News

In a fast-paced world, the once commonplace gathering of family members at the dinner table to enjoy a home-cooked meal is an often forgotten activity.

The Mississippi State University Extension Service and Mississippi Association of Family and Consumer Sciences are sponsoring Dining In, a Dec. 3 observation to encourage families to return to the dinner table tradition in an effort to promote planning healthy meals and quality time with loved ones.

That date also marks the second annual celebration of Family and Consumer Sciences Day.

RAYMOND, Miss. -- Problems with private septic systems can be expensive, messy and hazardous to Mississippi’s drinking water. But homeowners can take some proactive steps to keep their systems functioning properly.

Let’s face it: Gardeners like to talk about their gardens, and I’m no different. We all like to brag about our garden successes and ask questions about how to improve. Through email and social media, I get many gardening questions throughout the year.

These questions concern landscape issues, plant care and plant identification. I enjoy answering questions and helping home gardeners to be successful in their gardening endeavors in Mississippi and beyond.

While dressing a deer this fall, there are some common parasites you may encounter. None of these parasites actually affects the quality of the deer meat, but it is important to recognize what they are.

Louse flies…

Have you ever noticed little wingless critters crawling around on a deer’s belly? Those are louse flies -- also called deer keds. The adult flies shed their wings and become flightless. While at first glance louse flies resemble small ticks, they only have six legs.

CRYSTAL SPRINGS, Miss. -- The All-America Selections organization named a Mississippi State University experiment station as one of the top landscape gardens in North America.

The MSU Truck Crops Branch Experiment Station in Crystal Springs placed second among gardens that receive 10,000 to 100,000 visitors annually. Personnel at the station represent the MSU Extension Service and the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station.

PICAYUNE, Miss. -- Attendees of the Piney Woods Heritage Festival in Picayune can celebrate the history and culture of the Piney Woods region located in the central coastal portion of the state.

The Mississippi State University Crosby Arboretum will host the two-day festival on Nov. 20 and 21. Exhibitors will provide live demonstrations of the traditional skills, crafts and arts of the region’s people, including quilting, woodcarving and blacksmithing.

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Mississippi farmers are expected to plant as much as 200,000 acres of wheat this year, but very little had been planted by the end of October because of exceptionally dry weather since August.

Erick Larson, grain crops agronomist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service, said several factors limited wheat acreage last year, but wheat planting intentions are fairly strong this year if weather allows planting to proceed soon.

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Rocky Lemus knows there are times when watching grass grow is incredibly exciting.

Lemus, an associate professor of forage systems with the Mississippi State University Extension Service and Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, is always plotting his next variety trial.

“MSU has the only complete forage testing plots in the United States,” he said. “We have 20 different species, 110 varieties and four different locations.”

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- South Mississippi homeowners in small communities and rural areas without public water supplies can learn how to better manage, operate and protect their private wells during a Dec. 1 program in Harrison County.

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Mississippi State University’s annual online horse auction opens for preview Nov. 3 and features 24 horses registered with the American Quarter Horse Association.

This year’s sale includes 14 weanlings, five yearlings and five 2-year-olds that have been started under the saddle.

Prospective buyers can view photos, video and a description of each horse at https://auction.msucares.com.

Bidding opens at 8 a.m. on Nov. 16 and closes at 6 p.m. on Nov. 21. Opening bids range from $300 for weanlings to $1,500 for 2-year-olds.

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- For five years, the Mobile Environmental and Energy Lab has taken the latest developments in poultry production technology on the road.

Mississippi State University researchers recently used funding from the MSU Extension Service to make upgrades to the replicated poultry house on wheels and improve the learning experience for everyone who sees it.

We all knew it was going to happen sometime.

That change in the seasons is an inevitable event as we move into the later months of the year. But I’m not referring to the time of year when we start planting all of the gorgeous cool-season bedding plants like pansies, violas and dianthus. The change I’m talking about is from Halloween to Christmas; it seems like it happened overnight. Maybe it had something to do with the time change, that whole falling back that also occurred this past weekend.

Ray Iglay, Certified Wildlife Biologist
MSU Department of Wildlife Fisheries and Aquaculture

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- As creatures of habit, our lives follow patterns.

We go to sleep at night, wake in the morning, get ready for work and run out the door. Throughout the year, school and work schedules, and even holiday seasons, structure our annual cycles of activities. Across decades, we may even mark life achievements, such as starting to crawl as an infant or achieving retirement.

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Farmers know how to handle ongoing threats posed by insects, diseases, and weeds, but new threats continue to surface that keep them on high alert and change the way they operate.

Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station researchers and MSU Extension Service specialists work to monitor the arrival of new crop threats, determine the best way to address the problem, and pass on those recommendations to producers.

Insect pests …

VARDAMAN, Miss. -- Untimely dry conditions will likely hurt this year’s sweet potato crop in Mississippi, but increasing demand is keeping prices high enough for growers to remain optimistic.

Stephen Meyers, sweet potato specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service, said a wet spring delayed planting for one to two weeks. Dry fall conditions limited growing progress and will keep yields from reaching full potential.

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Mississippi State University researchers have spent the last few years on the front lines protecting a $33 million dollar crop in Mississippi.

As grain sorghum production grew, producers had to fight off a new pest.

HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- Using prescribed fire is an important part of managing private timberland, but doing so correctly requires precision.

The Mississippi State University Extension Service is helping to offer “Fire on the Forty: Applying Prescribed Fire on Private Lands.” This workshop is part of the sixth annual meeting of the Mississippi Prescribed Fire Council to be held Nov. 12 in Hattiesburg.

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- When he walks into a hardware store and starts looking at lumber, he could be your average do-it-yourselfer, ready to start a project.

But Dan Seale, a sustainable bioproducts professor in the Mississippi State University Forest and Wildlife Research Center, is no ordinary weekend warrior building a little something for the house.

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- From live blues music to shrimp and catfish, visitors to the Sunbelt Ag Expo in Moultrie, Georgia, got quite a taste of Mississippi at the annual event.

Billed as North America’s premier farm show, the expo showcases the latest developments in agriculture-related technology, including tractors, trucks and farm equipment. Each year, one of the participating Southeastern states serves as a spotlight state and has the opportunity to put its unique accomplishments and commodities on display.

I talked last week about how pansies are perfect bedding plants for the cool season in our Mississippi landscapes and gardens. This week, I want to draw attention to the viola, another favorite cool-season bedding plant that is closely related to the pansy.

Most gardeners I know call violas by their common name, Johnny jump ups. They get this name because they are prolific seed producers. It seems wherever I have planted them in my yard, they continue to reappear for at least a couple more years.