News From 2008

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

The Japanese tassel fern offers rare beauty, form and texture in the landscape and should be mandatory for all shade or woodland gardens.

If you treasure ferns but lament their disappearance in the late fall -- caused by deciduous dormancy, death or having to move them to a sheltered location -- then you will like the genus Polystichum.

By Steven Nalley
MSU Ag Communications

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Disasters can sever important lines of communication, leaving the hurt helpless and the missing lost.

Disaster preparation requires not only formulating a survival plan, but also informing distant relatives, local officials and neighbors about that plan to reopen broken lines of communication as soon as possible.

By Patti Drapala
MSU Ag Communications

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- The volatile fuel market has caused nightmares for every farmer, but the problem is particularly vexing for sod producers who cannot escape the added cost of looking good.

Sod has to be trimmed and mowed at least twice a week to maintain good appearance and health before sale. Grass practically sells itself when it is luscious and in shape. But these frequent trips with the mower increase fuel use.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Livestock owners and hay producers have an opportunity to learn a lot of information about their business in a short amount of time at a Mississippi State University two-day short course in August.

The Mississippi Pasture and Forage Short Course will be held Aug. 26-27 at the Bost Conference Center at MSU. It is sponsored by the MSU Extension Service, along with company leaders in the forage field.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Several Mississippi State University faculty and staff members were honored for service at the recent summer celebration of the Division of Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine.

The division presented the 2008 Louis and Doris Wise Support Staff Awards, the Rosalind and Rodney Foil Teamwork Award and the William M. White Special Project Awards during the annual event at the Bost Center. Wise and Foil are former division vice presidents, and White was a dairy producer and MSU financial supporter.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Soaring fuel prices have reduced family spending on other things, cut into business profits and led to a dramatic increase in fuel thefts across Mississippi and the country.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

Gardeners, if you have even a little shade, you need to remember the name Cathedral Windows. This is one of the most beautiful hostas in the world.

I need to admit, first, that when I see hostas, I love them all. I run from one to the next, drooling over them and listing their virtues and exclaiming how this one or that one must be the prettiest I've ever seen.

By Patti Drapala
MSU Ag Communications

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Preparing large animal patients for evaluation, treatment and care is a huge responsibility.

Four technicians at Mississippi State University's College of Veterinary Medicine assume that role each day. Their ability to mobilize veterinary personnel helps the college maintain a high level of service and outreach.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- The mortgage crisis and high fuel costs are working against timber markets in 2008.

James Henderson, assistant forestry professor with Mississippi State University's Extension Service, said prices for pine pulpwood were increasing early in the year, but higher fuel costs are pressing midyear prices downward, and pine sawtimber prices have been trending downward since the summer of 2007.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Mississippi State University’s equine reproduction program lost its top stallion to a catastrophic leg injury during a severe thunderstorm on the afternoon of July 11.

Minister Slew, a grandson of 1977 Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew, was alone in a paddock when he apparently spooked or took a misstep during a sudden thunderstorm and fractured a front leg above the knee. He was euthanized a short time later.

By Patti Drapala
MSU Ag Communications

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- At 8 years of age, Joey Burt assisted a prominent veterinarian with an emergency cesarean section on a cow, and a career was born that night.

Burt's family owned a small beef cattle farm in Columbia. Burt's father was away on an offshore job, and his mother called Dr. Cassie Price to deliver a calf. Assessing the situation, Price decided he had to operate.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Challenged by rains throughout the planting season, Mississippi's soybeans now face make-or-break conditions as they await uniform showers to complete their growth and fill out beans.

“This crop is later than in recent years because early spring rains kept us from planting much of the crop as early as we would have liked,” said Trey Koger, soybean specialist with Mississippi State University's Extension Service. “We are at a crossroads where we need a rain to keep most of this crop going in the right direction.”

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Mississippi’s Master Clothing Volunteers will meet soon in Rankin County to learn some of the latest developments and trends in textiles and home decor.

The annual state meeting at the Rankin County Extension Office is open to nonmembers on July 31 and Aug. 1. A business meeting for Master Clothing Volunteers is scheduled on Aug. 2. Registration fees are required, with $5 discounts if made before July 18.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Row crop farmers and consultants from across north Mississippi will have the opportunity to learn about current research during the upcoming field day at the Lee County Agri-Center just south of Verona.

The North Mississippi Research and Extension Center Agronomic Row Crops Field Day, which takes place every other year, will be held from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Aug. 14.

The program will include educational and industry exhibits and field research plot tours. This year’s featured speaker will be Mississippi Farm Bureau President David Waide.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

The phrase “eye of the tiger” may signify immediate danger or attack, but in the garden it will soon mean incredible beauty. As you look into the new rudbeckia called TigerEye, you will see orange and yellow with a dark brown eye lined in gold.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

I have traveled a lot this summer, and I have seen the Lily of the Nile strutting her stuff from coast to coast. Mention summer bulbs and your first thought is probably the caladium, the elephant ear or even the rhizome of the canna lily. Or, you may be like many gardeners who are finally giving the Agapanthus, or Lily of the Nile, a try.

By Steven Nalley
MSU Ag Communications

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- A natural disaster often means no electricity, telephone service or safe transportation, but it does not have to mean no food, clean water or medicine if these essentials are ready and packaged in a disaster survival kit.

Herb Willcutt, safety specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service, said the kit should have two parts: a traveling disaster kit to bring along during an evacuation and a home disaster kit to use when staying home during a storm.

By Steven Nalley
MSU Ag Communications

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- A recent excavation effort will enable Mississippi harness racing enthusiasts who love attending good races actually to see some.

A hill in the center of the Mississippi Horse Park's five-eighths-mile all weather track obscured the audience's view of the back of the track for more than half a decade after the park opened in 1999. The harness track reopened on June 20, after the removal of 65,000 cubic yards of dirt from its center.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Two undergraduate student teams from Mississippi State University with an interest in muscle foods took top honors during their first appearance at the American Meat Science Association Intercollegiate Quiz Bowl.

The two MSU teams, a collaborative effort between the Departments of Animal and Dairy Sciences, and Food Science, Nutrition and Health Promotion, won first and second place among 20 collegiate teams from across the country. They competed at the 2008 Reciprocal Meat Conference in Gainesville, Fla., June 22 and 23.

By Norman Winter
MSU Horticulturist
Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center

The Black Pearl was made famous a couple of years ago as both a pirate ship in the movies and as one of the most intriguing ornamental peppers grown in the landscape.

The same company that brought us the Black Pearl now is bringing us Calico, Purple Flash and Sangria -- three more incredible peppers.