Kiwanis Club Hears Program on Nematodes from Amanda Greer of SWREC

The Hope Kiwanis Club heard from Amanda Greer, Diagnostician, Instructor, and Manager of the Arkansas Nematode Diagnostic Laboratory at the U of A Southwest Research and Extension Center just outside of Hope.  Greer explained that nematodes are microscopic round worms.  These feed on plant roots and tissues.  Greer said they impact row crops, ornamentals, and grasses.  She noted her lab check samples of soil and tissue.  With this they provide diagnostics.  She broke down their efforts as “extract, identify, quantify, and report”.  Greer further explained how they do this.  As far as her work is concerned, she has to identify the nematodes in a sample and count them.

Greer said the lab serves farmers, golf courses, homeowners, and researchers.  She said the bulk of their efforts are for Arkansas producers and they have grants to work with soybeans and corn producers.  Nationally, they get samples from all over the nation.  They’re most recent “new” state they served was from soybean producers in Delaware.

Greer’s program was in honor of the Kiwanis Club’s annual “Farm/City Day”.  She brought greetings from SWREC Director Dr. Daniel Rivera and noted the facility is working on some new research and some new faculty have been coming out to work on new horticulture work on ornamentals and forage.  She also noted Dr. Rivera is still working on cow/calf research.

The club enjoyed the program and asked several questions about the nematode lab.