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Feature Story from 2016

Eddie Stevens, farm supervisor at Mississippi State University’s R. R. Foil Plant Science Research Center in Starkville, was applying a liquid fertilizer to a corn field on April 5, 2016. Correct application of nutrients is a key part of environmental stewardship and efficient farm management. (Photo by MSU Extension Service/Kevin Hudson)
April 13, 2016 - Filed Under: Soils

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- One major cost of producing a good crop is ensuring plants are fertilized well, an operational expense that may consume a significant part of farm budgets.

Bryon Parman, an agricultural economist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service, said nutrient application and replenishment may consume more than 13 and 14 percent of total operating expenses for cotton and soybeans.

“For crops with high nutrient demand such as corn, this nutrient cost may comprise more than 40 percent of variable costs,” Parman said.

Althea and Joel Bontrager of Columbus examine a communication ball at the beginning of a three-hour workshop for foster/adoptive parents in the Oktibbeha County Extension Office on March 19, 2016. (Photo by MSU Extension Service/Kevin Hudson)
April 13, 2016 - Filed Under: Children and Parenting, Family Dynamics

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Family service providers know that parenting is never easy, especially when the children are not your own.

The Mississippi State University Extension Service is teaming up with the Mississippi Department of Human Services Division of Family and Children’s Services to provide workshops on topics such as parent/child communications, helping children cope with change, and coping with stress, depression and anger.

Volunteers and riders will be featured at Mississippi State University’s second annual Therapeutic Riding Expo at the Mississippi Horse Park on April 19. This file photo shows Lantz Stewart of West Point offering advice to Eli Barlow before they enter the arena for the first riding exposition in 2015. (Photo by MSU Ag Communications/Linda Breazeale)
April 13, 2016 - Filed Under: 4-H, Equine Assisted Therapy Programs

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Riders involved in the Mississippi State University therapeutic riding program will demonstrate their skills in a special event April 19 at the Mississippi Horse Park.

About 46 riders will take part in the second annual Therapeutic Riding Expo, which begins at 6 p.m. The horse park is south of Starkville at 869 East Poorhouse Road. The event is free and open to the public.

Honey bee swarms, such as this one found in a cedar tree, are part of the natural process colonies go through when they outgrow their current living space. (MSU Extension Service/File Photo)
April 14, 2016 - Filed Under: Beekeeping

COLUMBUS, Miss. -- The fear of being stung by thousands of swarming bees typically sends people running for a can of pesticide.

But swarming is a dramatic display of democracy in action and can be a source of wonder instead of panic for those who understand what is going on.

Reid Nevins, Lowndes County coordinator of the Mississippi State University Extension Service, said bees swarm as part of the natural process of establishing new colonies.

April 18, 2016 - Filed Under: Beekeeping

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- The Mississippi State University Extension Service will host a daylong queen-rearing workshop at the MSU Apiculture Lab on April 30.

The workshop will cover the benefits of raising queen bees, preparing a quality cell builder, troubleshooting problems with queen rearing, and grafting and non-grafting techniques. PowerPoint sessions will begin in the morning, followed by hands-on demonstrations and grafting practice in the afternoon.

In addition to farm tours, Country Girl’s Creamery in Lumberton, Miss. provides dairy and other farm products to local markets. (Submitted photo)
April 18, 2016 - Filed Under: Agri-tourism, Rural Development

POPLARVILLE, Miss. -- Mississippi’s small towns and rural communities have a lot to offer visitors, and developing those tourism resources will be the focus of a two-day workshop at Pearl River Community College in Poplarville.

April 19, 2016 - Filed Under: Beef

TYLERTOWN, Miss. -- Cattle producers in Louisiana and Mississippi can learn about animal handling and health issues during the Mississippi/Louisiana Beef and Forage Field Day May 21.

The event begins with registration at 8:45 a.m. at the Livestock Producers Sale Barn on Highway 98 East in Tylertown, Mississippi.

Experts with the Mississippi State University Extension Service and Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station will join industry professionals to discuss low-stress animal handling and new vaccination regulations.

A bee feeds on the nectar of the Rhododendron canescens, commonly called pink native azalea, at the Mississippi State University Crosby Arboretum in Picayune, Mississippi. A two-part program will focus on attracting and feeding pollinators with native plants May 21 at the arboretum. (Photo by MSU Extension Service/Pat Drackett)
April 19, 2016 - Filed Under: Insects

PICAYUNE, Miss. -- Gardening enthusiasts can learn how to attract pollinators during a two-part program at the Mississippi State University Crosby Arboretum on May 21.

Heather Sullivan, a botanist with the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, will kick off the program with a habitat walk through the arboretum grounds from 10 to 11 a.m. On the tour, she will focus on the pollinators and native plants in each habitat.

Dr. Hossam Abdelhamed, a postdoctoral fellow at the Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine, examines an agar plate with bacterial colonies of listeria. A group of researchers at the college, including Abdelhamed, developed a faster, more efficient method of performing genetic studies of listeria, which will help scientists worldwide find ways to better control the pathogen and treat those who become ill. (Photo by MSU College of Veterinary Medicine/Tom Thompson)
April 20, 2016 - Filed Under: Food Safety

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Researchers at the Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine pioneered a technique that can help advance the study of one of the deadliest foodborne bacteria in the United States.

Listeria monocytogenes, the bacterium that causes listeriosis, ranks No. 3 among the top five domestically acquired foodborne pathogens that cause death, according to 2011 estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

April 20, 2016 - Filed Under: Forages

NEWTON, Miss. -- Landowners and producers who want to learn more about alfalfa production can attend a workshop next month in Newton.

The Mississippi State University Coastal Plain Branch Experiment Station will host an alfalfa hay production and equipment demonstration May 19.

Nora Molina, 5, is proud to show her horseback riding trophy to her teacher Leslie Earnest, a research associate at the T.K Martin Center at Mississippi State University. Molina was one of 46 riders taking part in the second annual Therapeutic Riding Expo at the Mississippi Horse Park on April 19, 2016. (Photo by MSU Extension Service/Linda Breazeale)
April 22, 2016 - Filed Under: Equine Assisted Therapy Programs

STARKVILLE, Miss. – Therapeutic horseback riding is about much more than physical therapy.

Cassie Brunson, coordinator of the Mississippi State University Extension Service Therapeutic Riding and Activity Center, said participants first come to the program for the exercise, but they stay for the relationships.

April 25, 2016 - Filed Under: Nuts

RAYMOND, Miss. -- The Mississippi Pecan Growers Association will host a spring field day on May 3 in Raymond, Mississippi.

Registration for the field day will begin at 1 p.m., and the program will end at 4:30 p.m. The event, to be held at Pecan Hill Farms at 19470 Highway 18, is open to the public.

April 27, 2016 - Filed Under: Food Safety

BILOXI, Miss. -- The Mississippi State University Extension Service is offering a three-day food safety course for food industry personnel.

This course, developed by the Food Safety Preventative Controls Alliance (FSPCA) in collaboration with the Food and Drug Administration, will be May 23-24 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and May 25 from 8 a.m. to noon. The Coastal Research and Extension Center will host the event at 1815 Popps Ferry Road in Biloxi.

April 27, 2016 - Filed Under: Agriculture

PRENTISS, Miss. -- Specialty crop farmers can learn how to build or improve their online presence and expand marketing strategies during the Alliance for Sustainable Agricultural Production field day May 20.

The on-farm field day will be at PL88 Farms, located at 5641 Highway 84 in Prentiss.

Chickasaw County Emergency Management Agency Director Linda Griffin, second from right, teaches 4-H members how to use found objects to save someone who is drowning during a meeting of the 4-H sportfishing club April 14, 2016, at the Chickasaw County Agricenter. (Photo by MSU Extension Service/Kat Lawrence)
April 27, 2016 - Filed Under: 4-H

HOUSTON, Miss. -- Participants in the state’s first 4-H fishing program have not wet a line yet, but they are already getting outside more often and learning life skills in the process.

Scott Cagle, Chickasaw County coordinator for the Mississippi State University Extension Service, said 4-H membership in his county saw immediate growth after he started the program in February.

The Choctaw Agriculture Professionals Program for Students, or CAPPS, is the culmination of a relationship Mississippi State University Extension Service agent Jim McAdory has been working to foster between the tribe and MSU for several years. (Photo by Kevin Hudson/MSU Extension Service)
April 27, 2016 - Filed Under: Community

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Choctaw Central High School senior Jasmine Hickman has known for a while that she will be a student at Mississippi State University next fall, but she didn’t know about the range of careers she could pursue in agriculture and natural resources.

Hickman is now reviewing all these options after having her eyes opened through a new MSU mentor program that she and 20 other Choctaw teens recently participated in.

Dr. Jeb Cade, an assistant clinical professor at the Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine, is part of a team researching more efficient and cost-effective ways of treating a common condition in Mississippi dogs. (Photo by MSU College of Veterinary Medicine/Tom Thompson)
May 4, 2016 - Filed Under: Pets

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- The Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine invites dog owners to enroll their pets in a new study.

In cooperation with local veterinarians, this research initiative is designed to develop practical and cost-effective methods of managing chronic diarrhea, a common condition in dogs.

Chronic diarrhea can be difficult for pet owners to manage, and community veterinarians often have to refer dogs to specialty centers, such as the MSU veterinary college, for care if commonly used treatments do not work.

Owners who make arrangements ahead of time can successfully transfer family land to the next generation rather than seeing it sold to others. (Photo illustration by MSU Extension Service and Can Stock Photo/Gina Daly)
May 4, 2016 - Filed Under: Farming, Community, Family

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Aging brings a variety of challenges to individuals, but taking steps to make sure family farms are inherited by relatives is a task that sometimes gets overlooked.

Older Americans Month in May is a good time to consider land succession, which is how land ownership often passes from one generation to the next.

Bryon Parman, Mississippi State University Extension Service agricultural economist, said the average age of Mississippi farm owners is 60. This age mirrors the national average and has risen steadily in the last few years.

May 6, 2016 - Filed Under: Children and Parenting

BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. -- Jeramie Kelly nearly lost a leg, but he found his heart.

After a work-related accident left him unable to walk for almost three years, Kelly could not return to his job on a riverboat. Without a high school diploma, he had few other options.

The Mississippi State University Aiken Village Preschool director Lucy Bryant, on right, led a tour of the facility and playground for a group of early care and education providers interested in quality improvements. (Submitted photo)
May 6, 2016 - Filed Under: Children and Parenting

STARKVILLE, Miss -- Sometimes seeing is believing, and a group of early care and education providers got a firsthand look at what it takes to create high quality learning environments for young children.

Quality is the goal of all early care and education providers, but it might look different depending on resources and facilities. The Early Years Network recently hosted 36 early care and education providers and members of the staff from the Allies for Quality Care project based in Jackson for a tour of three different child care facilities to see quality in action.

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