| Tuesday, August 25, 2026 |
| Mississippi State unveils monument honoring first Black student | |
 | Mississippi State University is permanently honoring its first Black student with an on-campus monument. University officials held a ceremonial ribbon cutting Aug. 21 to unveil the special landmark enshrining Dr. Richard Holmes' name on the school's grounds. The monument is in the school's former YMCA plaza, and the student-focused mall has been named after Holmes. Holmes was born in Chicago and raised in the Starkville area. After graduating from Mississippi State and going through medical school at Michigan State, Holmes went on to be a physician who served communities and families in Alabama, Mississippi, and in Mississippi State's Longest Health Center for three decades. "Holmes Plaza and the monument we are dedicating today ensures that Dr. Holmes' story is always remembered on our campus. And what an incredible story it is," Mississippi State President Dr. Mark Keenum said. |
| Mississippi Soybean, Corn Crops May Set Yield Records | |
| August would typically be too early to accurately forecast Mississippi's soybean crop, but this year, it is a month ahead of schedule – far enough along to predict a promising harvest. Mississippi State University Extension soybean specialist Justin Calhoun anticipates a state record-breaking yield in 2026. The previous record, 57 bushels per acre, was last reached in 2023. Calhoun's update was one of several shared by specialists and researchers with MSU Extension and the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station during the annual Row Crop Field Day at the MSU R.R. Foil Plant Science Research Center Aug. 17. The event gave producers, agricultural professionals and MSU graduate students an opportunity to tour research plots at the facility known commonly as "North Farm." Participants heard the latest observations from agricultural specialists and researchers on crop progress, insect and disease management, and ongoing research projects. |
| Mississippi Cattlemen, Farm Bureau Federation have beef with Trump | |
| The Mississippi Cattlemen's Association and the Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation are pushing back on President Donald Trump's plan to allow 300,000 metric tons of government-subsidized ground beef into the U.S. supply chain. However, soon after the announcement, the Mississippi Cattlemen's Association released a statement questioning the move, saying that flooding the U.S. market with government-subsidized foreign beef is not the way to rebuild the American cow herd or strengthen our domestic cattle industry. Further, the Cattlemen's Association said cattle producers are already facing higher input costs, particularly for fuel and fertilizer, and are now looking at the prospect of lower cattle prices. The Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation agreed. Mike McCormick, president of the federation, said his federation was highly disappointed in the President's announced plan. "This announcement is certainly not a move that we would consider aligned with the Trump Administration's 'America First' agenda. It will have a major impact on cattle prices in Mississippi at exactly the time many producers are marketing their cattle," McCormick said. |
| Farmers Struggle to Get Basic Services From Depleted Agriculture Dept. | |
 | Across the country, farmers and rural residents describe struggling to obtain the basic services the Agriculture Department is meant to offer, including loans and grants, technical assistance and financing for housing and utilities. Sharp attrition under the Trump administration, largely through voluntary resignations and dismissals by the Department of Government Efficiency, have left many of the Agriculture Department's local offices with skeletal staffing -- and, in some counties, with no one at all. The ripple effects of the Agriculture Department's depleted work force illustrate how the Trump administration's mission of shrinking the federal bureaucracy has undercut a competing priority: delivering for farmers, a core political constituency. Strained government resources also risk posing additional challenges for a farm economy that administration officials have described as "dire." Trump administration officials have defended the staffing cuts as voluntary and necessary to trim a bloated agency. Some of the steepest cuts have fallen on a part of the Agriculture Department responsible for improving the economy and infrastructure in rural communities, leading to long delays in aid for residents and charities alike. |
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