News

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Farmers have traditionally worked hard to keep cows out of their corn, but Dr. Steve Redding is glad to see part of his herd grazing in corn.

Redding is a full-time veterinarian and a part-time cattleman in Lafayette County. For the past two years, he has devoted seven acres of his pasture to corn planted with just minimum tillage. He grazes heifers on the standing corn from late summer through early fall. The results, he said, have been good and he plans to put more of his herd on corn grazing next year.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

The time change is one of the few times of the year I always dread. I don't mind getting up to sunshine, but I really dislike coming home to dark.

If you are like me, probably we both could use a little landscape lighting to welcome us home as we pull in the drive. After mulch, lighting is the perfect finishing touch to landscaping. Lighting can really make a dramatic impact in the landscape, especially when featuring the old oak, water pond or flower garden.

cMISSISSIPPI STATE -- After a season of unprecedented weather challenges, the biggest uncertainty remaining for Mississippi's cotton growers is whether or not they will top last year's record yields.

2003 went down in the record books with yields averaging 932 pounds per acre. 2004 will go down in the record books for the wettest June and coldest first week in August. Then growers faced a Category IV hurricane as it bore down on the state on the eve of the harvest season. While some fields took a hit from Hurricane Ivan, the bulk of the state's crop was spared.

By Linda Breazeale

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- The national flu vaccine shortage will eliminate the single best option for preventing the flu for some Mississippians, but officials are encouraging the state's residents to consider all their health options.

Liz Sharlot, director of communications with the Mississippi State Department of Health, said people who are most at risk for the flu and its serious complications should make every effort to get vaccinated.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Entrepreneurs who dream of creating and manufacturing food products can learn how to make those dreams reality at a day-long conference offered in Meridian in November.

The Mississippi State University Extension Service is sponsoring Food as a Business Nov. 17 from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Kahlmus Auditorium on the MSU-Meridian campus. Registration for the conference is $35 and includes lunch, breaks and conference materials. Speakers represent the Extension Service, the Mississippi Development Authority, and retail and manufacturing industries.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

The 2004 Mississippi Medallion award-winning Red Giant Mustard may be just what you need to liven up your fall and winter garden.

If you haven't tried Red Giant mustard, you have missed one of the hottest new plants for the fall and winter. They are strikingly beautiful in the landscape, and partner well with pansies like the Ultima Apricot shades and Delta Fire, and are incredible interplanted with spring-blooming pink tulips.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Soybean producers are learning that planting fewer seeds can mean higher profits.

Rising seed technology fees are encouraging soybean producers to be frugal as they plant.

Soybean seed costs about $26 to $27 a bag this year, but there is speculation it will rise to as much as $35 as seed companies pass on a higher cost of research and development.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Soybean yields that once would have seemed phenomenal now are a little disappointing for a Tupelo producer.

Keith Wiseman knows how to manage his crop the SMART way -- with the Soybean Management by Application of Research and Technology program. SMART is provided through the Mississippi State University Extension Service and funded by the Mississippi Soybean Promotion Board. Wiseman said he has seen dramatically increased yields on his 300 acres of soybeans since adopting SMART management techniques.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Mississippi's sweet potato crop will finish like it started: at the mercy of the weather.

Bill Burdine, area agronomist in Chickasaw County with Mississippi State University's Extension Service, said above-average rainfall in late May and early June divided the 2004 sweet potatoes into two distinct crops.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- When Mississippi State University President Charles Lee bought his wife Pat a puppy for Christmas, the family grew in much the same way as if a child had been born.

Little Grands Yeux -- that's French for Big Eyes -- celebrated her first birthday Sept. 20, and Mrs. Lee said the standard schnauzer is a beloved part of the Lee family.

"I absolutely do consider her a member of our family and, frankly, I give her everything I would give a child," Lee said. "She's a bit spoiled, actually."

By Tricia Hopper

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Trees provide shade and beauty and are considered an asset to most campuses, communities and homes, but they can become a liability as they age.

Mississippi State University is home to hundreds of trees of numerous species used to beautify areas and provide shade and shelter. Whenever a significant storm comes through, trees may be damaged or lost. In the concentrated area of campus, falling trees and limbs pose a significant danger to cars, buildings and people.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Trees often are left in cattle pastures for shade and beauty, but research has shown that they can be planted there as a second crop without hindering the first.

Cattle, hay and lumber can be produced on the same ground at the same time. Known as silvopasture, it is the practice of growing widely spaced pine trees on land that is being farmed for cattle and hay production.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

If you want to see next year's hot new zinnias, be sure to attend the Fall Flower and Garden Fest Oct. 15-16 at the Truck Crops Experiment Station in Crystal Springs.

Among the new zinnias is the Magellan series, which is sure to be hot. The Magellan Coral will be an All-America Selections winner next year. As you look at the colors available, you'll think they are all winners.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Some are spooky, some are funny, some are just strange, and they're all waiting to greet visitors to the Scarecrow Trail at the Northeast Mississippi Research and Extension Center in Verona.

The Scarecrow Trail opened to the public Sept. 25 and will remain open through Oct. 25. The trail winds though gardens filled with flowers and landscape plants.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Mississippi's shrimping industry dodged the worst of Hurricane Ivan, but other parts of the Gulf of Mexico were not as fortunate.

Hurricane Ivan in September made an indirect hit on the Mississippi Gulf Coast while hitting Alabama and Florida. Three others hit Florida this season.

Dave Burrage, Extension fisheries specialist at Mississippi State University's Coastal Research and Extension Center in Biloxi, said Mississippi fishermen weren't affected by Ivan nearly as much as those farther east.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Mississippi's Extension Service employees still travel dirt roads, but they are also on super highways; their communication efforts have made similar progress.

New video conferencing lines are enabling the Mississippi State University Extension Service to save costs in travel and time as well as expand their reach into communities throughout the state, nation and world.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- A team of Mississippi State University veterinary researchers hopes to find the genetic defect responsible for a devastating skin disease in American quarter horses.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Muhly grass is already showing out with its incredible display of color. No doubt, it will be the hit again at the Annual Fall Flower and Garden Fest Oct.15-16.

This event, held at the Truck Crops Branch Experiment Station in Crystal Springs, is unsurpassed as the best free horticultural festival in the South.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Record high oil prices are focusing a lot of attention on alternative energy sources, including biodiesel, a fuel derived from vegetable oils.

Since soybean oil is the most commonly used vegetable oil in biodiesel, it would seem soybean producers would be among its biggest fans. Farm use of biodiesel, however, is not widespread, and that concerns Thomas Howarth, who grows soybeans on his Circle H Farm near Cleveland.

"I would like to see more farmers aware of biodiesel," he said. "I'm lucky to live in an area where it's available."

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- The wind and rain brought by Hurricane Ivan did not hurt the state's peanut crop, and producers in South Mississippi are expecting a 2-ton per acre harvest to match last year's yield.

Mike Howell, area agent for agronomic crops with the Mississippi State University Extension Service, said harvest is just starting. Howell covers a 21-county area from headquarters in Covington County, and said the year appears to have been a good one for peanuts.