Better Alabama Beef in the Making

Auburn, May 23, 2003 --- If you want to make more money in a beef cattle operation, you have to prove to buyers the quality of your product.  It’s a concept that Wesley Stroud, owner of Stroud Farms, understands better than many beef cattle producers.

The Stroud family has been raising beef cattle in eastern Limestone County for more than 40 years.  Currently, the operation maintains a herd of around 200 animals.  (More...)

U.S. Scientists on Watch for Potentially Devastating Soybean Disease

Auburn, May 23, 2003 -- U.S. scientists are keeping a watchful eye on the progressive spread of soybean rust.  Soybean rust is a harmful new soybean plant disease that originated in the Eastern Hemisphere.  But it has made its way west and has been discovered in South America. (More...)

Extension Launches Skin Cancer Initiative

Auburn, May 20, 2003 --- Alabama Cooperative Extension System agents are working to educate Alabamians about one of the state’s most serious, but often underrated health risks -- sunlight exposure and its all-too-common consequence, skin cancer.  (More...)

Arsenic A Threat to Private Well Owners?

Auburn, May 17, 2003 --- Private drinking well owners along New England’s coast are being warned about a potential risk of exposure to deadly arsenic.

Whether well owners in other parts of the country, including the Southeast, will eventually receive the same warning is anyone’s guess, says expert.  (More...)

Extension Debuts 2002 Annual Report

Auburn, May 15, 2003 --- An Autauga County farming family pulled from the brink of financial ruin by a Cooperative Extension economist is one of the several intimate portraits of Alabamians featured in the Alabama Cooperative Extension System’s 2002 Annual Report.  (More...)

Vitamins: Too Much of a Good Thing?

Auburn, May 9, 2003 --- Decades ago, taking aim at chronic and sometimes life-threatening diseases, the nation’s health establishment declared all-out war against vitamin and mineral deficiencies.

Now, with victory all but secured, many experts are wondering if millions of Americans are getting too much of a good thing. (More...)

IRS Tightening Rules for Earned Income Tax Credit

Auburn, May 9, 2003 --- For some people, qualifying for the Earned Income Tax Credit will not be as easy as in the past, thanks to a series of new Internal Revenue Service guidelines aimed at cracking down on fraud.  (More...)

Charting Future of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences at Auburn University

Auburn, May 5, 2003 --- More than 70 years ago, Homer Swingle began his pioneering work in fisheries at Auburn University.  Thanks to Swingle and other early professors, Auburn University’s program became the acknowledged national leader in aquaculture education, extension and research.

“Now we want to chart our future in the 21^st century,” says Dr. David Rouse, interim department head of Fisheries and Allied Aquaculture.  “We want to develop program priorities as well as explore creative options for staffing, funding and building efforts.”  (More...)

Vitamin D Deficiency: Back to the Future?

Auburn, May 2, 2003 --- Vitamin D deficiency. Scientists once thought they had this problem licked. Now it appears they still have some work to do.

Vitamin D is the easiest or the most elusive vitamin to obtain, depending on who you are.  (More...)

Possible Link Between Cockroaches and SARS Good Enough Reason to Treat the Home

Auburn, May 2, 2003 --- Is it possible cockroaches are spreading the potentially deadly SARS virus?

Scientists aren’t sure. But whatever is ultimately decided, one expert says it is still a good idea to keep living spaces free of cockroaches.  (More...)

Making Strawberries a Juicy Venture

Auburn, May 2, 2003 -- Ever considered growing fruit in your home garden?  Or maybe you are a farmer considering new crops to diversify your operation.  Strawberries might be just the crop you are looking for. But if you intend to get into strawberry production, you will need to learn the latest production methods.  (More...)

Extension Student Employee Tops in Southeast

Auburn, May 2, 2003 --- For the last four and a half years, George Richburg has spent at least 20 hours a week ensuring that the bulls at the Auburn University Bull Test are healthy and well fed.  Richburg’s dedication won him the respect of his supervisor, Dr. Lisa Kriese-Anderson, an animal scientist with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, other animal science faculty and his fellow student workers.  (More...)

Master Gardeners Striving to “Get It Wright”

Auburn, April 25, 2003 --- Last year, Shoals Area Master Gardeners were entrusted with the landscaping challenge of a lifetime: restoring the garden of one of Alabama’s greatest architectural landmarks. (More...)