News

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Wildlife managers can get expert tips on what to plant in food plots year-round with a new app from the Mississippi State University Deer Lab.

Bronson Strickland, a wildlife management specialist with the MSU Extension Service, said he wanted to give people easy access to research-based information while in the field or in the feed store looking at seed.

As much as I’ve tried the last few weeks to encourage you to give summer annuals a chance to put on one last show, it’s time to start thinking about cool-season color. Probably the most recognizable cool-weather bedding plant is the pansy, a tough and reliable garden performer.

I really like the Cool Wave series of trailing pansies. If you think the name “Wave” sounds familiar, you’re right. Cool Wave pansies were bred by the same folks who brought the popular Wave petunias to many Mississippi gardens.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – A partnership with Prestage Farms Inc. is allowing Mississippi State University to improve its swine research facility as university scientists prepare to resume swine-related studies.

John Blanton, head of the Department of Animal and Dairy Sciences at MSU, said there is a need in the Southeast for science-based information on swine production.
“We are addressing that need of our stakeholders through our swine research program,” Blanton said.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Mississippi’s pumpkins have experienced something of a holiday miracle with one of their best seasons ever.

David Nagel, horticulturist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service, said 2013 has been the best year for pumpkins since he started working in the state about 25 years ago. Mississippi growers are producing more and larger pumpkins than their competitors in states to the north.

IMISSISSIPPI STATE – Mississippi State University has planned three upcoming events to supply forage producers with the latest and best information possible to help them with production.

INDIANOLA – An upcoming seminar will help people discover ways to secure, save and safeguard tax refunds for themselves or the clients they serve.

Mississippi State University Extension Service will offer the program from 11:45 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. on Oct. 23 at the Charlie Capps Technology Center in Indianola. The seminar’s purpose is to provide organizational leaders and professionals with information on tax credits that can result in higher income tax refunds.

BROOKHAVEN – When Hurricane Katrina destroyed his timber stand in 2005, Lincoln County landowner Jason McDonald searched for an alternative crop.

In May 2012, he visited the Charleston Tea Plantation in South Carolina and began to consider growing the crop himself.

“I wanted something that was sustainable and better at resisting storm damage,” McDonald said. “As long as tea plants are managed well, they are low-growing, which makes them able to survive high winds.”

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Gardeners with landscape challenges walked away with wheelbarrows full of ideas after three landscape designers shared tips at the nation’s oldest symposium of its kind.

The 58th Edward C. Martin Jr. Landscape Symposium drew more than 100 garden club members, Master Gardeners, students and design professionals to Mississippi State University Oct. 16.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Master Gardeners know one of the basic principles that university students around the country are discovering: Education is about more than books.

Mississippi’s horticultural educators and volunteers recently returned to campus for the Master Gardener University, hosted by the Mississippi State University Extension Service. Like many college students, Master Gardeners take part in a variety of community service projects. The educational volunteers shared these projects along with their accumulated knowledge at the conference.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Mississippi State University is moving a popular horse sale into cyberspace with a special online auction.

More than 20 horses from the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station’s herd will be sold from Nov. 1 to 21 at http://www.auction.msucares.com. Buyers can also bid on the stud fee for one 2014 breeding to gray American quarter horse stallion UGA King of Aces.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Starkville-area teachers are invited to bring their students Nov. 1 to the Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine to listen to the adventures of National Geographic explorer Helen Thayer.

The college is hosting Thayer as part of its Nestle Purina Human-Animal Bond Series. Thayer will share her adventures as the first woman to travel to the Magnetic North Pole with only the companionship of her dog. She will also discuss her experience living among wolves for a year.

JACKSON – After a 30-year absence, the 4-H poultry livestock show returned with great fanfare to the Mississippi State Fair this year.

Jessica Wells, poultry science specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service, said the poultry program has been very popular with 4-H’ers since it returned to the program lineup in 2012. She said 150 children participated this year with 64 showing their chickens at the state fair.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Two Mississippi State University units are helping sponsor a conference for people interested in developing outdoor recreation and tourism businesses.

The MSU Extension Service and Stennis Institute of Government and Community Development are promoting the annual Alabama-Mississippi Rural Tourism Conference Oct. 28-30. The event will be in Guntersville, Ala., and the theme is outdoor recreation.

By Mary Grace Eppes
MSU Ag Communications

MISSISSIPPI STATE - With the school year well underway, families across Mississippi commonly encounter illnesses, viruses or the contagious and bothersome head lice.

David Shrock, a health education and wellness graduate assistant at Mississippi State University, said the head louse is a parasitic insect that can be found on heads, eyebrows and eyelashes of humans.

BILOXI – Biloxi homeowner Jesse Aguilar got a little help installing a high tunnel in his backyard from two Mississippi State University horticulture scientists and the traveling home improvement show “Ask This Old House.”

You probably have figured out by now that I have a lot of favorite plants. Since it’s autumn, I get to talk about one of my favorite native plants that is in its full glory right now.

The American beautyberry is really putting on quite a show in Mississippi with clusters of bright purple berries.

American beautyberry is commonly found on the edges of woodlands all across the state. It is widely found east of the Mississippi in the mid-Atlantic and Gulf Coast region of North America.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – The cool, damp nights that are making it feel like fall in Mississippi are slowing peanut harvests way down across much of the state.

Mississippi’s peanut crop was 28 percent harvested as of the last U.S. Department of Agriculture Crop Progress and Condition Report released Sept. 30. Because of the federal government shutdown, no new figures have been released in almost two weeks. At the end of September, 48 percent of the crop was listed in good condition, with 13 percent excellent and 39 percent fair.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- About 4,000 fourth-graders, teachers and parents from across the state will be at Mississippi State University Oct. 14-18 for the annual Wood Magic Science Fair.   

Activities and exhibits illustrating everything from papermaking to the strength of a toothpick-sized piece of wood are part of the annual event at the Forest Products Lab complex during the week. 

Sponsored by the university’s College of Forest Resources, the event is designed to illustrate the importance of natural resources throughout the state.