Feature Story from 2013

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Three Mississippi State University graduate students earned recognition for presentations on bottomland hardwoods at a recent meeting in the Delta.

The Bulldogs competed at the 60th Annual Southern Hardwood Forest Research Group Meeting held Feb. 21 in Stoneville with students from several universities around the region, including the University of Mississippi, the University of Arkansas and Louisiana Tech University.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – A Panola County cattleman is using native grasses in a 200-acre intensive grazing operation that is both efficient and environmentally friendly.

Durwood Gordon owns Gordon Farms, a pasture and cattle farm near Batesville. He is experiencing the kind of success that is the goal of the Research and Education to Advance Conservation and Habitat, or REACH, initiative coordinated by Mississippi State University.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Hundreds of veterinary professionals will gather in Phoenix for the annual American Animal Hospital Association meeting, but part of the conference will originate at Mississippi State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine.

During a March 15 AAHA pediatric spay and neuter session sponsored by PetSmart Charities, Dr. Phil Bushby will demonstrate surgeries and share his surgical expertise. Bushby, the MSU-CVM Marcia Lane Endowed Chair in Humane Ethics and Animal Welfare, will operate on shelter dogs and cats to help them become more adoptable.

By Kaitlyn Byrne
MSU Office of Ag Communications

MISSISSIPPI STATE — A Mississippi State University senior is combining unique course opportunities and farm experience to prepare for a future in agriculture.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – The Mississippi chapter of the American Fisheries Society recently honored a Mississippi State University professor with a conservation award.

Donald Jackson, a professor in MSU’s Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Aquaculture, received the C.A. Schultz Conservation award at the chapter’s annual meeting February 22 in McComb.

MISSISSIPPI STATE –Mississippi State University’s horticulture club will inspire garden enthusiasts with a wide variety of plants at its annual spring plant sale.

This year’s sale will take place Friday, April 5 from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Saturday, April 6 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. outside the campus greenhouses behind Dorman Hall on MSU’s main campus. The event is free and open to the public.

Student-grown bedding plants, baskets with flowering plants, perennials, herbs and some vegetable plants will be available.

PEARL RIVER COUNTY –The Pearl River County Master Gardeners hope to boost the population of the Blue Orchard bee in south Mississippi with a project intended to attract this native pollinator to area backyards.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – In response to the increasing popularity of raising chickens for eggs and meat, Mississippi State University Extension experts are offering tips for people interested in starting their own flock of backyard birds.

BILOXI -- Mississippi’s produce growers can evaluate and comment on the new food safety regulations being proposed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration during three upcoming workshops.

Experts with Mississippi State University’s Extension Service and the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station will help participants understand the Food Safety Modernization Act. The act aims to improve the safety of the food supply by strengthening rules intended to prevent food contamination.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Seventy-five years have passed since Mississippi State University began producing its distinctive Edam cheese.

To celebrate this major milestone, MSU’s Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station will host a celebration on Saturday, April 20, outside the MAFES Sales Store. Refreshments will be served at the free public event from 9:30 a.m. to noon.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Many Mississippi business owners are investing in their online business presence as a way to increase their profits, and Mississippi State University Extension Service experts are helping.

Specialists from Extension’s Center for Technology Outreach and the Extension Broadband Education and Adoption Team, or e-BEAT, recently taught more than 125 business owners ways to improve their online presence in an online seminar, popularly called a webinar.

PURVIS – There was no shortage of sweethearts at a recent biannual rodeo in Lamar County.

“The sweethearts of this rodeo are the individuals in the community with special needs, but the 4-H members and volunteers are pretty special, too,” said Kimberly Wilborn, Lamar County 4-H agent with the Mississippi State University Extension Service.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Anne-Marie (Gillon) Wells, a Mississippi State University undergraduate student, received the Outstanding Didactic Program in Nutrition and Dietetics Student award from the Mississippi Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Wells, a senior Food Science, Nutrition and Health Promotion major in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, received the award March 21 at the annual meeting in Oxford. A resident of Philipp in Tallahatchie County, she was selected based on her grade point average, professional association involvement and service activities.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Homeowners in small communities and rural areas without a public water supply often have questions about how to manage, operate and protect their private wells.

The Mississippi State University Extension Service is working with the Rural Community Assistance Partnership and the University of Illinois to help Mississippians with private wells learn more about managing their water supplies.

By Meg Henderson
Forest and Wildlife Research Center

STARKVILLE -- Studies at Mississippi State University are finding that when it comes to providing forage for livestock, native grasses may be best.

Sam Riffell, an associate professor of wildlife ecology and management in the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Aquaculture, is examining the benefits of replacing exotic grasses, commonly used in Mississippi grazing pastures, with native, warm-season grasses.

JACKSON -- The arrival of spring means outdoor chores are at the top of the to-do list for homeowners. But outdoor burning, coupled with the season’s weather conditions, raises the risk of wildfire for Mississippians.

Don Bales, senior Extension associate with the Mississippi State University Extension Service and the MSU Forest and Wildlife Research Center, said debris burning is one of the leading causes of wildfires in Mississippi.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Mississippi State University’s Natural Resources Enterprise Program can help the state’s landowners diversify their income by capitalizing on the popularity of wildlife watching and nature photography.

“Mississippi landowners with scenic views, butterfly gardens, wildlife viewing areas, or important or rare bird species can market these wildlife-viewing opportunities in order to charge a fee for access to their land,” said Daryl Jones, associate Extension professor in wildlife, fisheries and aquaculture at MSU’s Forest and Wildlife Research Center.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Are the South’s extension service and experiment station systems still relevant, nearly a century after they were founded? Yes, says a new report released by an Ohio-based charitable trust.

Battelle Technology Partnership Practice and BioDimensions, an independent research and development organization, released results of a study of the economic impact Extension Service and Experiment Station systems have had on a 13-state Southern region.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – With the arrival of spring, hatching chicks is a popular topic of conversation in many Mississippi classrooms.

Mississippi State University Extension experts are accepting requests for their hatch-out program, which takes the stress out of the egg-hatching process and allows educators to focus on the learning process.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – The Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine invites visitors of all ages to attend its 28th annual Open House on April 5 and 6.

The college will open its doors from 8:30 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. both days for the event at the Wise Center, located on the south side of campus off Spring Street. The April 5th program is for preregistered school groups only. To register a school group, please call Brandi Van Ormer at (662) 325-0465.

Everyone in the community is welcome to attend on April 6.