Rigby Taylor Enhances Turf Fertilisers

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Rigby Taylor, the company at the forefront of supplying innovative products for the successful management and maintenance of turf surfaces, has given its Apex turf fertilisers a major ‘make-over’ resulting in a range of high-organic content fertilisers with low salt analyses and rich humic acid levels to encourage root development and stimulate soil microbial activity.

The homogenous mini-granule formulations provide conventional and a slow release of nutrients to offer flexible, accurate and uniform application. Many of the products contain Polyhalite, an organic source of nitrogen, calcium and magnesium that helps to strengthen cell walls, making plant tissue less susceptible to turf disease damage.

In addition, the company’s Microfine range has been enhanced with six low-sulphur analyses. Sulphur is an important nutrient for plant health but it has been shown that constant applications of products high in this nutrient can lower pH levels and exacerbate black layer formation.

Microfine mini-granular formulations, however, provide both slow and conventional release forms of nitrogen, with a number of products containing methylene urea that release N in synchronisation with a plant’s requirements. Formulations also contain iron and magnesium, with two offering cold start benefits.

Rigby Taylor has also added two Polypro SK analyses to its fertiliser portfolio. With the superior polymer (urea) coating technology, both provide several month’s controlled release nutrition, in conjunction with added seaweed, organic potassium and bio stimulants.

The micro-granule Polypro range includes a conventional compound granule, blended with coated nutrients so the plant receives an early required boost. Calcium and magnesium has been added for improved turf disease tolerance.

Abbott’s New Tractors Lead To Gold

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Ordering four new John Deere tractors led to MJ Abbott Limited’s sales & technical director Adrian Abbott experiencing a golden moment when he drove the first one off the production line at the Mannheim tractor factory in Germany.

MJ Abbott is one of the UK’s leading sports turf construction and maintenance contractors, specialising in golf courses and sports pitch construction as well as irrigation and water management, land drainage, landscaping and environmental works.

Supplied by local dealer R Hunt Ltd at Tilshead in Wiltshire, the four new John Deere 6120M tractors, all equipped with grassland tyres, take Abbott’s total fleet of John Deere large utility and compact tractors to 23. They were chosen due to their ease of operation, and the ongoing reliability of the machines in the contracting fleet.

They will be predominantly used on a wide range of sports turf projects from golf courses to football and rugby pitches, mainly for towing gravel hoppers, Weidenmann Terra Spike aerators, Blec Groundbreaker rotary de-compactors and a range of other cultivators and seeders. Current projects include reconstruction of Wentworth Golf Club’s West Course, and drainage and irrigation work at Adare Manor Golf Resort in Ireland.

“We have been John Deere customers for over 20 years, so this latest deal reinforces our brand loyalty,” says Adrian Abbott. “Our core tractor fleet ranges from 80 to 120hp, and with this latest purchase we now have 12 units in this power range. We have hired machines but this was a false economy, and we quickly realised that we needed to expand the tractor fleet to cope with our expanding workload – we are fortunate to have a strong order book at the moment, which gave us the confidence to make this new investment.”

Adrian visited Mannheim with R Hunt’s Tilshead branch manager Jamie Fisher, where they enjoyed a comprehensive tour of the tractor factory. Here they saw one of the new 6120M tractors put through its paces on a rolling road test bed, before Adrian got to drive it outside for the handover ceremony at which he was presented with a special Gold Key by John Deere Forum manager Ralf Lenge.

On their return to the UK, Adrian bought yet another tractor, a 4066M compact model, spotted on the forecourt at Hunts’ Chilbolton branch. This replaced a 2004 model 4610, which has done 4500 hours “without missing a beat.” Two additional new 3038R compact tractors have also been bought from John Deere dealer New Forest Farm Machinery’s groundscare division at Ringwood in Hampshire.

“One of the main reasons we have remained loyal to John Deere is the level of support we get from the company’s dealers around the UK and Ireland, and more widely into Europe – we’ve had four machines working near St Tropez in France, for example.

“Back-up like this is so vital when we’re travelling around the country on different projects – if machines aren’t working for whatever reason, it can cost a lot of money. We’ve found over the years that we always get the best and most consistent parts service from John Deere wherever we are working, and the dealers come to our rescue whenever we need them to.”

New Month, New Team Member

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The Grass Group are welcoming a new team member; Megan Dransfield is joining the company at the beginning of an exciting new year for The Grass Group.

The Suffolk based machinery supplier are celebrating over 25 years of growth and the appointment of a fresh set of eyes to the Sales and Marketing team is sure to strengthen the existing workforce.

Megan is coming on board with a focus on boosting product awareness of all the various machinery that The Grass Group has to offer and to help strengthen the brand and its ongoing marketing.

Megan has a background in the Design industry working as a Graphic Designer for just over 8 years. During her time as a designer Megan has successfully helped businesses promote themselves and their products with her creative designs and marketing ideas. With many years design experience behind her, she has handled just about any kind of design brief you can imagine and is keen to sink her teeth into a new challenge with The Grass Group. Alongside the marketing of the business she will also be taking on various sales tasks and her organisational skills are sure to keep the team on their toes.

She not only works hard in the office, but loves a good work out in the gym too. Food features very high on her list of priorities and she has a real interest in nutrition. Megan’s guilty pleasure is watching murder mysteries and in her spare time she enjoys days out with her young family and of course a bit of retail therapy.

Rubber Infill Causes a Low Level of Concern Says ECHA

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Helsinki, 28 February 2017: The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has evaluated the risk of substances in recycled rubber that is used on artificial sports pitches. Based on the evidence, ECHA has concluded that the concern for players on these pitches, including children and for workers who install and maintain them, is very low. ECHA will update its evaluation as and when new information becomes available.

In June 2016, the European Commission asked ECHA to evaluate the risk to the general population, including children, professional players and workers installing or maintaining the pitches.

A number of hazardous substances are present in recycled rubber granules, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), metals, phthalates, volatile organic hydrocarbons (VOCs) and semi-volatile organic hydrocarbons (SVOCs). Exposure to these substances through skin contact, ingestion and inhalation was considered.

Based on the information available, ECHA concludes that there is, at most, a very low level of concern from exposure to recycled rubber granules:

  • The concern for lifetime cancer risk is very low given the concentrations of PAHs typically measured in European sports grounds.
  • The concern from metals is negligible given that the data indicated that the levels are below the limits allowed in the current toys legislation.
  • No concerns were identified from the concentrations of phthalates, benzothiazole and methyl isobutyl ketone as these are below the concentrations that would lead to health problems.
  • It has been reported that volatile organic compounds emitted from rubber granules in indoor halls might cause irritation to the eyes and skin.

In the studies that ECHA evaluated, which are listed in the report, the concentrations of PAHs in recycled rubber granules were well below the limits set for carcinogenic, mutagenic and reprotoxic (CMR) substances for consumers in REACH.

ECHA has also highlighted several uncertainties in its evaluation. Therefore, ECHA suggests the following action to be taken:

  1. Consider changes to the REACH Regulation to ensure that rubber granules are only supplied with very low concentrations of PAHs and any other relevant hazardous substances.
  2. Owners and operators of existing (outdoor and indoor) fields should measure the concentrations of PAHs and other substances in the rubber granules used in their fields and make this information available to interested parties in an understandable manner.
  3. Producers of rubber granules and their interest organisations should develop guidance to help all manufacturers and importers of (recycled) rubber infill test their material.
  4. European sports and football associations and clubs should work with the relevant producers to ensure that information related to the safety of rubber granules in synthetic turfs is communicated in a manner understandable to the players and the general public.
  5. Owners and operators of existing indoor fields with rubber granule infills should ensure adequate ventilation.

In addition, ECHA recommends that players using the synthetic pitches should take basic hygiene measures after playing on artificial turf containing recycled rubber granules.

ECHA’s evaluation has been sent to the European Commission. The findings are preliminary and will be updated when new information becomes available.

Deere & Company Among Top 50 Most Admired Companies

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Deere & Company (NYSE: DE) has again been included in Fortune Magazine’s ranking of the World’s Top 50 Most Admired Companies.

The Most Admired research reviews a company’s performance on nine criteria, including innovation, people management, use of corporate assets, social responsibility, quality of management, financial soundness, long-term investment value, quality of products and services, and global competitiveness.

“The Fortune Most Admired ranking is evidence that John Deere’s 60,000 employees around the world remain focused each day on serving our customers and living our core values of integrity, quality, commitment, and innovation,” said Samuel R. Allen, chairman and chief executive officer at Deere.

Fortune reports that more than 1,500 companies are reviewed for the Most Admired list, which the magazine states is the definitive report card on corporate reputations. The top 5 companies on the 2017 World’s Most Admired list are Apple, Amazon, Starbucks, Berkshire Hathaway and Walt Disney.

Deere & Company is a world leader in providing advanced products and services and is committed to the success of customers whose work is linked to the land – those who cultivate, harvest, transform, enrich and build upon the land to meet the world’s dramatically increasing need for food, fuel, shelter and infrastructure.