News

With spring just around the corner, many of us are contemplating when it will be warm enough to go fishing. But be aware that a dangerous form of bait lurks on the Internet waiting to hook you. This type of fishing is known as phishing, and the Internal Revenue Service reports that fraudulent phishing attacks are at an all-time high this year.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – With the arrival of spring, hatching chicks is a popular topic of conversation in many Mississippi classrooms.

Mississippi State University Extension experts are accepting requests for their hatch-out program, which takes the stress out of the egg-hatching process and allows educators to focus on the learning process.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – The Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine invites visitors of all ages to attend its 28th annual Open House on April 5 and 6.

The college will open its doors from 8:30 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. both days for the event at the Wise Center, located on the south side of campus off Spring Street. The April 5th program is for preregistered school groups only. To register a school group, please call Brandi Van Ormer at (662) 325-0465.

Everyone in the community is welcome to attend on April 6.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Are the South’s extension service and experiment station systems still relevant, nearly a century after they were founded? Yes, says a new report released by an Ohio-based charitable trust.

Battelle Technology Partnership Practice and BioDimensions, an independent research and development organization, released results of a study of the economic impact Extension Service and Experiment Station systems have had on a 13-state Southern region.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Mississippi State University’s Natural Resources Enterprise Program can help the state’s landowners diversify their income by capitalizing on the popularity of wildlife watching and nature photography.

“Mississippi landowners with scenic views, butterfly gardens, wildlife viewing areas, or important or rare bird species can market these wildlife-viewing opportunities in order to charge a fee for access to their land,” said Daryl Jones, associate Extension professor in wildlife, fisheries and aquaculture at MSU’s Forest and Wildlife Research Center.

By Meg Henderson
Forest and Wildlife Research Center

STARKVILLE -- Studies at Mississippi State University are finding that when it comes to providing forage for livestock, native grasses may be best.

Sam Riffell, an associate professor of wildlife ecology and management in the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Aquaculture, is examining the benefits of replacing exotic grasses, commonly used in Mississippi grazing pastures, with native, warm-season grasses.

Mississippi has many flowering native trees, and one that gets its fair share of attention this time of year is the redbud. These trees flower early in the spring before most other trees have started to leaf out after their winter naps.

Although most flowering trees native to Mississippi tend to be understory trees that can be hidden by bigger trees and their foliage, it’s common around the state to see a redbud framed or silhouetted by leafless hardwoods.

JACKSON -- The arrival of spring means outdoor chores are at the top of the to-do list for homeowners. But outdoor burning, coupled with the season’s weather conditions, raises the risk of wildfire for Mississippians.

Don Bales, senior Extension associate with the Mississippi State University Extension Service and the MSU Forest and Wildlife Research Center, said debris burning is one of the leading causes of wildfires in Mississippi.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Cool temperatures through March kept some Mississippians comfortable, but they slowed the development of wheat, the state’s only row crop grown through winter.

Erick Larson, corn and wheat state specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service, said wheat acreage is high this year, with 420,000 acres planted in the fall. State growers planted 500,000 acres in 2007, but this year marks the second highest planting since 1990.

PURVIS – There was no shortage of sweethearts at a recent biannual rodeo in Lamar County.

“The sweethearts of this rodeo are the individuals in the community with special needs, but the 4-H members and volunteers are pretty special, too,” said Kimberly Wilborn, Lamar County 4-H agent with the Mississippi State University Extension Service.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Many Mississippi business owners are investing in their online business presence as a way to increase their profits, and Mississippi State University Extension Service experts are helping.

Specialists from Extension’s Center for Technology Outreach and the Extension Broadband Education and Adoption Team, or e-BEAT, recently taught more than 125 business owners ways to improve their online presence in an online seminar, popularly called a webinar.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Anne-Marie (Gillon) Wells, a Mississippi State University undergraduate student, received the Outstanding Didactic Program in Nutrition and Dietetics Student award from the Mississippi Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Wells, a senior Food Science, Nutrition and Health Promotion major in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, received the award March 21 at the annual meeting in Oxford. A resident of Philipp in Tallahatchie County, she was selected based on her grade point average, professional association involvement and service activities.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Homeowners in small communities and rural areas without a public water supply often have questions about how to manage, operate and protect their private wells.

The Mississippi State University Extension Service is working with the Rural Community Assistance Partnership and the University of Illinois to help Mississippians with private wells learn more about managing their water supplies.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Seventy-five years have passed since Mississippi State University began producing its distinctive Edam cheese.

To celebrate this major milestone, MSU’s Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station will host a celebration on Saturday, April 20, outside the MAFES Sales Store. Refreshments will be served at the free public event from 9:30 a.m. to noon.

BILOXI -- Mississippi’s produce growers can evaluate and comment on the new food safety regulations being proposed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration during three upcoming workshops.

Experts with Mississippi State University’s Extension Service and the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station will help participants understand the Food Safety Modernization Act. The act aims to improve the safety of the food supply by strengthening rules intended to prevent food contamination.

Every spring the home gardener is bombarded with new and improved petunias for the garden and landscape, making it hard to decide which to bring home from the garden center. In my opinion, you simply can’t go wrong selecting any of the Supertunias.

For the past several years, I have been watching and writing about these fantastic garden performers. Whether used as spreading plants in the landscape or as container and hanging basket plants, supertunias have been good performers in Mississippi.

Daffodils are giving their last burst of color while the Bradford pear trees are blooming, signaling we have survived another winter. This time of year makes me do crazy things like host a tea party in my backyard for 15 preschool friends and their families, which means I have a lot of landscape work to do.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – In response to the increasing popularity of raising chickens for eggs and meat, Mississippi State University Extension experts are offering tips for people interested in starting their own flock of backyard birds.

PEARL RIVER COUNTY –The Pearl River County Master Gardeners hope to boost the population of the Blue Orchard bee in south Mississippi with a project intended to attract this native pollinator to area backyards.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – The Mississippi chapter of the American Fisheries Society recently honored a Mississippi State University professor with a conservation award.

Donald Jackson, a professor in MSU’s Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Aquaculture, received the C.A. Schultz Conservation award at the chapter’s annual meeting February 22 in McComb.