Feature Story from 2005

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- George M. Hopper has been voted president-elect of the National Association of University Forest Resources Programs.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- It wasn't long ago that spotting the word “soy” on a food label meant a shopper had drifted into the health food section of the grocery store, but the ingredient shows up in mainstream products throughout those same stores today.

The humble soybean is grown mostly for its protein and oil. Mississippi producers plant more than 1.5 million acres of farmland to soybeans each year, and the crop is used in everything from catfish feed to biodiesel and ham.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Mississippi's crops endured major hurricanes and may not repeat their record yields, but economists are predicting that the state's agricultural value of production just topped 2004 levels to break the historic $6 billion mark.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Cotton farmers could explain Murphy's Law by describing their 2005 growing season, but despite everything going wrong that could have, they managed to produce above-average yields.

Mississippi's total cotton crop has a projected value of $697 million. The total production forecast is 2.1 million bales of cotton. With this crop value, cotton maintains its place as the state's most significant row crop and its third largest agricultural commodity. Mississippi's top two crops are poultry then forestry.