News

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- A one-day workshop offered by Mississippi State University’s Franklin Furniture Institute will provide training on the properties of wood.

The Wood Properties and Frame Design workshop will take place from 8:30 a.m. until 3:45 p.m. Sept. 14 in the university’s Franklin Furniture Center.

The workshop costs $40 and is open to anyone interested in learning how to maximize the strength, durability and quality of wood products.

By Karen Templeton
MSU Ag Communications

BILOXI – Shrimp landings may be way below average this season, but the quality of Gulf shrimp is still good.

Shrimping began on time when state waters opened on June 3. Because of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, partial closures were implemented beginning on June 8. By July 1, state waters had completely closed.

By Alicia Barnes
Southern Rural Development Center

GULFPORT – Forty two Mississippi State University employees have trained and half have reported to the Mississippi Gulf Coast to transport birds and turtles impacted by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

In May, Elmo Collum, an Extension associate who coordinates disaster response, received a call from the Mississippi Animal Response Team requesting assistance from MSU’s Extension Service and the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Yellow jackets are most likely to attack in the fall, but these stinging wasps are a year-round threat, especially because they can be hard to detect until they are disturbed.

Yellow jackets are small wasps about 3/8 inch long. Their black and yellow-banded bodies have three segments. Each insect is equipped with a smooth stinger that can sting multiple times. In contrast, a honey bee has a barbed stinger that stays in the wound, limiting the bee to only one sting.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – A department head in Mississippi State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine has been selected to review research grants for the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Stephen Pruett, head of CVM’s Department of Basic Sciences, is one of a select group of scientists serving as members of NIH’s Innate Immunity and Inflammation Study Section. Members are selected for their achievements in their discipline, research accomplishments and publications in scientific journals.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Families are invited to take a walk on the “wild side” at the Second Annual Wildlife Festival at Mississippi State University’s Coastal Plain Branch Experiment Station in Newton on Sept. 18.

The event will be held from 9 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. and will include falconry demonstrations by David Hall of the Wildlife Outreach Foundation and presentations on Mississippi wildlife by naturalist Joe McGee of the Mississippi Museum of Natural Sciences. Live snakes, alligators and turtles are some of the Mississippi wildlife that will be featured at the outdoor event.

BILOXI – The Mississippi State University Extension Service will host a workshop through the Sea Grants Program on Aug. 26 to help seafood dealers and processors instill consumer confidence in seafood harvested from Gulf waters.

The workshop will be from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. at the MSU Coastal Research & Extension Center in Biloxi. Personnel from seafood processing firms, regulatory agencies and marketing programs are encouraged to attend.

When we hear the word “daisy,” most of us think of the flower with white petals and a yellow center that we used as children to play the “loves me, loves me not” game.

Growing the Shasta daisy in your garden can bring back some of those old memories. Known botanically as Leucanthemum x superbum, Shasta daisy is a classic garden plant that is as at home in the modern landscape as it is in the cottage garden. It really shines in the garden.

OKOLONA -- Mississippi’s rivers and Gulf waters are popular fishing destinations, but most of the state’s anglers depend on ponds and lakes for their prized catches and quality time in the outdoors.

Unlike the larger bodies of water, ponds and lakes need a human touch to stock them and monitor environmental conditions for the best results.

Chickasaw County Extension director Scott Cagle said his office gets calls almost year-round from residents with farm-pond concerns.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Record-breaking heat is forcing Mississippi producers to manage crops more carefully than normal to bring what looks like successful yields to harvest.

Temperatures in the Delta, which is home to the majority of the state’s row crops, have set as many as five record highs during the first week of August.

Nancy Lopez, a physical scientist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Stoneville, said some daily records from Greenville to Vicksburg were broken consecutively in August. July also was unusually hot across most of the state.

By Karen Templeton
MSU Ag Communications

MISSISSIPPI STATE – While many people spent their summer vacations relaxing on the beach, a group of Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine students traveled to Central America to help animals in need.

In June, Katie Cooley, Brolin Evans, Brittany Fisher, Kellie Horton and Stephanie Starling, all second-year CVM students, participated in a Volunteers for Intercultural and Definitive Adventures, or VIDA, veterinary mission trip.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Chicken and nets may not seem high tech, but a Mississippi State University student finds them necessary tools for researching an important Gulf Coast resource.

MSU College of Forest Resources’ doctoral student Sarah Harrison is collecting data on the blue crab populations in the Pascagoula Estuary. She uses crab nets baited with raw chicken legs to pull the crustaceans from the shallow waters of the estuary. Avoiding their snapping claws, she weighs and measures the crabs before returning them to the water.

I spent last week in Palm Desert, Calif., where the daily temperatures were 110 degrees or more and the humidity was less than 20 percent.

The landscapes I saw there are completely foreign to our lush, green gardens. Yet the landscape was quite beautiful, not bleak as I had imagined. There were lots of flowering desert plants, and I quickly realized that one of the first things I needed to get was a desert plant guide.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Anyone growing muscadine grapes in Mississippi is invited to attend the Aug. 21 Muscadine Field Day in Pearl River County.

Mississippi State University’s Extension Service and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service are offering the free event in the vineyard at the McNeil Research Station. The field day begins Saturday at 8:30 a.m. and will feature speakers, tours and samples of the fruit MSU is growing.

By Karen Templeton
MSU Ag Communications

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Successful planting got Mississippi cotton off to a strong start, and prospects look good for the crop as long as growing conditions and demand remain favorable.

Darrin Dodds, cotton specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service, said 2010 has been one of the state’s most successful cotton plantings yet.

“It all went off without a hitch for the most part and wrapped up the first week of June,” Dodds said.

As we enter the most active part of hurricane season, now is a good time to think about ways to help landscape trees recover from storm damage.

A common myth is that the root system mirrors the top growth of a tree. While some trees do put down deep roots, most of a tree’s root system is in the top 12 to 14 inches of soil. Roots need to be near the surface to exchange carbon dioxide and oxygen gases and to ensure healthy root and tree growth. These roots also help stabilize the tree. You can see their presence and arrangement in trees that have been blown over.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Mississippi row crop producers are facing a growing problem, as five common weeds have developed resistance to the primary herbicide used to manage them.

Roundup is the trade name for glyphosate, a powerful broad-spectrum herbicide that can kill a wide range of weeds in varying growth stages. But by the 2010 growing season, 19 weeds worldwide had become resistant to glyphosate, and five are found in Mississippi. These weeds are horseweed, Italian ryegrass, Johnsongrass, and Palmer amaranth and waterhemp -- both species of pigweed.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Mississippi is one of six states participating in a study monitoring the problem of glyphosate-resistant weeds and trying to prevent any more from developing.

Roundup is the trade name for glyphosate, a powerful broad-spectrum herbicide that can kill a wide range of weeds in varying growth stages. Seed genetically modified to be resistant to glyphosate is known as Roundup Ready seed. With Roundup Ready cropping systems, producers can apply glyphosate across a field, killing weeds but leaving the crop undamaged.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Weeds that have developed resistance to the commonly used herbicide glyphosate are forcing row crop farmers to change their production methods to battle the problem.

Five weeds found in Mississippi have developed resistance to glyphosate, the active ingredient found in Roundup herbicide. Since 1996, this broad spectrum herbicide has been used extensively as an easy and effective way to control weeds in row crops that have been genetically modified to withstand the chemical.

BAY ST. LOUIS – An upcoming conference will provide a chance for the rural tourism community to meet the challenges they face in the upcoming months. 

Rachael Carter, a community-instituted planning specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service, said the Miss-Lou Rural Tourism Association is working hard to bring together those involved in tourism and community and economic development in rural Mississippi and Louisiana to increase tourism in these areas.