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Feature Story from 2010

Newton County Extension 4-H agent Katrina McCalphia, left, and volunteer leader Johnnie Mae Walker have worked together on many projects that develop leadership skills of youth and provide opportunities for community service. (Photo by Patti Drapala)
February 4, 2010 - Filed Under: 4-H, Community

By Patti Drapala
MSU Ag Communications

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Newton’s business and civic leaders have always expected a visit from Johnnie Mae Walker on behalf of the annual 4-H bike-a-thon for St. Jude Children’s Hospital, but they grew worried when other people appeared in her place. 

Tuskegee University veterinary student Alexandria Murphy, left, performs a procedure for Dr. Andrea Varela-Stokes, assistant professor at Mississippi State University's College of Veterinary Medicine. Murphy took part in the college's summer research program to explore careers in biomedical research. MSU's new mentoring program may increase the number of minority students enrolled in veterinary schools or advanced degree programs in science. (Photo by Tom Thompson)
February 4, 2010 - Filed Under: Animal Health

By Patti Drapala MSU
Ag Communications

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Mississippi State University is working to reach underserved communities through a new mentoring program that encourages minority students to pursue veterinary medicine and graduate degrees in the biological sciences. 

Much like the displays at the 2009 Everything Garden Expo near Starkville, visitors to the second annual event on March 6 and 7 will have the opportunity to see many unique items for the home garden. (Photo compliments of MSU Ag Communications)
February 4, 2010 - Filed Under: Lawn and Garden, Flower Gardens, Vegetable Gardens

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Mississippi gardeners will have an opportunity to attend an exposition honoring plants and all things related to them at an event the first weekend in March.

The Everything Garden Expo will take place March 6 and 7 at the Mississippi Horse Park, located on Mississippi State University’s South Farm. Doors will be open from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. on Saturday and from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is $5, and children 6 and younger are admitted free.

Columbus resident Terry Brewer unveils a portrait of her 15-year-old dog, Abby, that she commissioned in honor of faculty, students and staff at Mississippi State University's College of Veterinary Medicine. The portrait will hang in the Small Animal Clinic's reception area. (Photo by Tom Thompson)
February 11, 2010 - Filed Under: Animal Health, Pets

By Patti Drapala
MSU Ag Communications

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Diabetes can be difficult to manage in animals, but one Columbus family learned to master the task with help from Mississippi State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine.

February 11, 2010 - Filed Under: Wood Products

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Mississippi’s forest industry is poised to take advantage of an old technology that turns sawmill residues into environmentally friendly energy sources for heat and electricity.

Wood pellets are made of the waste products of lumber production, and they can be burned for heat in homes and used to produce energy for industry. The knowledge and technology to make wood pellets have been around for centuries.

February 11, 2010 - Filed Under: Farming, Community

MISSISSIPPI STATE – The Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station will hold a Farm and Industrial Equipment Auction Feb. 27 at the Mississippi Horse Park and Agricenter in Starkville. 

The auction will begin at 10 a.m. and feature a wide range of surplus equipment being sold for Mississippi State University. The equipment and vehicles for auction include tractors, trackhoes, ditchers, skid steers, combines, cotton pickers, trailers and ATVs.

February 11, 2010 - Filed Under: Food, Nutrition

MISSISSIPPI STATE – The Southern Rural Development Center at Mississippi State University will administer a federally funded program that encourages new and innovative research on food and nutrition assistance issues.

Longtime Warren County 4-H club leader Gloria Smith displays certificates she received from the state 4-H program and the Mississippi Volunteer Leaders Association for her service to youth. (Photo by Patti Drapala)
February 11, 2010 - Filed Under: 4-H, Leadership, Mississippi Homemaker Volunteers

By Patti Drapala
MSU Ag Communications

VICKSBURG – Crocheting may be a dying art to some people but not to Gloria Smith.

Smith is a 4-H volunteer leader in Warren County and has spent 50 years providing youth the direction they need to be successful in life. She began her lifelong journey by learning a skill that put her on a path to work with youth.

Forrest County 4-H members Alexandra Pittman, 12, and Carson Keene, 5, of Hattiesburg, prepare to take Pittman's Mississippi bred grand champion goat, which was the reserve champion light heavyweight goat, into the auction ring at the Dixie National Sale of Junior Champions on Feb. 11. Buyers donated more than a quarter of a million dollars at this year's sale of 42 market animals. (Photo by Kat Lawrence)
February 15, 2010 - Filed Under: 4-H, Youth Livestock

JACKSON -- The Dixie National Sale of Junior Champions is more than a place to highlight the state’s top market animals; it is a place to meet the next generation of champion youth.

Parents Connie and Allen Keene of Hattiesburg took part in livestock projects when they were teen-agers. Now, they are watching their children -- Alexandra Pittman, 12, and Carson Keene, 5 -- follow in their footsteps and beyond.

Mississippi State University plant pathologist Tom Allen checks cotton seedlings for black root rot disease, a fungus that causes plants to rot from the roots. (MSU Delta Research and Extension file photo)
February 18, 2010 - Filed Under: Agriculture, Cotton, Soybeans, Plant Diseases

By Rebekah Ray
Delta Research and Extension Center

STONEVILLE -- Black root rot, a fungal disease that infects cotton and soybeans, may be affecting more soybean acres across the Delta, and Mississippi State University researchers are working to prevent its impact.

February 18, 2010 - Filed Under: Agriculture, Plant Diseases

MISSISSIPPI STATE – The plant disease diagnostic lab at Mississippi State University handled 726 samples in 2009, and nearly 100 of these were digital images rather than actual samples of diseased plants.

Clarissa Balbalian, diagnostician and lab manager with the MSU Extension Service, said the lab made reasonably confident diagnoses of 75 percent of these digital samples without requiring physical samples.

“That success rate is primarily due to the excellent quality of the photographs and the detailed descriptions that accompanied them,” Balbalian said.

Alonzo Gibson, a furniture-manufacturing employee with Fulton-based Max Home, has benefited from specialized managerial training developed by Mississippi State University's Franklin Furniture Institute. (Photo by Ronnie Cook)
February 18, 2010 - Filed Under: Forestry, Wood Products

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Many furniture manufacturers have indicated their desire for formal manager education and training within their organizations, and Mississippi State University has responded to this need by designing specialized training.

In the furniture industry, first-line supervisors are responsible for managing workers and coordinating all of the activities to make, ship, sell and deliver thousands of pieces of furniture, but there is little formal education and training available to them.

February 18, 2010 - Filed Under: Wildlife Youth Education

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Those with a love for the outdoors have four conservation camps to take advantage of this summer offered through Mississippi State University’s College of Forest Resources.

Three of the camps are intergenerational and are geared for anyone interested in the outdoors. Designed for students 10 or older, the camps are useful for those who participate in the Envirothon or on Wildlife Habitat Evaluation Program teams. Students may attend individually or with parents and grandparents. 

February 18, 2010 - Filed Under: Community

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Mississippi State University will help contractors wanting to continue their access to projects on certain buildings built before 1978 as an April training deadline approaches.

Contractors are required to be lead-certified by the Environmental Protection Agency by April 22 to perform projects that disturb lead-based paint in homes, apartments, child-care facilities and schools built before 1978.

February 19, 2010 - Filed Under: Agriculture, Cotton, Insects-Crop Pests, Insects

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Cotton production costs continue to climb in most categories with one exception – boll weevil control.

When the boll weevil eradication program first entered Mississippi’s eastern counties in 1997, cotton growers were assessed $20 per acre. As the program progressed westward, first-year assessments ranged from $20 to $24 per acre. Initially, weevils were also in the fields robbing growers of yields.

Mississippi State University veterinarian Pat Gaunt checks a slide at the Aquatic Research and Diagnostic Laboratory at the Thad Cochran National Warmwater Aquaculture Center in Stoneville. The lab works with area catfish producers to keep their stock healthy and safe to eat. (Photo by Rebekah Ray/Delta Research and Extension Center)
February 25, 2010 - Filed Under: Animal Health, Catfish

By Rebekah Ray
Delta Research and Extension Center

STONEVILLE -- Mississippi produces more than 60 percent of the nation’s pond-raised catfish, and Mississippi State University researchers in the Delta are working to keep the fish flavorful and safe to eat.

MSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine oversees the Aquatic Research and Diagnostic Laboratory at the Thad Cochran National Warmwater Aquaculture Center. The center is located at MSU’s Delta Research and Extension Center in Stoneville.

February 25, 2010 - Filed Under: Family, Children and Parenting, Food, Nutrition

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Parents should rely on dietitians’ and medical experts’ recommendations before attempting to alter formula that they prepare for their infant.

Brent Fountain, nutrition specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service, said newborn babies may need time for their bodies to adjust to nutrients consumed outside the womb. Most babies enter the world with natural abilities to know when they are hungry and to stop eating when they are full.

Henry Wan, assistant professor at Mississippi State University's College of Veterinary Medicine, developed a computer program that provides a better understanding of why flu viruses mutate and how they spread. (Photo by Tom Thompson)
February 25, 2010 - Filed Under: Animal Health

By Karen Templeton
MSU Ag Communications

MISSISSIPPI STATE – A Mississippi State University researcher has found that biology and computer science make the perfect combination for tracking animal flu viruses.

March 4, 2010 - Filed Under: Agriculture, Beef, Poultry

RALEIGH -- Poultry and cattle farmers will gain the latest production recommendations from state and national experts during educational seminars and a trade show set for April 8 in South Mississippi.

The Magnolia Beef and Poultry Expo will take place at the Smith County Agricultural Complex on Highway 35 South in Raleigh.

March 4, 2010 - Filed Under: Children and Parenting

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Child-care directors may feel alone as they try to manage teachers, families and children, but help is just a phone call away with a toll-free number provided by Mississippi State University.

The Mississippi Child Care Resource & Referral Network supports the unique needs of child-care center directors through a statewide network that offers free educational items and professional development courses through MSU’s Extension Service. The MSCCR&R Network provides a wide variety of services for child-care providers, parents and children.

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