Feature Story

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Much of agriculture’s success depends on effective water management, which must be done to keep both farmland and surrounding areas healthy.

Agriculture was a $6.7 billion industry in Mississippi last year, and the state is on track to match that value in 2012. That makes agriculture big business with a big responsibility to the environment.

By Kaitlyn Byrne
MSU Ag Communications

STARKVILLE – A growing number of Mississippians are interested in how their food gets from the farm to the table and are looking for local fruits, vegetables and meat.

Ali Fratesi, a graduate student in Mississippi State University’s Department of Food Science, Nutrition and Health Promotion, said more people are choosing locally grown food. When they do, they can ask farmers how it was grown or raised.

STARKVILLE – A Mississippi museum is conserving the past inside and embracing the future outside with its modern, sustainable landscape.

Visitors to the Oktibbeha County Heritage Museum will enjoy a new pavilion’s shade but may not realize they are surrounded by environmentally friendly solutions to a challenging landscape using environmentally friendly solutions.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Seeing the forest and the trees is a lot easier with software developed by scientists at Mississippi State University.

Researchers at MSU’s Forest and Wildlife Research Center have created the Mississippi Forest Monitoring and Information System, a forest inventory and information system that combines satellite remote sensing data and ground surveys. It is the first time forest-related satellite data and ground measurements have been combined on such a large scale in the United States.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – A Mississippi State University veterinary student interested in bovine health recently won a national scholarship.

Matt Mundy, a third-year student at the MSU College of Veterinary Medicine, received an American Association of Bovine Practitioners’ Amstutz Scholarship. This is the first time an MSU student has received this prestigious award.

JACKSON – Seventy-eight Mississippians have been diagnosed with West Nile Virus, and one death is attributed to the disease.

Mississippi is one of the three hardest-hit states, following Texas and Oklahoma. Specialists predict the number of cases will continue to increase through early fall.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- In an industry with small profit margins, a perishable product and fierce, largely unregulated competition, one Mississippi company has confidently filled its market for more than 30 years.

Pride of the Pond is the catfish processing operation of Battle Farms of Tunica. Owned by Bill Battle, the farm has about 10,000 acres of row crops and 2,700 acres of ponds in Panola, Tunica and Quitman counties. The state-of-the-art catfish processing plant is located just a few miles outside Tunica and employs 121 people.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – July brought 32,000 grasshoppers to Mississippi State University, but rather than being a plague of locusts, they are a research bonanza.

The Mississippi Entomological Museum is borrowing a portion of the grasshopper collection from the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History. JoVonn Hill, a research associate with the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, said the collection complements what MSU already has.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – About 32,000 grasshopper specimens from the Smithsonian Institution are now housed in the Mississippi Entomological Museum to support ongoing research at Mississippi State University.

JoVonn Hill, a Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station research associate in MSU’s Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Entomology and Plant Pathology, has been working since last summer to secure the collection’s loan from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

DURANT – Holmes County, where 4-H was born as a “corn club” more than 100 years ago, is getting back to its roots by inspiring a new generation to garden.

A community garden project blossomed with the help of District 2 county supervisor James Young, the Mississippi State University Extension Service and local volunteers.

VERONA – Mississippi State University recently hosted the academic equivalent of a “baited field” for row-crop farmers, consultants, university researchers, Extension agents and industry representatives.

The North Mississippi Row Crops Field Day Aug. 9 provided the latest research information and recommendations for local producers at the North Mississippi Research and Extension Center in Verona. Participants also heard from Mississippi Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce Cindy Hyde-Smith.

CLARKSDALE – Mississippi State University will hold the first North Mississippi Peanut Field Day on Aug. 29 in Coahoma County.

Registration for the half-day event begins at 9 a.m. Activities will include updates by MSU research and Extension specialists, as well as harvest demonstrations. The event will be held at Mark and John Agostinelli’s farm on Monty Martin Road off New Africa Road in Clarksdale. Snacks will be provided by the Mississippi Peanut Growers Association.

OCEAN SPRINGS – The St. Martin High School 4-H Club took second place in the 4-H edition of the Great American Seafood Cook-Off.

“I am so proud of them and their accomplishment,” said Evelyn DeAngelo, Jackson County 4-H Agent with Mississippi State University’s Extension Service. “I know they were a bit disappointed not to win first place, but their second place win paired with last year’s first place has established Mississippi as the team to beat in future competitions.”

MISSISSIPPI STATE – A professor with the Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine received national recognition from the American Veterinary Medical Association for his dedication to animal welfare.

Dr. Phil Bushby received the 2012 American Veterinary Medical Association’s Animal Welfare Award at the national convention in San Diego. He has taught at MSU since 1978 and holds the Marcia P. Lane Endowed Chair in Humane Ethics and Animal Welfare.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Two global veterinary health experts visited the Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine to show students how veterinarians protect animal and human health.

MSU-CVM students learned about international veterinary medicine’s opportunities and challenges from Dr. David Sherman, international veterinary medical consultant and clinical associate professor at Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, and Dr. Gary Vroegindewey, director of the Global Health Initiatives at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine.

JACKSON – A pet’s bad breath is not just offensive; it could be a sign the animal has periodontal disease.

“By the age of 3 years, up to 80 percent of dogs and cats have some degree of periodontal disease if regular home care has not been done,” said Dr. Diana Eubanks, associate clinical professor at Mississippi State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – When a new plant becomes an overnight sensation in gardening circles, plant lovers who wonder how a previously unknown variety can end up with star status can turn to a Mississippi State University professor for the answer.

Rick Snyder, a vegetable specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service and Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, grows a garden of test vegetables as part of the All-America Selections program.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Everything came up roses at a recent national conference for representatives of Mississippi State University’s floral design and management program.

Students and faculty in MSU’s floral management concentration in the horticulture program traveled to Miami to compete at the American Institute of Floral Designer’s annual meeting. While there, they received multiple honors.

By Alicia Barnes
School of Human Sciences

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Distractions, fatigue and stress have contributed to the vehicular heatstroke deaths of an estimated 610 children over the past 21 years.

With fatalities occurring in the spring, summer, and fall every year, the Mississippi Child Care Resource and Referral Network at the Mississippi State University Extension Service wants parents and caregivers to be aware of the danger of children being left in vehicles.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – More than a year after a tornado ripped through the small town of Smithville, students are returning to temporary classrooms, but they still have access to current technology.

The Mississippi State University Extension Center for Technology Outreach, formerly known as Computer Applications and Services, donated 40 refurbished computers to the Monroe County School District for the schools in Smithville.