News

The crisp fall air has many families playing outside in leaf piles, tossing footballs at tailgating events, and getting ready for Halloween and fall festivals. Seasonal decorations can be challenging, but the Internet and sites like Pinterest can help anyone, even those without a speck of the Martha Stewart gene.

By Amy Cagle
MSU Foundation

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Willis Durden “Dan” McGeary left Mississippi to follow his dream of becoming a pilot, but he never forgot his connection to his home state or his alma mater, Mississippi State University.

The last surviving member of a prominent Delta family, McGeary willed Sidon Plantation in Leflore County to Mississippi State University. The bequest includes 2,069 acres of farmland and 568 additional acres around Sidon Plantation near Greenwood, as well as one of the oldest homes in Leflore County. McGeary died in 2011 at age 91.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- As a boy growing up in central Mississippi, Joe Gordy never imagined that his love of flowers would grow into an accomplished career.

Gordy, a Mississippi State University alumnus, has a passion for floral design that began in childhood.

“As a child I was fascinated with plants and flowers. I grew up on a farm, and I loved working in the flower garden,” Gordy said. “Horticulture was a subject I wanted to study because I have always been interested in plants. But design is what I love.”

MISSISSIPPI STATE – A long-standing and well-attended festival in Ocean Springs gave Mississippi State University researchers an opportunity to calculate the value of these fun events to the state’s economy.

The John C. Stennis Institute of Government and Community Development and the Extension Service at Mississippi State University completed two economic impact studies of the Peter Anderson Arts and Crafts Festival. This annual festival draws more than 100,000 people to the community of 18,000 residents and has a $13 million impact on the local economy.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Gardeners can add fresh color to their landscapes with plants purchased at the Mississippi State University horticulture club’s annual fall plant sale.

This year’s sale will take place Oct. 12 from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. at Dorman Hall. The event is free and open to the public. Popular flowering plants, such as chrysanthemums, pansies and dianthus, will be available for purchase. Ornamental white and orange pumpkins and cold-hardy vegetables, such as Swiss chard and kale, also will be for sale.

Even though pansies, viola and dianthus are showing up in garden centers, don’t be too quick to pull up your summer-flowering annuals. The Fall Flower and Garden Fest in Crystal Springs this weekend gave visitors a glimpse of what summer annuals can do for the fall landscape.

Our summers in Mississippi can be brutal, and they even take a toll on flowering summer annuals. But once we turn the corner and start heading towards fall, these plants get a second wind. Like humans, they also appreciate the moderating temperatures.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- This year’s soybean crop is on track to set a state yield record, but much depends on whether recent heavy rains that halted harvest seriously damaged what remains in the field.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated the state’s 2.1 million acres of soybeans were 77 percent harvested by Sept. 30. Acreage is up 17 percent from what was planted in 2011.

VERONA – DeSoto County emergency responders were just settling in for a day of large animal rescue training when the call came on Sept. 28.

“An 18-wheeler hauling about 100 calves through the state hit the Coldwater River bridge on Highway 78 in DeSoto County,” said Dr. Carla Huston, an associate professor with the Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine and a member of the CVM Disaster Response Team. This was not a drill.

VERONA – Several agencies joined forces in Wiggins and Verona to help train first responders how to rescue large animals safely following a disaster or accident.

“Mississippi is a rural and agricultural state, but many of our first responders have no experience with horses, cattle and other large animals,” said Elmo Collum, disaster preparedness coordinator for the Mississippi State University Extension Service. “Over the years that we have conducted these trainings, we have discovered that even people with large-animal experience can learn from the classes.”

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and if the men in the National Football League can wear pink, surely the rest of us can use technology to prevent, diagnose and beat breast cancer.

Research shows that one in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer, and early detection is important.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – To most consumers, the idea of someone purposefully contaminating food seems far-fetched, but to food business owners, it is a reality for which they must plan.

By Kaitlyn Byrne
MSU Ag Communications

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Fall is an ideal time for farmers to add value to their businesses by engaging in agritourism and developing farm-to-table relationships.

Becky Smith, Mississippi State University Extension Service instructor of agricultural economics, said farmers can diversify income through fall agritourism activities like corn mazes, tractor rides and pumpkin patches.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Landscape and garden enthusiasts can get help planning for next spring from nationally acclaimed designers at a Mississippi State University landscape design event.

The 57th annual Edward C. Martin Jr. Landscape Design Symposium will be Oct. 17 from 9 a.m. to noon at the Bost Conference Center on MSU’s Starkville campus. Attendees can preregister by Oct. 12 for $20 or register at the door for $25.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- When hunters in Lowndes and surrounding counties see deer with colored ear tags this fall, researchers at Mississippi State University hope they will allow the research subjects to roam.

Scientists at MSU’s Forest and Wildlife Research Center are studying antler size and growth rates for 77 tagged whitetail bucks in the wild. Researchers hope to determine whether antler size in young deer is a predictor of antler size at maturity.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- The Mid-South Forestry Equipment Show will showcase the newest technology and machinery being used to advance the South’s timber industry.

The event is from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the John W. Starr Memorial Forest off of Highway 25 near Starkville. It is sponsored by Mississippi State University’s College of Forest Resources, Hatton-Brown Publishers Inc., the Mississippi Logger’s Association and the Mississippi Forestry Association.

Gardeners getting ready for fall planting should consider dianthus, a versatile group of plants that grow well in Mississippi gardens and landscapes.

Dianthus come in annual and perennial selections. There are cool season and warm season varieties. I really like their color palette – we can grow a wide variety of pinks, purples and whites, along with bicolors. Dianthus is one flower that lets us keep a sense of landscape and garden color continuity across all the seasons.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Commercially grown catfish in North America or Africa face similar challenges, a fact that sent one Mississippi State University veterinarian on a training mission to Nigeria in June.

Dr. Skip Jack, a professor of pathobiology and population medicine at MSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine, spent almost three weeks teaching Nigerian catfish farmers, veterinarians and students about health issues related to their fish. He was part of the Farmer to Farmer project, teaching under the oversight of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Sidebar to MSU veterinary expert shares expertise in Nigeria

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Fish make up about 41 percent of the meat in the average Nigerians’ diet, but domestic supply falls short of that, forcing the country to spend $500 million a year on imported fish.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Most people avoid thinking about animal cruelty, but two groups recently joined efforts to train and support law enforcement officials who encounter these cases across Mississippi.

Mississippi State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine and the Mississippi Animal Control and Protection Association hosted a course for animal control officers, veterinarians and others at MSU’s Wise Center on Sept. 13. The goal of the course was to increase awareness of animal cruelty issues and the laws related to them.

Having recently returned from a family vacation, I am all set to show off the more than 800 digital photos I took. In days gone by, we would have hooked up the slide projector and clicked through the carousel in a darkened living room. Today, we have more options.