Feature Story from 2019

LOUISVILLE, Miss. -- The Mississippi State University Extension Service will hold the North Mississippi 4-H Summer Camp Explore July 23-26 in Winston County.

The camp will be at Lake Tiak O’Khata, located at 1290 Smyth Lake Road in Louisville.

Participants will enjoy the outdoors, expressive arts, and STEM and S.A.F.E.T.Y. activities. Archery, canoeing, drama, air rifle, survival skills, first aid, robotics and a service project are among the camp’s offerings. The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians will conduct a heritage activity with the campers.

STONEVILLE, Miss. -- A former leader of Mississippi State University’s largest agricultural research center will soon return to that role on an interim basis.

Steve Martin will become interim head of the Delta Research and Extension Center July 1. He will also continue in his current role as associate director of the MSU Extension Service. Jeff Johnson, who served since 2013 as head of the Stoneville-based center, has accepted a full-time faculty position on the MSU main campus in Starkville.

Flood and storm victims must brace themselves for the next threat approaching their neighborhoods: scammers looking for fast, easy money at the expense of others.

Although numbers on paper look about right for Mississippi row crops, the reality is actually quite grim in places.

Three years ago, participants in the Mississippi State University Seed Technology Short Course familiarized themselves with each step of a seed’s journey from bin to bag. This year, the course will focus on the same process from field to bin.

Registration is open through July 31 for enrollment in the second class of Mississippi’s premier agricultural leadership program.

A new floral design course intended to enhance skills and inspire community volunteerism is now easily accessible to floral enthusiasts statewide.

With so much unpleasantness associated with cockroaches, it may not be surprising that they are one of the most expensive pests to control in the state.

The Alliance of Sustainable Farms will host a field day at the Truck Crops Branch Experiment Station July 19.

A horticulturist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service has received a national award for excellence in gardening communication.

Turfgrass managers will soon have an opportunity to learn the latest research from Mississippi State University on landscape care.

While the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is closing the Bonnet Carré Spillway this week, economic impacts of its months-long opening are expected to be felt in the seafood industry for years to come.

Mississippi forage producers can grow a bountiful crop, but they are fighting wet weather and pests to harvest all of it.

Rocky Lemus, forage and grazing specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service and researcher with the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, said hay harvest is about 5% behind where it was this time last year.

People can learn about timely topics related to muscadine vines during the 2019 Muscadine Field Day Aug. 29 in Carriere.

The next Alliance of Sustainable Farms field day will feature a roundtable discussion on farm management and tour of Yokna Bottoms Farm.

Floral enthusiasts and other interested individuals can attend a luncheon event that showcases holiday and seasonal-themed floral arrangements.

Between her job and her home, Tracey Porter has not had a break from dealing with flooding in the last six months.

Porter is the deputy director of the Warren County Emergency Management Agency, and her husband, Rodney, farms in the southern Mississippi Delta. Excessive rain last winter and spring kept 250,000 acres of farmland out of production this year. During the time when he would normally prepare for planting season, Rodney Porter was building sandbag levees to protect flood waters from invading their home. She helped him when she was not on the clock assisting other affected people in her community.

The Mississippi State University Extension Service plans to ease the transition to school for families with young children through a new Head Start program on the Gulf Coast.

Mississippi’s 259 rice-producing farms rank the state No. 5 nationally in rice production, a fact highlighted in September when Mississippians are urged to “Think Rice.”

From agricultural damage to financial challenges, the effects of a natural disaster can be physically and emotionally overwhelming for farmers and residents of an impacted region. As those in the Mississippi Delta and surrounding areas continue to cope and begin recovery from recent devastating floods, faculty and staff in Mississippi State’s Extension Service and Department of Psychology are extending reminders that can help.