News

JACKSON -- Twenty-five people interested in environmental science and natural history can take eight weeks of classes as part of the process of becoming Master Naturalists.

The Mississippi State University Extension Service is partnering with the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science to offer the training. Classes will be held 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. each Tuesday from May 6 to June 24 in the museum at 2148 Riverside Drive in Jackson.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- The Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine is inviting visitors of all ages to attend its 29th annual Open House April 4 and 5.

The veterinary college doors will open from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. at the Wise Center, located on the south side of campus off Spring Street. The April 4 program is for preregistered school groups, while the community is welcome to attend April 5.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Today’s cattle producers have a variety of technological applications available on their smartphones, which are about the size of the little notebooks their predecessors once carried in their shirt pockets for record keeping.

Brandi Karisch, an assistant professor of animal and dairy sciences and Extension beef cattle specialist at Mississippi State University, said use of smartphones and their apps is growing among beef cattle producers.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Registration is now open for three summer camps where kids can participate in arts and crafts, cake decorating and academics.

Dawg Daze of Summer, sponsored by the Mississippi State University Center for Continuing Education and the MSU Extension Service, offers two weeklong camps with emphases on creative and academic experiences for children ages 5-7 and 8-10. The camps will join together for certain events throughout the week. Activities include Artful Antics, Critter Crafts, Silly Sticky Slimy Science and Data Data Data.

The signs are all around us.

Red maples and redbuds are flowering, and yellow jessamine is scrambling and blooming along fences and way up in trees. This winter’s low temperatures have the ornamental pears really putting on a show.

Daylight Savings Time has kicked in, and we’re almost to the Spring Equinox. This can only mean one thing: Warmer weather has to show up sometime in the near future.

OKOLONA – Okolona poultry grower Joe Ellis did not even want the Mississippi State University Extension Service professor to get out of his vehicle unless he had practical experience raising chickens.

Tom Tabler was new to Mississippi, but he was not new to the challenges poultry growers like Ellis face every day -- and sometimes night.

“I know what it feels like to wake up to alarms going off at 3 in the morning,” said Tabler, the MSU Extension poultry specialist.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- The days are getting longer, and the temperatures are warming up. Spring is almost here, and soon the birds will arrive.

More than 200 bird species migrate northward every spring from their wintering grounds in the southern U.S. and Central and South America.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – The New Albany Home and Garden Show will offer two packed days of exhibits and speakers as they celebrate “Wings into Spring” April 4 and 5.

The Union County Master Gardeners will host the sixth annual event at the Union County Fairgrounds. The show is free and open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday and 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Saturday. Tickets are already sold out for the Lunch and Learn Seminar on Friday.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Industry leaders will gather at Mississippi State University on April 23 to discuss existing and potential issues related to manufacturing and how to capitalize on the state’s current momentum.

Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves will be the keynote speaker at the 2014 Manufacturing Summit: The Road Ahead. The event will be held at the Franklin Furniture Center.

Topics to be discussed at the annual manufacturing summit include transportation and logistics, manufacturing competitiveness, workforce development, the regulatory environment and the Affordable Care Act.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Cattle producers can learn ways to improve their pastures at upcoming events taking place around the state this spring.

On April 10 in Starkville, the Oktibbeha County Extension office is hosting a cool-season forage tour at the Henry H. Leveck Research Farm on the south side of the Mississippi State University campus. The evening tour will be from 5 to 7 p.m.

Topics will include alfalfa, clovers, tall fescue, oats and ryegrass.

The dreary conditions of winter have made me ready for the warm days of spring and summer. I’ve been giving a lot thought to the types of plants that provide maximum color with minimum effort.

As much as we all want to believe it’s possible, there’s no such thing as a maintenance-free landscape and garden. However, a couple of plants that I definitely will have in my landscape this spring are calibrachoa and verbena. I think you should have them, too.

STARKVILLE – Mark Peterman joined the Mississippi State University Extension Service as the new aquaculture associate March 1.

Peterman returned to MSU after nine years at Auburn University’s School of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences, where he was a member of the farm management team.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in fisheries management from MSU and a master’s degree in aquaculture from Auburn University.

By Brittnie Burton
MSU Ag Communications

BELZONI -- After 47 years of farming through ups and downs, Wanda Hill still is able to appreciate the rewards of her career.

Hill farms in Humphreys County with her husband, Herbert, and brother-in-law, Charles. They grow soybeans followed by winter wheat and cotton. Until 2014, they were also catfish farmers.

Wild hogs continue to be a plague throughout Mississippi, occupying about half of the state’s land area.

A farmer recently said, “I wish I had a deer problem.” His statement summed up the hog problem very well. There’s no doubt that deer can cause a lot of damage to certain crops, but that damage is minor compared to the destruction wild hogs can cause. What’s more, hog damage is no longer limited to farmland. You may even see them in your back yard!

MCCOMB -- With 12 chicken houses and 10 years of experience in the poultry business, Delean Robertson of McComb knows the important role women play in agriculture.

When Robertson’s husband, Donald, suggested starting a chicken farm in 2004 so he could quit his off-shore job and be home more often, Robertson said everything seemed to fall into place as if it were meant to be. The loan for Straight Arrow Farm was approved quickly. An auditor assistant, she transferred from Citizens Bank in Columbia to a closer branch in Magnolia.

NATCHEZ – Attorney General Jim Hood will be the closing speaker in Natchez March 28 at a workshop about managing Mississippi’s oil and gas.

Landowners, land managers, elected officials and community leaders interested in oil and gas development can learn about legal, financial and land management planning at the two-day event.

The Mississippi State University Extension Service Center for Government and Community Development and the Stennis Institute of Government and Community Development will host the workshop.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Volunteer leaders displayed their level of commitment to the state’s youth when they spent two days at Mississippi State University training in how to do their jobs even better.

The annual 4-H Volunteer Leaders Conference was held at the MSU Bost Extension Center in Starkville Feb. 28 to March 1. Mississippi 4-H is the youth development program of the MSU Extension Service. About 200 volunteer leaders attended the event.

GOODMAN – Fruit and vegetable producers can learn how to improve production during a March 21 field day at the Alliance for Sustainable Agricultural Production Demonstration Farm.

Experts with the Mississippi State University Extension Service, the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station Alcorn State University and the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians will conduct field demonstrations on mulching, irrigation and high tunnel construction and production techniques. They also will cover fruit crop site selection and variety choices.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – People coming to the aid of large animals involved in accidents and disasters need to proceed with caution for themselves and the distressed animals.

Mississippi State University is hosting a two-day training program in late March to make emergency responders aware of issues involved in large animal rescues.

With St. Patrick’s Day almost here, I’m reminded of the good old days trying to find lucky four-leaf clovers in my lawn as a kid. Of course, some years it was hard because clover is a weed and my dad would spray to get rid of them.

Clover normally has three leaves, but sometimes a mutation produces a fourth leaf. When I found one, I was sure good luck would come my way. Little did I know that this belief has a long history. Four-leaf clovers were considered an omen of good fortune by ancient Celtic peoples.