VIDEO: Mississippi State Makes the Grass Greener

MISSISSIPPI STATE, Miss. (WCBI) – The Mississippi State Plant and Soil Sciences Department is a nationally recognized program, racking up a list of awards about as nice as the grass they cut.

People who know grass, know there’s an art to growing.

Whether it’s landscaping a football field, a golf course, or your front yard many people take pride in a fresh cut.

The same can be said about MSU’s Plant and Soil Science Department.

It can be hard to imagine the amount of work put into researching different types of grass in our ecosystem.

At Mississippi State’s North Farm, it’s just another day on the job.

“We’ve got about six faculty that do turf grass research at this facility. It’s an 8-acre facility, and we’ve done over 100 trials this year,” said Grassturf Extension Specialist, Jay McCurdy.

This department isn’t just confined to campus.

It consists of over 60 faculty members spread across the state.

“Our appointments are meant to help our stakeholders in the state, those folks who mow and blow along all the way up to golf course managers, sports field managers, and folks who spray lawns for a living,” said McCurdy.

The grass roots studied at MSU will be spread across the country.

“There’s been a number of species of turf evaluated here that will go on to be commercially produced and spread around the United States,” said McCurdy.

Professional teams, such as the Arizona Diamondbacks, the LA Angels, and of course the 2015 College Football Field of the Year Mississippi State use their scientific methods on their fields.

The department’s reputation has drawn students and staff members such as, Louisiana native Michael Richard, to the Starkville campus.

“We are a nationally known program. WE have quite a large graduate and undergraduate group of kids that come to school here. It was exciting to be able to come become a part of a program that has national recognition and exciting to be able to show them what we do and can better help them,” said Richard.

Budget cuts have impacted the graduate program.

However, administrators and faculty members are confident they can pull through and grow just like their grass.

“Success of any program is not based upon faculty members; it’s based upon the students that we can get here and educate to go on and do our jobs in the future. It’s based upon the success of educating undergraduate students, so those issues are things we’re constantly working on with our administrators to solve,” said McCurdy.

The Plant and Soil Sciences Department has started a new homeowner bermuda grass project.

The goal is to allow you to grow the same grass in your yard that is grown in the big leagues.