Feature Story

PICAYUNE -- The public can look back at the early days of Mississippi’s Piney Woods region during the 12th annual Piney Woods Heritage Festival on Nov. 14 and 15.

The traditional skills, crafts and arts of the region’s people will be displayed at the Mississippi State University Crosby Arboretum in Picayune.

Visitors will view educational displays and skills demonstrations including blacksmithing, quilting, spinning, basket-making and more.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Producers who register by Nov. 26 will attend the annual Mississippi State University Row Crop Short Course for free and gain information to make them more productive and profitable.

The 2014 Row Crops Short Course will be held at the Bost Extension Center at MSU Dec. 1-3. Those who register after Nov. 26 must pay $40 to attend.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Soil-dwelling nematodes cannot be seen with the naked eye, but the damage they do to crops shows up in dollar signs.

“We have a tremendous problem in Mississippi soybeans since multiple nematode species can impact soybean producers,” said Tom Allen, Extension plant pathologist at Mississippi State University’s Delta Research and Extension Center in Stoneville. “Nematodes can bring a soybean crop to its knees, and other crops in the state suffer losses from these parasites as well.”

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- A Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine veterinary resident has received a national award for neurological research.

RAYMOND -- Many Mississippians enjoy the sport of hunting wild pigs, but trapping is a better way to control the rapidly growing population that is destroying forests, damaging agricultural resources and threatening native wildlife in the state.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- A Mississippi State University plant virologist has been invited to join the prestigious executive committee of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses, or ICTV.

Sead “Sejo” Sabanadzovic, a professor in the MSU Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Entomology and Plant Pathology, was elected to the elite group of 18 international experts who serve as the leading authority on describing, identifying, naming and classifying viruses. Sabanadzovic is one of only three plant virologists on the executive committee.

INDIANOLA -- The Mississippi Make it in America team is providing a free Reshoring Opportunities Workshop Oct. 30 at the Capps Center in Indianola, Mississippi.

The workshop’s goal is to assist companies in bringing advanced jobs back to Mississippi by enhancing skills and building competitiveness. Several units within Mississippi State University are part of this effort, including the Franklin Furniture Institute in the Division of Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- The Early Years Network was well received during its recent tour across Mississippi to introduce the new one-stop shop for child care providers and families.

The Early Years Network is a system of support services that is approved by the Mississippi State University Extension Service and its partners and receives funding from the Mississippi Department of Human Services, Division of Early Childhood Care and Development.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- The Mississippi State University Extension Service is promoting diabetes awareness in a series of health fairs.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Southern storms mean a lot of unusual things show up on weather radar, but swarming insects usually are not the first thing that come to mind.

Jason Simpson, chief meteorologist at WHNT-TV in Huntsville, Alabama and a 2001 geosciences graduate of Mississippi State University, noticed some trends on live radar Sept. 4 that made him and other professionals wonder if they were seeing insects. Colored areas that typically indicated precipitation appeared on screen on a sunny day.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Most Mississippi State University horses arrive on campus in the spring educating students about the foaling process and leave in November teaching them about auctions.

The annual horse sale will take place in a nontraditional setting as about 20 horses, ages 6 months to 12 years, are sold online Nov. 15 through 21.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- A New York-based think tank has designated the Mississippi State University Extension Service an Intelligent Community Institute, the second of its kind in the country.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Longtime outreach efforts by the Mississippi State University Extension Service’s forestry department received significant attention when it won a national award.

MSU Extension Forestry won the 2014 Family Forests Education Award presented by the National Woodland Owners Association and the National Association of University Forest Resources Programs. George Hopper, dean of the MSU College of Forest Resources, accepted the award Oct. 8 at the Society of American Foresters national convention in Salt Lake City.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Two Mississippi State University Extension Service professionals were recently honored by the National Extension Association for Family and Consumer Sciences for their work in the early childhood field.

Jenna Schilling, Extension associate, and Natasha Haynes, Extension agent in family and consumer sciences, won the national Early Childhood Child Care Training Award for the TummySafe program, a food certification course for child care providers.

RAYMOND -- Goats are growing in popularity among Mississippi livestock producers who have limited acreage or want to diversify their farming business.

“Since 2012, the overall number of meat goats in the southeastern region of the state has increased,” said Mitch Newman, Greene County agricultural agent with the Mississippi State University Extension Service. “More small farmers want to raise livestock to supplement other income, and some landowners have fragmented property, which makes raising cattle unrealistic.”

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Enterovirus-68 is making headlines and drawing attention to the importance of taking precautions even before cold and flu season arrives.

Dr. Thomas Dobbs, state epidemiologist with the Mississippi State Department of Health, said a strain of enterovirus is causing serious complications in some children in 42 states, including Mississippi, as of the first of October. Strains of enterovirus have been around since the 1960s, but they have never been seen as severe as this year.

GREENWOOD -- A conference planned to better equip economic development officials to promote rural tourism opportunities has an educational lineup worthy of a festival.

The Mississippi-Alabama Rural Tourism Conference will be Oct. 20-22 in Greenwood.

CRYSTAL SPRINGS -- A new horticulture research scientist joined the Mississippi State University Extension Service and Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station Oct. 1.

GOODMAN -- Small-scale fruit and vegetable producers can attend a field day Oct. 17 in Goodman to learn how to create and follow a financial plan to produce a profit.

The Alliance for Sustainable Agricultural Production Demonstration Farm will host Velma Oliver, farm management and loan specialist with Alcorn State University. She will help farmers understand recordkeeping and budgeting for items such as labor, equipment and inputs.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- A new grant will enable Mississippi State University Extension Service leaders to refine the organization’s efforts to help communities prepare for and recover from disasters.

With offices in all 82 Mississippi counties, Extension agents and specialists provide “boots on the ground” assistance in communities following disasters. They receive training in advance to complete tasks such as agricultural damage assessment, shelter assistance and distribution of educational recovery materials.