News

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- As hunters gear up for the Oct. 1 opening day of the state’s white-tailed deer archery season, scientists at Mississippi State University are announcing a new tool to help manage Mississippi’s most popular game animal.

MSU’s Forest and Wildlife Research Center recently launched the MSU Deer Lab website, http://www.msudeer.com. The site is based on four decades of research conducted by researchers in the university’s deer ecology and management laboratory.

CRYSTAL SPRINGS – Garden and landscape enthusiasts will flock to the Fall Flower and Garden Fest on Oct. 18 and 19 at the Truck Crops Branch Experiment Station in Crystal Springs for plant and health recommendations.

With fall officially here, many gardeners hooked on cooking with herbs may start to worry about how they’re going to cook once it’s too cold to grow herbs outside.

Although many gardeners still have herbs growing strong, others may dread reaching for the little red and white cans in the cupboard once it’s too late to go outside and snip something fresh from the garden. If that’s your worry, you can make some preparations now to keep you enjoying those fresh summer herbs during Mississippi’s winter months.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – A machine designed by a group of Mississippi State University researchers could help sweet potato farmers reduce skinning injury to potatoes and speed up harvest.

The undercutter prototype, made from off-the-shelf components, shows early potential to help lower harvest and post-harvest losses caused by skinning, said Jason Ward, assistant Extension professor in MSU’s Agriculture and Biological Engineering Department. Problems stemming from skin abrasions that happen during digging and handling account for 20 to 25 percent of storage losses, he said.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Mississippi swine producers are discovering the only constant in their industry is change.

John Michael Riley, agricultural economist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service, said a variety of challenges have kept the state’s swine producers adjusting their strategies to avoid financial losses in recent decades. Just when producers adjust to overcome one hurdle, another one develops to drive prices down and the cost of production up.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- A Mississippi State University professor and administrator is the new associate dean in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Scott Willard, head of the Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Entomology and Plant Pathology, will assume the position of associate dean on Oct. 1.

Willard has been at MSU since 1999, first as a professor of reproductive and environmental physiology in the Department of Animal and Dairy Sciences before taking the helm in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 2007.

STONEVILLE -- Mississippi State University’s largest agricultural research center will get a new leader Nov. 16.

Jeff Johnson, whose research interests include water policy, farm management and natural resources management, will be the head of the Delta Research and Extension Center in Stoneville.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – The threat of inclement weather forced organizers to cancel a game-day tour of new trial gardens at Mississippi State University.

Bulldog fans had been invited to town early for the Sept. 21 football game to get ideas for their home landscapes at an open house and tour of the trial gardens and Veterans Memorial Rose Garden.

The morning event at the R. R. Foil Plant Research Center, was sponsored by the MSU Extension Service and Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Since the 4-H goal of making the best better applies not only to young people but also to the volunteer leaders who oversee local clubs, ongoing training is key to staying prepared.

A group of 23 volunteer leaders from Mississippi will join about 200 others at the annual Southern 4-H Volunteer Conference at the Rock Eagle 4-H Center in Eatonton, Ga. This year’s theme, “4-H: Framing our Future, Building our Best,” is being coordinated by hosting states Georgia, North Carolina and Kentucky.

ABERDEEN – Landowners are learning they do not have to decide between managing for wildlife or managing for timber production.

Responding to frequently asked questions, Randall Nevins of the Mississippi State University Extension Service in Monroe County organized a multicounty forest and wildlife tour on a farm just north of Aberdeen on Sept. 12.

By Kaitlyn Byrne
MSU Office of Ag Communications

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- After farming for 42 years, Abbott Myers of Dundee, Miss., has been named the Mississippi winner of the 2013 Swisher Sweets/Sunbelt Expo Southeastern Farmer of the Year award. The award is sponsored by Swisher International and the Sunbelt Expo.

Myers said earning the title of Mississippi’s farmer of the year is exciting after so many years of farming, and he sees the award as an opportunity to raise awareness about the importance of agriculture.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- A recent graduate of Mississippi State University’s Department of Agricultural Economics has received a national award for his master’s thesis.

Francis Annan, a native of Ghana, earned the outstanding master’s thesis award at the 2013 Agricultural and Applied Economics Association meeting in Washington, D.C. in August. In February, his thesis earned top honors at the 2013 Southern Agricultural Economics Association meeting in Orlando, Fla.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Anyone who teaches financial education in the classroom, community or home school setting is invited to attend a free, one-day workshop offered by the Mississippi State University Extension Service.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Bulldog fans in town early for the Sept. 21 game can spend the morning getting ideas for their home landscapes at a tour and open house at Mississippi State University’s new trial gardens.

Visitors to the gardens can enjoy 15 minute mini-workshops at six different stations split between the new trial gardens and the existing Veterans Memorial Rose Garden. Hay wagons will transport visitors between the two locations.

Educational topics include summer bedding plants, growing hardy hibiscus plants, soil sampling, rose planting density and more.

By Mary Grace Eppes
MSU Ag Communications

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Many Mississippi bow hunters eagerly await the first hunt of the season and each year, more of those hunters are women.

Katie Pepper of Canton, a former Mississippi State University student and an ardent hunter, is proof that bow hunting is no longer just a male sport.

Sept. 22 may be the first day of fall, but the best way to know summer is ending is to look at all the colorful pumpkin and gourd displays at local garden centers around the state.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Mississippi State University Extension Service is expanding its presence through an increased use of social media to provide information to the public.

Extension offices are already physically located in all 82 counties in the state, but residents of Mississippi and beyond can also follow Extension news and activities through a variety of social media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter.

JACKSON – Mississippi legislators attended a special meeting on Sept. 9 to learn about the “greatest emerging wildlife challenge of the 21st century.”

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Now that dozens of jars of jams, jellies, pickles and vegetables gleam on his booth’s shelves, it is hard to believe that eight years ago, Claude Jones refused to sell his wares at the Mississippi Farmer’s Market.

“I had come to the market to purchase some items, and I carried a bag of my peanut brittle with me,” Jones said. “I was always handing it out to folks. I never intended to sell it. But I gave a bag to the market director, and a couple weeks later, he called me.”