Feature Story

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 – 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 – Reading was not required to build a robot at Mississippi State University’s Cloverbud Camp, but teamwork, persistence and willingness to follow directions helped all of the pieces fit into place.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Fun with Food brought 32 young people in third through sixth grades to Mississippi State University for a week of hands-on learning about food and cooking skills.

Offered June 18-22 by MSU’s Department of Food Science, Nutrition and Health Promotion, the class brought together 10 boys and 22 girls for a 40-hour week filled with new food experiences. Sylvia Byrd, professor of nutrition, organized the program and has led it for the past five years.

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.

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 – A popular summer camp will serve double the number of children this year as the Mississippi State University Extension Service launches its Summer of Innovation.

The Extension Center for Technology Outreach, formerly known as Computer Applications and Services, received funding from NASA for the Summer of Innovation program for the second time. This series of camps is designed to inspire young people to engage in science, technology, engineering and math projects and to learn the fundamentals of rocketry.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – In response to the growing problem of too few doctors to serve the population, 14 years ago Mississippi State University created a plan to motivate bright high schoolers to give medicine a closer look.

MSU launched Rural Medical Scholars in 1998 for the single purpose of directing more of the state’s best and highest-performing students into medical careers. That means the 20 high school students currently in the five-week program have spent the summer seriously considering a future in medicine.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – The Mississippi State University Extension Service is helping those who want to sell processed foods at Mississippi-certified farmers’ markets get the training they need.

The General Farmers’ Market Food Safety Training two-hour workshop will be offered on these dates:

MISSISSIPPI STATE – A variety of grass developed at Mississippi State University is getting its moment in the sun as a biofuel ingredient, thanks to a recent U.S. Department of Agriculture announcement.

Freedom giant miscanthus, developed by Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station researcher Brian Baldwin and his colleagues, was selected as the crop of choice for one of two new Biomass Crop Assistance Program projects. BCAP funds help offset the expenses of planting renewable energy crops that can require several years to mature to the point of harvest.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Wild pigs may be a boon to hunters, but to many of the nation’s landowners, they are a nuisance, an economic and environmental liability, and a disease hazard.

Farmers and landowners can arm themselves with information from a new website dedicated to providing research-based, useful solutions for feral hogs that damage their crops and property. The site, http://extension.org/feral_hogs, lists resources ranging from the history and biology of feral hogs to designs for corral traps.

JACKSON – Mississippians can see footage of the West’s wildfires nearly every day, but many could be surprised to learn that their own state averages more than 600 wildfires a year. With urban sprawl infringing on the state’s forests, the fire risk is growing.

“Wildfires don’t get much attention here because we aren’t impacted like people who live in the West,” said Bob Brzuszek, associate professor of landscape architecture at Mississippi State University. “Our climate is more humid, we have a great fire service, and our wildfires tend to happen in more rural areas.”

MISSISSIPPI STATE – A Mississippi State University doctoral student’s research on a life-threatening, food-borne pathogen was honored at a recent international conference.

Dong-Ryeoul Bae, a researcher at MSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine in the Department of Basic Science, submitted a poster presentation about his research on Listeria to the American Society for Microbiology. It earned an Outstanding Student Poster award at the organization’s June meeting in San Francisco.

By Kaitlyn Byrne
MSU Ag Communications

MISSISSIPPI STATE — For greatest success, gardeners should start by improving the quality of the soil.

Larry Oldham, a soils specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service, said soil-related challenges vary across Mississippi.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – While nothing may beat the fresh taste of a home-grown tomato, a lot of things can go wrong in the garden to prevent the fruit from ever making it to the table.

Garden experts say tomato plants should be watered well, fertilized correctly, grown in direct sunlight and spaced properly so their leaves stay as dry as possible.

David Nagel, vegetable and home garden specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service, listed three common problems that can plague tomato plants.

By Nina Ammon
MSU College of Forest Resources

MISSISSIPPI STATE – A Mississippi State University alumnus’s dedication to sharing his passion for the outdoors has resulted in a national honor.

Jay Stokes, a 2007 graduate of MSU’s College of Forest Resources, was honored as a Field and Stream magazine Hero of Conservation. The honor recognizes individuals who conduct extremely effective hunting- or fishing-related conservation projects.