Feature Story from 2012

JACKSON – Hunting and fishing have always been popular in Mississippi, but landowners are now adding wildlife watching, horseback riding and other agricultural entertainment businesses, such as pumpkin patches and bed and breakfasts, to the mix.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Some of Mississippi’s top youth will be touring the state in the 2012 4-H Cooperative Business Leadership Conference.

First-place winners in the senior level of competition at this year’s 4-H Congress, state awareness team members and state 4-H Council officers will participate in the conference and bus tour July 17-20. They will begin and end at Mississippi State University, stopping along the way in Mayhew, Meridian, Jackson, Greenville, Scott and Greenwood.

VERONA -- Mississippi Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce Cindy Hyde-Smith will be the keynote speaker at the North Mississippi Research and Extension Center Agronomic Row Crops Field Day Aug. 9.

The commissioner will speak at the Magnolia Conference Center in the Lee County Agri-Center on Highway 145 South. After more than a decade in the state senate, Hyde-Smith made history last November when she became the first woman elected as Mississippi’s Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – A long-time rice breeder is turning his rubber boots over to the next generation of researchers.

Dwight Kanter, a research professor with the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, retired on July 1. Tim Walker assumed Kanter’s duties.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Creativity and planning ahead can make buying school clothes for the coming year gentler on checking accounts, even when parents have more than one child.

A growing percentage of Mississippi young people go to public and private schools dressed in uniforms. Purchasing uniforms and other school clothes can put unprepared parents in a financial hole if they are not careful.

Experts with the Mississippi State University Extension Service offered a variety of tips on how to make back-to-school clothes shopping less stressful.

JACKSON – Afterschool programs can help keep kids on the straight and narrow, and parents can choose the right program with a few simple tips.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Increasing numbers of athletes report taking nutritional supplements to improve their performance in sports, and the ages of these athletes concern nutrition specialists.

Mississippi State University professor Ron Williams and several colleagues across the United States recently analyzed information in the National Health Interview Survey. More than 1.2 million children ages 10 to 18 reported taking supplements specifically for sports performance. The average age of reported users was 10.8.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Muscadine grape growers interested in the latest research and recommendations will gather at the Beaumont Experiment Station in Perry County on Aug. 16.

After meeting in Pearl River County for several years, the Mississippi State University Extension Service and Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station moved the annual meeting to Beaumont.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Southern beekeepers have an experienced ally joining the ranks of researchers and specialists at Mississippi State University.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – College freshmen who have prepared themselves for new experiences are often not ready for the so-called freshman 15, the dreaded weight gain associated with starting college.

Brent Fountain, associate Extension professor in the Department of Food Science, Nutrition and Health Promotion at Mississippi State University, said weight gain is likely during the first few months of college life.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Mississippi has 187 known species of ants calling the state home, and while fire ants are the most feared, others can cause problems ranging from disruptive to serious.

Blake Layton, entomologist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service, said several species of ants invade Mississippi homes.

The ones most commonly found are the Argentine ant, odorous house ant, little black ant, dark rover ant, imported fire ant, black carpenter ant and acrobat ant. A new invasive species, the hairy crazy ant, is found in Jackson and Hancock counties.

By Kaitlyn Byrne
MSU Ag Communications

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Whether gardening, working or enjoying a baseball game, Mississippians should protect themselves from the heat of summer.

Several factors affect the body’s ability to cool itself during extremely hot weather. For example, in high humidity, sweat cannot evaporate rapidly, preventing the body from releasing heat quickly, said Ann Twiner, with the Mississippi State University Extension Service.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – A Mississippi State University doctoral candidate has been selected for a prestigious national fellowship focused on federal marine policies.

Clifford P. Hutt of Starkville is one of 53 scholars selected for the John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship. He will spend a year in a legislative or executive office in Washington, D.C. to learn firsthand about federal policies impacting domestic waterways, including ocean, coast and Great Lakes resources. Since the fellowship program’s inception in 1979, Hutt is the first MSU student selected to participate.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Sumner Davis has been named department head of the Mississippi State University Extension Service center that supports local governments.

For 40 years, the Center for Governmental Training and Technology, or CGT, has led the development and implementation of educational programs for county and municipal officials, provided technical assistance to local units of government, and provided specialized publications for local government officials in Mississippi.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Two middle-school science teachers returned to college this summer for lessons in functional genomics and biology that did not exist their first time around, and they educated their professor at the same time.

By Dr. Rebekah Ray
MSU Delta Research and Extension Center

STONEVILLE – Mississippi State University scientists are trying to identify soybean varieties resistant to a disease that can reduce yields by more than 20 bushels per acre.

MSU plant pathologist Gabe Sciumbato and research associate Walter Solomon are checking soybean varieties for purple leaf blight through MSU’s soybean variety trials. Both are Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station researchers at MSU’s Delta Research and Extension Center in Stoneville.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – A laboratory at Mississippi State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine recently became the first-ever recipient of an MSU award recognizing laboratories for outstanding attention to safety.

MSU’s Office of Regulatory Compliance and Safety presented the inaugural Excellence in Laboratory Safety Award to the Center for Environmental Health Sciences.

The award was established to recognize an MSU laboratory group that makes safety a top priority every day.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Despite morning rains, about 150 people attended the Agronomic Crops Field Day at the R.R. Foil Plant Science Research Center Thursday at Mississippi State University.

A bus tour took participants to six stops to view the university’s cotton, soybean and corn research and demonstration plots. Participants heard research updates and asked questions of the scientists.

By Dr. Rebekah Ray
MSU Delta Research and Extension Center

STONEVILLE – Mississippi State University will honor a 1950 graduate and longtime professor and administrator when a new building is dedicated at the Delta Research and Extension Center.

The facility will be named the Verner G. Hurt Research and Extension Building in recognition of Hurt’s contributions to agriculture.

JACKSON – After 20 years in Mississippi, the Master Gardener program is stronger than ever and still making its mark on the state.

Lelia Kelly, state Master Gardener coordinator with the Mississippi State University Extension Service since 2002, said she recognized the program had great potential and set out to help county Extension offices better reach the audience she knew was out there.

“In terms of popularity of Extension programs nationwide, the Master Gardener program is second only to 4-H,” Kelly said.