katrina are still rising 11 months and counting after the devastating storm made landfall.

Glenn Hughes, Mississippi State University Extension Service forestry specialist in Lamar County, said the extent of the damage is still being assessed and more trees continue dying from affects of the storm.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – An Aug. 7 videoconference will address the impact of the ongoing drought and cattle producers’ concerns about finding ample feed sources for the upcoming fall and winter.

The statewide distance education meeting for producers will begin at 7 p.m. Viewing sites around the state are being arranged. Contact the local Extension office for the nearest location.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Foliage can be as effective as flowers, or more effective in some cases, in providing colorful beauty the entire season. Flowers cycle though the season, but when beautiful foliage is in the mix, the garden will always look exceptional.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Mississippi farmers are in the same boat as most cattle producers across the country, and there is no water around any of them.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Landowners searching for ways to increase their income may need to look no further than their backyard. That is what Wade Henson of Montgomery County did. 

Henson developed a successful fee-hunting business on his family's farm near Kilmichael. He started Cypress Lodge Outfitters on a shoestring budget in 1994, offering just a few hunts a year.

“Now we stay booked most of the year,” Henson said. “We offer white-tailed deer, turkey and waterfowl hunts to Mississippians and visitors from around the world.”

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Consumers may not be able to control the price of gasoline, but they can adjust their driving techniques and maintain vehicles for peak performance.

Herb Willcutt, an agricultural engineering professor with Mississippi State University's Extension Service, said good maintenance and proper care of the tires are keys to good gas mileage.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

This plant is a real zinger -- Lime Zinger to be exact. All of you who passed it up at this year's garden and patio shows would kick yourselves if you could see those owned by Barbara Harvey in Kosciusko. The Southern Gardening TV crew filmed her wonderful landscape as part of our 10th anniversary celebration.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Mississippi's farm-raised catfish farmers have had their best hatchery season in 30 years and are seeing their best market prices since 1995.

Jim Steeby, aquaculture specialist with Mississippi State University's Extension Service, said the warm temperatures in April were ideal for the final maturing period.

“Fish started spawning by mid-April and were nearly finished by the first week in June, which is about three weeks early,” Steeby said. “Farmers were able to stock fry ponds earlier and have the entire summer for the fish to grow.”

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Many college freshmen enjoying their first taste of real freedom find themselves caught up in some habits they will struggle to overcome later.

The social opportunities of college combined with freedom from parental limits make being a freshman an exciting time. While some young adults handle the transition well, others living alone for the first time start eating poorly, do not get enough rest, and drink or smoke for the first time or to excess.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Students expand their skills and knowledge of the Internet every year, so parents need to increase their efforts to monitor their children's activity and help them use this technology in a safe manner.

Ted Gordon, a Mississippi State University Extension Service safety specialist at the North Mississippi Research and Extension Center in Verona, said parents should not only establish Internet rules, they should monitor its use.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Schools are making sure children have healthy food options during the day, and parents should do their part to see that healthy eating continues at home.

The U.S. Department of Education, as part of the Child Nutrition Act, is requiring all schools this year to adopt a wellness policy, and is encouraging all schools to offer only healthy foods and drinks off serving lines and in vending machines. To continue the day's healthy diet, parents are being encouraged to stock healthy snack and supper options at home.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

The glory lily is one of the most exotic flowering vines we can grow in the Southern garden. Its first blooms will take your breath away by their color and intricate structure.

Most people will recognize them immediately as tropical in origin. They are from tropical Africa and Asia and are the national flower of Zimbabwe. I like the glory lily's botanical name, Gloriosa superba, because we can paraphrase by calling it gloriously superb.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Dry weather statewide since mid-May has stressed Mississippi's corn crop and is expected to push yields well below recent levels.

“The thing that really broke farmers' backs this year is it's been a lot drier than normal,” said Erick Larson, small grains specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service. “We got into a summer weather pattern in mid-May where all we saw was scattered showers, and we usually don't get into that type of weather until after the Fourth of July.”

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- They are an unlikely pair -- a man with a career dedicated to discipline and a pup whose first months of life were spent running with a pack of strays. How the man and the dog came together also involved unlikely circumstances.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Oddly enough, a pot has given me a lot of gardening fun this season, and I highly recommend it for everyone.

The pot is rather unique. My wife, Jan, saw it at a garden and patio show and had to have it. It looked like work to me -- getting it to the car, getting it home, placing it, etc. Plus, I didn't have the vision at first. Jan probably would say I never did.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Most people looking at the new U.S. Department of Agriculture horticulture laboratory in Poplarville see brick, concrete, glass and steel. Jim Spiers sees something else -- cooperation.

Spiers is the USDA-Agricultural Research Service research leader at the facility, which was dedicated in May as the Thad Cochran Southern Horticultural Laboratory in honor of U.S. Senator Thad Cochran (R-Miss.).

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Scattered rainfall brought relief to crops in some areas of Mississippi during late June, but drought conditions continue to grip most of the state.

“The crop statewide needs a good rain,” said Alan Blaine, soybean specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service. “The potential for this crop in general is still better than many may think, but fields that have not caught some of the scattered showers and are not under irrigation are just a few days away from the point of no return for reaching anywhere near normal yields.”

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Many Mississippians learned the hard way last year that what they thought was enough supplies for a disaster was not.

When a storm approaches, those in the path can expect to see long lines at gas stations, a run on plywood, and stores sold out of bottled water, bread and batteries.

Last-minute preparations carried most people through the majority of storms in recent history. But last August, Hurricane Katrina showed the nation why it is important to truly stock up on supplies in advance and have a working family disaster plan.