Hunter innovation impresses The Swans

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Hunter innovation impresses The Swans: The advanced technology of Hunter Irrigation has hugely impressed Swansea City FC with Head Groundsman Evan Davies claiming it has improved the turf and simplified the irrigation process. 

As soon as Evan started his first job at a local cricket club, he knew that sports turf management was going to be his career. Over a decade later and he finds himself in the top position at the Swansea.com Stadium – home to Swansea City FC and Ospreys Rugby, in which he oversees the main stadium, the first-team training complex, and the youth academy.

Hunter innovation impresses The Swans

Hunter innovation impresses The Swans

Somewhat of a perfectionist, Evan likes to keep well informed of industry trends and technological advancements, and future planning is something he likes to see in companies that he chooses to work with:

“In my opinion, companies in this industry always need to have something next in line – the next product or innovative technology. KAR UK and Hunter Irrigation are great examples of forward-thinking companies. The development is always there. Roger Lupton (KAR UK Regional Sales Manager) is always keen to tell me what exciting new products and concepts are coming next. It’s great to see.”

The Hunter Irrigation system at the stadium, supplied by KAR UK, includes eight of the most technologically advanced commercial rotors on the market – the I-80’s.

Engineered for sports turf, the I-80 is built with a robust, dirt-tolerant gear drive that offers the highest torque output of any rotor in the commercial sphere, and extends a radius range from 11.3 to 29.6 meters. The I-80 features a wide range of highly efficient, dual-trajectory, wind-fighting nozzles for highly efficient performance in a range of applications. It also provides total top serviceability (TTS) via its integrated, surface-mounted snap-ring for no-dig easy maintenance.

“The I-80’s are incredible,” said Evan. “We are now able to get water to every area of the pitch including the wings – whereas previously we couldn’t reach them. It has made the pitch quicker and the playability better, so the manager and the coaches are happy.

Hunter innovation impresses The Swans

Hunter innovation impresses The Swans

“The TTS aspect of the rotors makes life a lot easier too. For example, before one game an away player came onto the pitch earlier than expected. He kicked a ball, and it broke one of the sprinklers. Fortunately, myself and a member of staff fixed it and put a new one in within 15 minutes. With the old sprinklers, that would have been impossible – we may have had to have the game postponed as we would have had to dig around it to replace the sprinkler.

“The ease of being able to change and service the I-80’s is a massive benefit. In fact, I can rely on any of the staff at any of the sites to be able to change the I-80 rotors if needed.”

As Evan alludes to, a Hunter Irrigation system is installed at all three of the club’s sites and Evan and his team can control the system to any of the pitches through the mobile-friendly Centralus irrigation management platform. This provides highly secure, comprehensive cloud-based control and monitoring features to the ACC2 controller. The connectivity allows users to view a controller’s status, change settings, view forecasts, save water, and receive instant notification of important system alarms — all without costly and time-consuming travel and site visits.

“It is so convenient,” said Evan. “If you are pitch side you don’t have to keep walking back and forth to control the water – you can just do it from your phone; you could be at home after just putting some fertiliser down and the rain suddenly stops – well you don’t have to drive back into work to put the water on anymore; whether it is a phone, a laptop or a tablet you can control everything.

“In the palm of your hand you can ensure that any part of any pitch gets the exact amount of water it needs. That is technology that certainly makes life easier for any groundsman.”

For more information, please visit www.karuk.com

You can also follow KAR UK on Twitter @KARUK_LTD for much more news, reviews and insightful views.

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New bunkers to greet Korn Ferry players

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New bunkers to greet Korn Ferry players: Opened in 2000, the course at the Country Club at Wakefield Plantation, in Raleigh, NC, has hosted the Korn Ferry Tour throughout its life – when this year’s REX Hospital Open is played at the course, between June 2-5, it will be the twenty-second time that Wakefield Plantation has played host to the Tour.

But, as course superintendent Todd Lawrence explains, the players will see a very different course this year from last.

New bunkers to greet Korn Ferry players

New bunkers to greet Korn Ferry players

“The course has high flashed bunker faces, and every time we received a significant rain, they would wash out,” he says. “Over the years, the bunkers had gotten so contaminated and it got to a point where they would hold water so we would have to pump them out. We would have 15-20 bunkers holding water after a three quarter inch rain.”

When Wakefield Plantation was built, at the turn of the century, bunker liner technology was in its infancy. “There was a polymer sprayed to a half inch on the faces originally, but it didn’t really hold the sand up, and in time it broke down,” Lawrence explains. “In 2006-7, we did an in-house project to install a fabric liner, and that helped for a while, but over time it started to fail. We knew the bunkers needed to be rebuilt completely.”

Wakefield is run by management company McConnell Golf. “Given the projects going on elsewhere in the company, we obviously had to plan very carefully as to when we could do the work, and for a while we had this year in mind,” says Lawrence. “But that came to a head after last year’s tournament. We had over an inch of rain in two consecutive nights. Bunkers were washed out completely to the bottom both days and it took every person available to get them pushed up and ready for play – and even after play started we had some bunkers that were still holding water. The decision to rebuild was finalised quickly after the tournament!”

Lawrence and his colleagues from McConnell carefully evaluated the liner products on the market before settling on Capillary Bunkers. “The company had already used the product on a number of other project, and it was working really well,” he says. “I like the fact that the concrete is a homogenous two inch layer. Other products seemed to depend much more on the contractor to get the consistency and depth of the product right. With Capillary Bunkers, I knew that as long as it came out of the truck properly mixed, it would give me that solid two inch layer.”

Wakefield is normally open year round. The course closed the front nine in December 2021 to begin the renovation, and then moved on to the back nine in early February. “We have four holes yet to finish and expect to be done in the next three weeks,” says Lawrence. “So far, the product has done everything we expected it to. We had rain last night and this morning the bunkers looked just as they did before the rain. Our members love it!”

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The most destructive garden bugs

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The most destructive garden bugs: Green fingered homeowners falling victim to destructive garden bugs are being given advice on how to keep them away.

The team of outdoor experts at GardenBuildingsDirect.co.uk have provided some cheap and easy solutions on how to tackle these bugs.

The most destructive garden bugs

The most destructive garden bugs

As the sun starts to come out, Brits are making the most of their outdoor space and making them look as beautiful as possible.

Unfortunately, the likes of moths, slugs and snails also come out in the sun and can do a lot of damage to gardens.

A spokesperson for GardenBuildingsDirect.co.uk said: “It is inevitable that garden bugs will cause a bit of disruption, whether you’re out relaxing, planting your own veg or growing your own garden.

“This guide is full of some of the most destructive garden bugs and the top tips to help keep these at bay, so the outdoors can be stress-free.”

Slugs and Snails

Slugs and snails are some of the most common yet destructive garden pests. Not only do they leave a sticky trail behind them, but they also love to munch through leaves and vegetables. This can be particularly problematic on vegetable patches if you are growing plants like lettuce and cabbage.

Salt has always been a fool proof way of killing slugs and snails, but if you want to stop them in their tracks, copper tape acts as a great deterrent, giving them electric shocks.

Caterpillars

Caterpillars love to nibble their way through fruits, vegetables, and plants. They are also detrimental to some flowers too, with the buds and seeds often all destroyed.

One of the most natural and inexpensive ways to rid your plants of these pesky bugs, is to spray them with hot soapy water. This can then be poured into a spray bottle and used as many times as necessary.

Moths

This type of garden bug can be especially damaging in the summer months. They love cotton and wool fibres so homeowners need to be aware that leaving outdoor cushions and furniture in the garden could be targeted by moths.

An easy solution for deterring them is to use herbal sprays in the areas you want to protect. Herbs like lavender and rosemary are not loved by these bugs, and they also smell nice too.

May Bugs

Usually seen around May-time (up until July), which is how it earned its name, May Bugs can cause considerable damage to gardens. In their early years they live under the soil and feed off the roots of plants and flowers.

As there are not a lot of homemade options available to keep these bugs away, the best option is to use an insect killer.

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STIHL GB remembers Eva Mayr-Stihl

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STIHL GB remembers Eva Mayr-Stihl: Eva Mayr-Stihl, a businesswoman, philanthropist and dedicated entrepreneur passed away on the 9th April 2022. Mayr-Stihl was instrumental in the success of STIHL and spent 33 years guiding the family-owned business as a member of its senior management team.

Throughout her many years of service on the Advisory Board and the Supervisory Board, she kept close watch over the strategic direction of the company. Mayr-Stihl joined her father’s company in 1960, and with her educational background in business administration and linguistics, she took on responsibility for advertising and market research at the family-owned enterprise.

STIHL GB remembers Eva Mayr-Stihl

STIHL GB remembers Eva Mayr-Stihl

Her expertise and drive to assume a leading role at the company quickly bore fruit when she and her three siblings were made limited partners in 1961. Two years later, her father gave her the power to represent the firm and enter into transactions on its behalf. After her father’s death in 1973, Mayr-Stihl became Deputy Chairwoman of the Board of Management, placing her in charge of finance and controlling starting in 1975.

With a keen sense of responsibility toward society and a sustainable world, the second mainstay in Mayr-Stihl’s life was her work as a philanthropist. In 1986, she and her husband Robert Mayr established the Andreas Stihl Foundation, a nonprofit organisation that would be renamed the Eva Mayr-Stihl Foundation in 2004.

The foundation was set up to finance projects in the fields of animal welfare, education, science, research, the arts, and culture. Today, the institution supports a variety of programs, including an endowed professorship for forest genetics at the University of Freiburg and a research group on recyclable material cycles.

On 11th November 2009, Mayr-Stihl received the Konrad Adenauer Foundation’s Social Market Economy Award at St. Paul’s church in Frankfurt am Main. In 2011, she received the 1st Class Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and became the first woman to receive the key to the city of Waiblingen. In 2019, Mayr-Stihl was named an Honorary Senator of the University of Freiburg.

The people of STIHL and their families are deeply saddened by the death of Mayr-Stihl.

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