Greer remembered for mentorship, love of science, and good insect memes

By Mary Hightower
U of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture

HOPE, Ark. — Amanda Greer is being remembered for her love of family, science and a good insect meme. By Mary Hightower. 780 words. With portrait of Greer, file photo

Greer, born in Warren, passed away Feb. 19 following a battle with cancer.

Agriculture was her life. She farmed and worked as a cotton scout and crop consultant in the 1990s. In 2006, she joined the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture as a Chicot County extension agent, moving later to Lafayette County, first as an agent, then as staff chair. Between her time in Chicot and Lafayette counties, Greer also worked as a program technician at the former Southeast Research and Extension Center in Monticello.

Amanda Greer is being remembered as a teacher at heart who loved science and a good insect meme. (U of Arkansas file photo)

In 2018, she started as lab manager for the Arkansas Nematode Diagnostic Lab, based at the Southwest Research and Extension Center in Hope.

Kim Rowe, Hempstead County extension agent, knew Greer for two decades and said she looked to Greer for her expertise in weed identification, plant diseases, and insect and nematode problems.

“She was always patient with me busting up in her lab,” Rowe said. “She would confidently solve any mystery, no matter how much time it took.

“While I will certainly miss her mentorship and assistance professionally, mostly I will miss my friend who loved quality insect memes, photos of lichens, and trying exotic foods,” Rowe said.

Daniel Rivera, director of the Southwest Research and Extension Center, said Greer was a private person, but could be gregarious once she got to know someone.

“She was warm, witty, funny, generous with her time, and thoroughly enjoyed working in the nematode lab,” Rivera said. “She always took time to educate me about nematodes, and she was that way with anyone who came to visit the lab. From kids to state senators, all were taught equally! Her eyes would light up when they would find out something new or neat. She just loved the science.

“She felt a responsibility to ag producers, the Division of Agriculture, and the lab, and took great pride in the work the lab put out,” Rivera added. “Amanda was the living embodiment of our core values.” 

Rivera said Greer would also light up when she spoke of her daughter, and “Amanda loved talking about Dakota's accomplishments.”

Greer was also a diehard Razorback fan who loved to go to the games with her husband, William, and daughter Dakota.

“From my friend Amanda, we can take one final lesson: to be strong, steadfast in your tasks, and ensure that you spend time and enjoy the ones you love as much as you can,” Rivera said.

Terry Kirkpatrick, who oversaw the nematode lab before retiring and recommended Greer for the job, having been her adviser through her master’s studies and had seen her at work as an extension agent.

Her success as an extension educator was because “she was a teacher at heart,” Kirkpatrick said. “It took her about 15 minutes to win over the farmers in Lafayette County, because she was out there with them.

“She might show up at suppertime on a Friday night at a farmer’s house and say, ‘I just walked through your rice field and you’ve got blast and you probably need to think about spraying that first of next week’,” Kirkpatrick said. “She was just Johnny-on-the-spot and she’d take them out there to look for blast or root knot nematodes, or whatever the disease of the week was.”

“Quietly and not in the headlines, she had a significant impact through all the things she did,” Kirkpatrick said.

Ken Korth, head of the entomology and plant pathology department for the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences and the Division of Agriculture, said “we were so fortunate that Amanda was able to take on the leadership position at the nematode diagnostic lab. 

“Her expertise and approach made her an outstanding diagnostician. I think her strong performance truly benefited from a broad background in agriculture, having served as a county agent and working on the family farm,” Korth said. “Amanda earned her master’s degree in our department working under the direction of Dr. Terry Kirkpatrick. It was especially enjoyable to have one of our alumni back working as a colleague.” 

Jerri Dew, Lafayette County extension staff chair, said that Greer was highly respected in the row crop community.

“Many Lafayette County farmers still had close ties to her and consulted with her regularly,” Dew said. “When I came to work in Lafayette County, Amanda helped me more than any other person in extension. She is going to be sorely missed by a lot of people.”

Greer is survived by her husband of 22 years, William "Shotgun” Greer, and daughter, Dakota Greer.

A visitation and funeral service were held in Lake Village.

To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on X and Instagram at @AR_Extension. To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on X at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on X at @AgInArk. 

Pre-weaned calf deworming study showed improved weight-gain, added value

By John Lovett
University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture
Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — A recent Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station study showed deworming calves about two months before weaning improved weight gain and added value for producers.

PRE-WEANED TREATMENT — Calves in a study at the Southwest Research and Extension Center in Hope showed more advancement when dewormed before being weaned. (U of A System Division of Agriculture photo)

Daniel Rivera, associate professor of animal science, said the weight gain translated to adding about $13 of value per head of cattle 21 days after weaning. With roughly 400,000 calves in Arkansas at 400 pounds or less, deworming before weaning could result in an additional $5.12 million to Arkansas beef cattle producers.

“Parasite burden can have a negative effect on performance,” Rivera said. “This can lead to reduced weight gain and other effects that are more difficult to measure, like immune response and vaccine efficacy. Some of these losses might be visible to producers, who will either sell their cattle at weaning or after a preconditioning program.”

A preconditioning program is a period, typically a minimum of 45 days, used to build the health status of a weaned calf before sale.

Rivera said most cattle ranchers usually do not handle their animals until they wean them. However, he had read studies that suggested pre-weaning management can have extended effects.

“I just wanted to see what the effect was, and we saw that small effect early on, but the fact that it carried through, even 56 days later, showed that some of these things that we do prior to weaning can have an impact later one,” Rivera said. “This, surprisingly, was one of them.”

The added labor for deworming pre-weaned calves, Rivera said, could be a full-day job for cow-calf producers in Arkansas and the cost of labor would need to be considered by the producer to determine if the process is right for them.

The calves dewormed before weaning averaged 4.5 pounds heavier than the control group that did not receive a dewormer before being weaned. That translated to $10.25 in value added per head at weaning time and $12.80 per head 21 days after weaning. The values are based on the Dec. 11, 2023, Arkansas Department of Agriculture market report for a 500-pound calf at $2.51 per pound. Calves have increased in value since then, with the late February-early March 2024 market report offering $3.04 per pound for 500-pound calves.

Finding answers

The study was conducted near Hope at the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture’s Southwest Research and Extension Center. Rivera is director of the facility and conducts research for the Division of Agriculture’s research arm, the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station.

For the study, Rivera's team randomly assigned calves to one of two groups. The calves in one group received a deworming treatment 60 days before the set date in October when they would be weaned. The other group was the control and did not receive deworming treatment before weaning. For the experiment, all calves were weighed and then either given a dewormer or not based on their assigned group. At weaning time, all the calves in the study were dewormed and vaccinated, including those already dewormed before being weaned.

Researchers took blood samples from the calves on their second round of vaccinations three weeks after weaning. The pre-weaned dewormed calves still had a 5.5-pound weight advantage over those that did not get a deworming treatment before being weaned.

A follow-up study will take place this summer at the center. Rivera’s team is analyzing the blood samples from the calves to see if pre-weaned, dewormed calves have different antibody levels than the control group. Antibodies are proteins the immune system produces to protect the body from illness.

“One of the things that happens when you have a parasitic infection is that the body starts to fight that infection and sometimes resources aren't available to mount other immune responses,” Rivera said. “One of our lines of thinking is that if we have this worm load on these calves, that may have a negative impact on their antibody production.”

Merck donated the dewormer used in the study. Use of a product name does not imply endorsement by the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.

To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on Twitter at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on Twitter at @AgInArk. To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu.