Feature Story

CEDAR BLUFF, Miss. -- Farmers can learn about soil fertility, growing fall crops and preserving the harvest during the upcoming Alliance for Sustainable Agricultural Production field day Aug. 19.

The on-farm field day will be at High Hope Farm, located at 10705 Milam Road in Cedar Bluff.

Experts with the Mississippi State University Extension Service, Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station and cooperating agencies will present information and lead question-and-answer sessions. Farmers and vendors can also display their services and items for sale.

Learn by doing…

WINONA, Miss. -- Families, friends and agents of the Mississippi State University Extension Service watched smoke rise from several grills housed inside the Montgomery County Coliseum as an aroma of herbs, spices and charcoal filled the air.

Each year, dozens of 4-H members from Mississippi pack their grills, meat, utensils and secret ingredients to compete in the annual state 4-H Cook-Out.

By Michaela Parker
MSU Extension Service

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Student athletes will be returning not only to the classroom soon, but also to after-school practice and games.

Research shows that around 70 percent of children participate in organized sports. In addition to exercise, young athletes need nutritious, well-balanced diets to reflect their active lifestyles.

By Michaela Parker
MSU Extension Service

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Children are supposed to enjoy being around each other, but bullies can quickly spoil the fun and hurt a child’s feelings.

Watching children endure bullying is difficult, but what should parents do when their child is the bully?

Tashmia Turner, a family and consumer sciences agent for the Mississippi State University Extension Service in Madison County, said bullying is a behavior that should not be accepted.

JACKSON, Miss. -- Landowners and hunting clubs eager to earn extra income while improving land management for wildlife are invited to attend a Natural Resource Enterprises Business Workshop.

The Sept. 29 event will take place at the Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation in Jackson, located at 6311 Ridgewood Road.

CARRIERE, Miss. -- Mississippi State University will host the annual Muscadine Field Day Aug. 27 at the McNeill Research Unit.

Speakers from the MSU Extension Service, Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service will discuss muscadine cultivars, best production practices, and insects and diseases.

The field day is from 9-11 a.m. Preregistration is not required for the free event. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m.

DURANT, Miss. -- The Early Years Network and Durant Excel by 5 Coalition invite parents and young children to attend a grand opening event for the new North Central Mississippi Resource and Referral Center on Aug. 2.

The open house at 515 Northwest Ave. in Durant will be from 3-5 p.m. Following a brief ceremony, staff and Early Years Network personnel will be on hand to visit with patrons and community members.

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- A group of 34 elite 4-H’ers toured part of northeast Mississippi July 18-21 learning about leadership and business cooperatives.

The first-place winners in the senior level of 4-H competition at this year’s 4-H Club Congress, state 4-H Ambassadors and the state 4-H Council officers participated in the 2016 Cooperative Business Leadership Conference. Mississippi State University was home base for the group as they took a bus tour to Mayhew, West Point, Greenville and Greenwood.

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Parents who want to buy first-rate, back-to-school computers for their children on a midrange budget may want to keep their heads in “the cloud.”

Roberto Gallardo, an associate Extension professor with the Mississippi State University Extension Center for Technology Outreach, said speed and Wi-Fi capabilities should take priority over hard drive space, as more computer manufacturers are shifting to cloud-based computing, which relies on the internet for much of its digital storage capacity.

NATCHEZ, Miss. -- Life in a rural community does not guarantee opportunities to experience agriculture, understand where food comes from or learn how to treat animals.

The Adams County Farm Camp offered 35 children, ages 8 to 13, hands-on activities around cattle, chickens, horses, fish, wildlife and gardens.

By Michaela Parker
MSU Extension Service

ARTESIA, Miss. -- Children’s faces lit up as they watched their bright-blue robots glide across the floor at their commands.

Nate Peterson, community development coordinator for Artesia, watched his 32 summer campers beam with excitement as they played with robots for the first time. Peterson worked alongside camp director Betty Sanders to coordinate sports, educational demonstrations and other activities for local children to enjoy while their parents were at work.  

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Summer vacation gives children a break from school, but that does not mean they should stop learning or that summer has to be boring.  

RAND Corporation researchers found elementary school students’ academic performance falls by about a month during the summer.

But continued learning does not mean math worksheets, vocabulary lists and tests. Summer is a great time for children to discover learning is fun and can happen anywhere.

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Part of understanding any emerging technology is clearing up common misunderstandings about it.

About a year ago, the Mississippi State University Extension Service began developing a new program known as Unmanned Aircraft Systems for Decision Agriculture and Environmental Management. The program is designed to educate anyone who might use unmanned aircraft systems, or UAS, professionally or recreationally.

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Professional turfgrass managers can learn about innovations in turfgrass and landscape management strategy during the 2016 Turfgrass Research Field Day Aug. 23.

By Michaela Parker
MSU Extension Service

By Michaela Parker
MSU Extension Service

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- With only one doctor available in her hometown of Durant, Jhade Jordan understands the importance of practicing medicine in rural areas.  

Jordan is a member of the class of 2016 Rural Medical Scholars program. High school seniors from across Mississippi spent June on the Mississippi State University campus to learn more about becoming a family medicine physician. Through this program, supported by the MSU Extension Service, she learned what it means to be a doctor.

RAYMOND, Miss. -- New regulations passed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will continue to help cattle producers and veterinarians protect the health of animals and humans.

The amended rules will require all cattle producers to obtain a veterinary feed directive, or VFD, from a licensed veterinarian to use feeds that contain medications. Antimicrobials used in drinking water also require this veterinary prescription.

ROLLING FORK, Miss. -- Mindy Rutherford devotes her days to the family’s expanding Rolling Fork farm.

A former teacher, she left the classroom 11 years ago to focus full time on the row crop farm’s administrative duties and to help manage the first beef cattle herd she and her husband, Bill, bought. They are continuing a legacy begun by Bill Rutherford’s father in 1971.

“I always heard that if you are passionate about what you do, you never work a day in your life. It’s true, and that’s how I feel about the farm,” Mindy Rutherford said.

OXFORD, Miss. -- The Mississippi State University Extension Service invites producers to an agritourism marketing workshop scheduled for July 21 and 22 at the Graduate Hotel in Oxford.

Growing Your Brand: Marketing Tools for Mississippi Agritourism and Local Foods will feature workshops on the importance of agritourism in educating the public about state agriculture and offer emerging strategies professionals can use to increase visitor traffic and grow their businesses.

BILOXI, Miss. -- Wild-caught shrimp contribute millions of dollars to Mississippi’s economy each year, and experts say better flavor gives them a competitive advantage over imported and pond-raised shrimp.

Dave Burrage, Mississippi State University Extension Service fisheries specialist, said consumers who participate in blind taste tests tend to prefer the taste of wild-caught Gulf shrimp over that of pond-raised, imported products.