VERONA, Miss. -- The forestry specialist roster at Mississippi State University Extension Service is growing, mostly in response to feedback received from industry professionals at Producer Advisory Council meetings.

Forest landowners at last year’s PAC meeting at the North Mississippi Research and Extension Center -- one of three such meetings held annually in the state -- noted filling vacant forestry positions as one of their top priorities. Less than a year later, MSU Extension hired forest economist Sabhyata Lamichhane and transitioned former Extension Agent James Shannon into one of the vacant forestry specialist positions.

Interviews for a south Mississippi-based specialist are in progress, with plans to make a hire this spring. New hires will join MSU forestry specialists Butch Bailey, Brady Self and Curtis VanderSchaaf.

Forestry was one of a dozen agricultural commodity groups represented at the 2024 North Mississippi PAC meeting on Feb. 15. MSU Extension and the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station will host another PAC meeting at the Central Mississippi Research and Extension Center in Raymond on Feb. 20. Last month, the Coastal Research and Extension Center hosted south Mississippi producers in Biloxi.

Producers split into commodity-based groups to express their needs to researchers and Extension personnel, who then shared those priorities with all participants in a general session.

“Think about the things that you want us to be working on here in the next year or next two years, the next five years, the next 10 years,” said Jane Parish, head of the North Mississippi Research and Extension Center. “We want you to help direct our research and our Extension programs so that what we’re doing results in things that matter to you and that actually can be taken home to your business, your farm and can be used and make a positive difference for you.”

Speaking for the foresters, Shannon said they would like to see a relaunch of the quarterly MSU timber price report as well as more research on forest management regimes. The landowners also expressed that they wanted to see more research on developing disease- and insect-resistant pine varieties and information on how long they can wait to thin pine stands.

“The drought we experienced last year was especially bad in southwest portions of the state, which exposed some issues and created some problems related to pine bark beetles, and also there’s some other emerging forest health issues from needle cast to crown spot needle blight,” Shannon said. “Logging and trucking research would be helpful because inflation and other problems are causing stress on our logging and trucking industry, so it would be helping them to manage their businesses better and helping overall to make sure we have a sustainable wood supply system.”

Poultry producers prioritized Extension programming on general health and management practices, poultry litter and waste management and biosecurity guidelines.

“There are a lot of people getting into the backyard poultry business, whether they’re selling eggs, producing meat or just wanting backyard flocks,” MSU Extension poultry specialist Jonathan Moon said. “General biosecurity practices that can be done to help keep their investment and their flocks safe are important to both our commercial and backyard producers.”