Row Crop Review

2025 Row Crop Short Course highlights best practices, growing tips

Story by Leah Bowers | Photos by Kevin Hudson

The 2025 Row Crop Short Course, hosted by the Mississippi State University Extension Service and the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, was held at The Mill in Starkville in early December. With almost 800 registrants and nearly 700 attendees, the annual event offered agricultural producers, industry representatives, and row-crop specialists the chance to learn best practices and expand professional networks.

Topics included best practices for weed and pest management, advanced irrigation management, nutrient management and delivery, spray drone application and regulation, updates to federal farm policy, and economic outlooks for soybeans, corn, and cotton.

Speakers, along with experts from MSU, included industry and row-crop specialists from Oklahoma State University, the University of Arkansas, Auburn University, and the University of Georgia.

Producers and industry leaders hailed from 54 of 82 Mississippi counties, including Adams, Alcorn, Amite, Attala, Benton, Bolivar, Calhoun, Carroll, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Clarke, Clay, Coahoma, Copiah, DeSoto, Forrest, Franklin, Grenada, Hinds, Holmes, Humphreys, Itawamba, Lafayette, Lamar, Lee, Leflore, Lowndes, Madison, Marion, Marshall, Monroe, Montgomery, Noxubee, Oktibbeha, Panola, Pearl River, Pontotoc, Prentiss, Quitman, Rankin, Smith, Sunflower, Tallahatchie, Tate, Tishomingo, Tunica, Union, Walthall, Warren, Washington, Webster, Winston, Yalobusha, and Yazoo.

The 2026 Row Crop Short Course will be held Dec. 7–9, 2026, and free preregistration will open in early November.