S&C Slatter Acquire White Horse Contractors

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S&C Slatter Acquire White Horse Contractors: S&C Slatter is delighted to announce the acquisition of White Horse Contractors which becomes a member of The Slatter Group.

White Horse Contractors was established in 1957 by Arnold Binning. Since then it has grown into one of the leading providers of natural turf sports facilities, land drainage, water engineering, landscaping and civil engineering projects. It has gained a first-class reputation for quality and service in these sectors.

As a well-established family business, S&C Slatter are acknowledged as one of the Country’s foremost experts in the design and construction of sports facilities including artificial and natural pitches, multi-use games areas (MUGAs), hard and soft landscaping. The Surfacing & Civils division is also very successful in securing an increasing share in the infrastructure sector – car parks, roadways, hard standings.

White Horse Contractors will operate from the Group Head Office in Enborne, Newbury as an autonomous business under the guidance of newly appointed Managing Director David Smith and Technical Director James Welsh.

With this addition, The Slatter Group offers an unrivalled scope of services to a broad reach of clients within the sports grounds, amenity, leisure, agricultural and equestrian sectors. The knowledge base and resource that White Horse Contractors brings to the Group complements perfectly the skills, technology  and experience in artificial surfacing, civil engineering and project development accessible from the  existing specialist divisions of S&C Slatter.

David Slatter, who oversees the operations of all Group companies, comments ‘When I first took over the business from my Father, we provided sub-contract services for White Horse Contractors on their bigger projects. For me they were always the ‘Gold Standard’ which I was aiming to emulate and to this end I saw a perfect opportunity to approach the Directors of White Horse Contractors. To be able to bring their expertise and resource to our family business is a dream come true for me. The depths of services, skills and knowledge that we can now offer our clients in a one stop shop is industry leading.’

James Binning is the third generation of the Binning family to chair White Horse Contractors and says, ‘I am delighted that we have found another family business which can take White Horse Contractors to new heights and that shares our company ethos and family values. Many of our staff have worked with us for decades and it is important to us that the business continues to be run in the same style as it has for the last 60 years.’

However, the Binning family association with the industry will not cease as White Horse Contractors’ workshop and plant will continue to grow and thrive under a new name, Muddy Plat Hire Ltd, providing specialist plant hire services to The Slatter Group and the industry at large.

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WOLF-Garten Launch New POWER Cut Vario Lopper

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WOLF-Garten Launch New POWER Cut Vario Lopper: The task of cutting all types of tree branches has now been made easier thanks to the new WOLF-Garten POWER Cut Vario Lopper.

This innovative anvil lopper offers two cutting options; a small spread angle for quick cuts in tighter areas (Speed Cut), and a larger angle for thicker branches (Power Cut). The Speed Cut mode is a small opening angle of the handles which allows maximum exposure of the blade, enabling the tool to cut quickly.

WOLF-Garten Launch New POWER Cut Vario Lopper

The Power Cut mode is a wider opening angle of the handles, allowing maximum leverage to cut harder types of wood. Switching between the two modes is quick and simple, providing gardeners with maximum flexibility to tackle any type of branch, whilst reducing the strain on the arms and back.

The tool has been designed with lightweight aluminium tubes for easy handling and ergonomically shaped non-slip handles which ensure a comfortable grip for the user. The non-stick coated blades prevent sap adhesion and allow for clean and precise cutting with minimal force. Manufactured in Germany to the highest of engineering standards, this tool is equipped with a 10-year guarantee.

To view this product as well as the full WOLF-Garten range, visit its new website: www.wolfgarten-tools.co.uk

All WOLF-Garten products are available through leading garden centres nationally.

You can also find WOLF-Garten on Twitter at @WGGardentools and on Facebook by searching for WOLF-Garten Garden Tools.

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Versatility Key At Sitwell Park

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Versatility Key At Sitwell Park: Sitwell Park Golf Club in Rotherham has taken delivery of a Ventrac 4500 compact tractor and two attachments from Russell Group’s Groundcare Division. And versatility was a key reason for the purchase according to Course Manager Martin Hayward.

“It’s an incredible machine,” he said, “so versatile and it can do what other machines can’t do. We’ve purchased it with a Contour deck and a blower, which basically means we have two machines in one; three if you count the stump grinder attachment we have on loan from Russells.

Versatility Key At Sitwell Park

“We’re a parkland course situated in a valley with some severe undulations, so maintaining some of the slopes are an issue. Previously we’ve used strimmers in these high maintenance areas, but with a small team it takes a lot of man-hours and anything we can do to reduce that drain on resource is good and the Ventrac does just that.”

Sitwell Park Golf Club opened in 1913 with the support from local landowner, Sir George Sitwell, who offered part of his estate and agreed to bear the cost of building the course providing that a minimum of 100 members could be guaranteed by the time nine temporary holes were built. The club was a great success with over 100 members enrolling within a week and in May 1913 the club formally opened with over 200 members. With open countryside to the North, South and East, this was the first course Dr Alister MacKenzie built for a private client rather than for a committee.

Martin Hayward is a career greenkeeper, who has worked in Yorkshire for over 22 years. He entered the profession at Town Moor in Doncaster, moved on to Bawtry Golf Club after seven years and then to Hessle Golf Club. He joined Sitwell Park as Course Manager in April 2018 and leads a team of four dedicated greenkeepers.

“When I came here I identified a problem with shade on some of the greens, the 5th having the biggest issue, so we’re currently working on a programme of extensive tree removal to allow more light and increase airflow into these areas. Glen Sawyer at Russell’s kindly loaned us the stump grinder attachment and it has certainly impressed the lads. The Ventrac is certified to work on slopes up to 30 degrees and this has enabled us to get into areas that were previously not maintained. This will certainly help with the presentation of the course and I’ve already had positive comments from some of the members.

“I’m very lucky here having a supportive committee who have agreed to a planned replacement programme for our equipment. When we were looking at the Ventrac, all of my team were part of the decision-making process. To a man, they were all impressed and then it was just about making a business case for the committee to agree. It wasn’t that difficult as they quickly saw the versatility of the machine and how, in the long-term, we can add attachments at a fraction of the cost of buying a dedicated machine.”

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Changing Weather No Challenge For Honda Miimo

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Changing Weather No Challenge For Honda Miimo: The UK’s traditional unpredictable and changeable weather patterns place additional stress on lawns and garden machinery manufacturer, Honda (UK), believes that its Miimo robotic mower can help ease some of these difficulties.

Firstly, continuous mowing at a height of cut suitable for the prevailing weather conditions will help reduce this stress on lawns. Honda’s Miimo robotic mower has a choice of cut height from 20mm to 60mm enabling it to continue mowing in very dry conditions, plus it’s fully waterproof and will operate effectively in the rain.

Changing Weather No Challenge For Honda Miimo

Secondly, is to make sure the lawn is getting the nutrients it needs. Here Miimo helps by continuously cutting and leaving the finely micro-shredded cuttings on the grass, this acts as a mulch to provide the roots with essential nutrients and helping retain moisture.

There are three Miimos in the Honda range, the HRM 310, 520 and 3000 and cut lawns ranging in size from 1500 M2 up to an acre and give owners more time to enjoy gardening without worrying about mowing.

Miimo is quiet, allowing it to run at night. It automatically detects obstacles, including children and pets, and will operate on slopes up to 25o and uneven ground.  Built-in security means that if the machine is picked up it immediately stops rotation of the cutting blades and sounds an alarm which can only be stopped by inputting a unique pin number.

Prices start at £1,799, for the Miimo 310, £2,399 for the 520 and £2,599 for the range-topping, app enabled Miimo 3000.

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Borough Council Choose Imants ShockWave

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Borough Council Choose Imants ShockWave: Ribble Valley Borough Council has invested in their own Imants ShockWave to help alleviate compaction and get games on.

Chris Shepard, Head Gardener at Ribble Council has 14 sports pitches and the fields at Clitheroe Castle, a medieval construction that has been in place for 800-years, to look after as well as other non-sports areas across the Ribble Valley.

Borough Council Choose Imants ShockWave

The council had a desire to improve the drainage on the pitches and prevent fixture cancellations while improving other areas that were less problematic. To achieve this the decision to purchase a ShockWave was made and it has had a busy start to life during its first three months in Lancashire with the difference already visible.

Chris said: “There were some pitches that had some standing water, but it had got to a point where we needed to do something regarding drainage for all of the pitches and the land to put money back into it and improve our facilities and we thought to get better use in the winter periods that the ShockWave was the way to go.

“There has been a difference in some of the pitches we’ve used it on. There was one area that would always hold water but that’s gone now. It’s still a bit softer underfoot than the rest of the field but you’re not squelching water like you would have been.

“Once we go on that area again, we’ll be able to go deeper and get down to 18 inches and that’ll definitely help.”

The ShockWave is specifically designed to revitalise heavy wear areas by relieving soil compaction and in turn improve aeration and remove surface water. When doing the linear aerator causes very little disturbance, to the point that play can continue virtually straight away.

Borough Council Choose Imants ShockWave

For Chris this is an important factor when deciding when to deploy the machine because it can used close to fixture to provide maximum benefit without any risk of causing injury to players.

He said: “People can use the pitches on the same day we’ve used the machine and that’s a massive benefit because we don’t have to shut a pitch down for a week. It allows us to make a solid plan with the machine and work on the pitches when we want to and if an area needs to be worked on close to a fixture then we know that’s fine.”

The ShockWave comes in five different models with the depth ranging from 120mm-380mm. Often it is best to start at a shallower depth to relieve compaction before setting the machine to go deeper on a second run and alleviate any remaining problem areas.

For more information, visit: www.campeyturfcare.com

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