August 6, 2021 - Turf Matters

Aylesbury Vale Dynamos score with Automower: With a large football pitch to maintain, Aylesbury Vale Dynamos, with 32 teams under its belt, has turned its attention to autonomous mowing, to help the growing club maintain its vast football pitch. Crediting Husqvarna Automower® Club Solution, the club has noted great benefits of Automower®, in just three months.

With a stadium pitch to maintain, the Aylesbury Vale Dynamos team and its chairman, Mike Borrett, discussed moving to Husqvarna Automower® Club Solution, following a recommendation from Farol Ltd, which is a specialist dealer with a dedicated Automower® sales and installation team. Their recommendation would allow two Automower® 550 to work simultaneously alongside each other, now using just one boundary wire.

Aylesbury Vale Dynamos score with Automower

With a pitch and stadium to maintain, Aylesbury Vale Dynamos relies heavily on volunteers to help run and sustain the club, which has always brought about its own set of challenges, including limited time, resource and finance. Thanks to their two Automower® 550 and the use of Automower® Club Solution, installed in April 2021, the football club has been able to combat many of their previous challenges.

Mike Borrett, chairman of Aylesbury Vale Dynamos, discussed the club’s switch to Automower®: “Making the move to Automower® has been a brilliant decision for the club, that has paid off multiple times over. Following discussions with Husqvarna and our Automower® dealer, Farol Ltd, it quickly became evident that Automower® Club Solution could solve many of the challenges we were facing.

“Like many football clubs, we rely heavily on the assistance of volunteers to maintain our grounds and stadium. We’re incredibly grateful to all our volunteers, but it does provide its own set of challenges. Whether it’s raining or beaming with sunshine, the grass requires twice-weekly cutting, and if no one is able to do it, we end up with grass that’s too long and debris on the pitch, both of which cause problems when the teams go out to play.

“Thanks to Automower® we’re able to redeploy our volunteers to more skilful tasks, saving ourselves hours of time each week, and with Automower® being battery powered, we’ve also been able to eliminate the need for petrol, which has been great for reducing our CO2 emissions, and the club’s finances.”

Ever since the first Automower® was introduced in 1995, Husqvarna has been known as the world leader in robotic mowing. With over 2 million sold worldwide, Automower® is renowned for its low energy consumption, zero emissions, low noise and high productivity, whilst featuring the ability to withstand a busy match schedule and hours of intense training.

As Automower® cuts the grass every day, the impact on the turf and ground is minimal. The very small, quick-composting clippings provide a constant source of fertilisation and moisture, creating greener and denser turf. Research also shows that the constant cutting allows grass roots to grow 25% deeper, resulting in a healthier and stronger pitch.

Mike discussed the club’s use of Club Solution: “Automower® Club Solution has continuously impressed us with its innovation. The system has allowed our two 550 mowers to be used simultaneously on one pitch, without wires intersecting the playing surface.”

With Automower® Club Solution, two or three mowers are able to mow the pitch simultaneously, with only a single boundary wire outside the playing surface, eliminating the risk of a damaged boundary wire during turf treatment such as aeration or scarification.

Mike continued: “In just three months we can already see the difference Automower® has made to our turf quality, with turf professionals even commenting that they can’t believe how well and healthy the grass looks.

“Thanks to the Automower® Connect app we’re able to control the mowers no matter where we are, which is a great benefit when the weather isn’t pleasant or when we’re away from the stadium. From the app we’re able to programme them to park at the side of the stadium when a match is on and redeploy once it’s finished.

“The Dynamo’s team are big fans of the mowers, naming them ‘Dyna’ and ‘Mo’, and the fans are even more so. Each match spectators ask us about them, and we can’t blame them, they really are fascinating, and we can’t imagine switching back to manual stadium mowing.”

For more information on Husqvarna Automower®, visit: https://www.husqvarna.com/uk/products/robotic-lawn-mowers/

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BASIS launches NSK amenity training course: BASIS are pleased to announce the launch of the NSK Amenity Training Course, a new bespoke course for storekeepers working in industries within the amenity sector, for example lawn care, property maintenance, greenkeeping and sports turf management.

This new qualification has been fully accredited by Harper Adams University and is being recognised by CRD as a Certificate of Competence for any professional storekeeper working within the amenity sector.

BASIS launches NSK amenity training course

BASIS have been successfully delivering training and qualifications for storekeepers working within professional pesticide stores for the past 35 years through our industry recognised Nominated Storekeeper (NSK) Training Course. Not only has this provided storekeepers with the training they require as stipulated within UK regulations and the Code of Practice for suppliers of pesticides (The Yellow Code), but has also allowed professionals to learn the principles of good storekeeping which ensures pesticides are stored in a way which protects the general public, safeguards the environment and avoids the pollution of water.

However, it has been recognised that there is a requirement for a NSK training course which is specifically targeted at storekeepers working within industries such as lawn care, sports turf management, greenkeeping and all other areas within the amenity sector. Ensuring that professional pesticides are stored in a responsible way is extremely important across all industries and anyone responsible for this is required to complete adequate training. However, the current NSK training course did not necessarily meet all the requirements for a storekeeper working within the amenity sector. This new course has therefore been developed to provide the specific knowledge and skills required, focussing on areas such as managing small pesticide stores, mobile storage and the storage of application equipment.

Further information about this course can found in the course information sheet and syllabus which provides details on the course content, training requirements and assessment guidelines. Training courses for the NSK Amenity qualification will be run online starting from August 2021, and each training course is carried out over 2-3 days. If you would like any further information or would like to book any delegates on to a training course, then please visit basis-reg.co.uk/training or email training.courses@basis-reg.co.uk.