Feature Story from 2014

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Volunteer leaders displayed their level of commitment to the state’s youth when they spent two days at Mississippi State University training in how to do their jobs even better.

The annual 4-H Volunteer Leaders Conference was held at the MSU Bost Extension Center in Starkville Feb. 28 to March 1. Mississippi 4-H is the youth development program of the MSU Extension Service. About 200 volunteer leaders attended the event.

MCCOMB -- With 12 chicken houses and 10 years of experience in the poultry business, Delean Robertson of McComb knows the important role women play in agriculture.

When Robertson’s husband, Donald, suggested starting a chicken farm in 2004 so he could quit his off-shore job and be home more often, Robertson said everything seemed to fall into place as if it were meant to be. The loan for Straight Arrow Farm was approved quickly. An auditor assistant, she transferred from Citizens Bank in Columbia to a closer branch in Magnolia.

NATCHEZ – Attorney General Jim Hood will be the closing speaker in Natchez March 28 at a workshop about managing Mississippi’s oil and gas.

Landowners, land managers, elected officials and community leaders interested in oil and gas development can learn about legal, financial and land management planning at the two-day event.

The Mississippi State University Extension Service Center for Government and Community Development and the Stennis Institute of Government and Community Development will host the workshop.

By Brittnie Burton
MSU Ag Communications

BELZONI -- After 47 years of farming through ups and downs, Wanda Hill still is able to appreciate the rewards of her career.

Hill farms in Humphreys County with her husband, Herbert, and brother-in-law, Charles. They grow soybeans followed by winter wheat and cotton. Until 2014, they were also catfish farmers.

STARKVILLE – Mark Peterman joined the Mississippi State University Extension Service as the new aquaculture associate March 1.

Peterman returned to MSU after nine years at Auburn University’s School of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences, where he was a member of the farm management team.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in fisheries management from MSU and a master’s degree in aquaculture from Auburn University.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – The New Albany Home and Garden Show will offer two packed days of exhibits and speakers as they celebrate “Wings into Spring” April 4 and 5.

The Union County Master Gardeners will host the sixth annual event at the Union County Fairgrounds. The show is free and open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday and 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Saturday. Tickets are already sold out for the Lunch and Learn Seminar on Friday.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Industry leaders will gather at Mississippi State University on April 23 to discuss existing and potential issues related to manufacturing and how to capitalize on the state’s current momentum.

Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves will be the keynote speaker at the 2014 Manufacturing Summit: The Road Ahead. The event will be held at the Franklin Furniture Center.

Topics to be discussed at the annual manufacturing summit include transportation and logistics, manufacturing competitiveness, workforce development, the regulatory environment and the Affordable Care Act.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Cattle producers can learn ways to improve their pastures at upcoming events taking place around the state this spring.

On April 10 in Starkville, the Oktibbeha County Extension office is hosting a cool-season forage tour at the Henry H. Leveck Research Farm on the south side of the Mississippi State University campus. The evening tour will be from 5 to 7 p.m.

Topics will include alfalfa, clovers, tall fescue, oats and ryegrass.

OKOLONA – Okolona poultry grower Joe Ellis did not even want the Mississippi State University Extension Service professor to get out of his vehicle unless he had practical experience raising chickens.

Tom Tabler was new to Mississippi, but he was not new to the challenges poultry growers like Ellis face every day -- and sometimes night.

“I know what it feels like to wake up to alarms going off at 3 in the morning,” said Tabler, the MSU Extension poultry specialist.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Today’s cattle producers have a variety of technological applications available on their smartphones, which are about the size of the little notebooks their predecessors once carried in their shirt pockets for record keeping.

Brandi Karisch, an assistant professor of animal and dairy sciences and Extension beef cattle specialist at Mississippi State University, said use of smartphones and their apps is growing among beef cattle producers.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Registration is now open for three summer camps where kids can participate in arts and crafts, cake decorating and academics.

Dawg Daze of Summer, sponsored by the Mississippi State University Center for Continuing Education and the MSU Extension Service, offers two weeklong camps with emphases on creative and academic experiences for children ages 5-7 and 8-10. The camps will join together for certain events throughout the week. Activities include Artful Antics, Critter Crafts, Silly Sticky Slimy Science and Data Data Data.

JACKSON -- Twenty-five people interested in environmental science and natural history can take eight weeks of classes as part of the process of becoming Master Naturalists.

The Mississippi State University Extension Service is partnering with the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science to offer the training. Classes will be held 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. each Tuesday from May 6 to June 24 in the museum at 2148 Riverside Drive in Jackson.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- The Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine is inviting visitors of all ages to attend its 29th annual Open House April 4 and 5.

The veterinary college doors will open from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. at the Wise Center, located on the south side of campus off Spring Street. The April 4 program is for preregistered school groups, while the community is welcome to attend April 5.

STARKVILLE – Mississippi State University and its leaders earned national recognition recently for promoting and maintaining healthy trees and inspiring faculty, staff, students and community members to conserve.

The Arbor Day Foundation named the university a Tree Campus USA. The program honors campuses that implement proper urban forestry management principles and promote environmental stewardship.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- How to feed the world’s growing population is a continuing challenge for agricultural researchers and producers, and one expert who spoke Thursday at Mississippi State University said pesticides are essential for meeting that challenge.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Mary Jane Coign, of Starkville, is no newcomer to the agricultural industry -- or the challenges women face in it.

Coign grew up on a farm as one of four daughters, and her father trained her and her sisters to help with farm chores out of necessity. These skills eventually paid for most of her college tuition at Mississippi University for Women.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – A new environmental biologist specializing in conservation has joined the Mississippi State University Extension Service.

Jared Harris of Poplarville will serve as the lead contact for 23 southern counties as a coordinator for the Research and Education to Advance Conservation and Habitat, or REACH, program. His work is a new collaborative effort between the MSU Extension Service, REACH, EPA-Gulf of Mexico Program office, U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and Pearl River Community College.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Sixteen tax assessors and appraisers from throughout Mississippi recently participated in the Certified Appraiser School at Mississippi State University.

The March 3-7 and March 17-21 training sessions were conducted by the Mississippi Department of Revenue and coordinated by the MSU Extension Service Center for Government and Community Development.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Garden enthusiasts can welcome spring with a variety of plants available for purchase at the Mississippi State University Horticulture Club’s spring plant sale.

The student-run event will be from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. April 4 and from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. April 5 at the greenhouses behind Dorman Hall. The event is open to the public.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- A monthly garden series at Mississippi State University gives gardening enthusiasts timely tips and techniques to try out in their own landscapes.

Called the “Last Saturday Garden Series,” these events are hosted by the MSU Extension Service and the Mississippi State Trial Gardens. All the hands-on events are free, open to the public and typically held in the morning.