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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Attila 98X A Hit At Glanusk

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Attila 98X A Hit At Glanusk: Harry Legge-Bourke, custodian, managing partner and trustee of the Glanusk Estate, believes that the ride-on Attila 98X brushcutter from Etesia has exceeded all expectation at the truly prestigious venue.

Situated in the beautiful countryside of the Usk Valley, Crickhowell, South Wales, Glanusk, which has been in the ownership of the same family since 1826, boasts 400 acres of private parkland, 800 acres of forestry, 3,500 acres of lowland and hill farms, the Park and forestry, 16,000 acres of Common Land hills and 5 miles of the River Usk. It also contains an array of historic buildings, including the iconic Tower Bridge, the ancient Celtic standing stones, the private chapel, farm buildings and stables, all of which are either Grade II listed or Grade II starred.

Attila 98X A Hit At Glanusk

Today, Glanusk features a multi-diversified business portfolio that includes weddings, farming, festivals, fishing, corporate events, unique holiday cottages and residential lettings. Within the Estate’s grounds there is also the third largest selection of Oak trees in the United Kingdom. This wondrous display of Oak is set to be unveiled to the public and it is for this reason that the Estate was in need of some new groundcare equipment.

“I was looking for a machine for a very specific requirement, owing to the fact we are opening up the Oak Collection,” said Harry. “I needed a machine which could prepare the ground for visitors.

“By chance, after looking on the internet, I came across Etesia. I then looked at the videos, found out a bit more about the product and contacted the company. It was an absolute priority of mine to see the machine in action and so within days Etesia, along with our local dealer Forest Park and Garden, came to the Estate to carry out a demonstration.

“On the day of the demonstration we were faced with horrendous weather conditions but the 98X absolutely proved its worth.”

Etesia’s Attila 98X ride-on brushcutter is reliable, efficient, comfortable and safe. The output, combined with 4-wheel-drive and performance makes it ideal for some of the toughest jobs. The 98X has a 98cm cutting width for more efficient working while eight cutting heights are available between 50mm to 120mm, with one transport position, which is easily adjusted with a centralised lever.

It can be used on slopes up to 30% and its strengthened structure welded tubular chassis offers its operators a better driving position. Furthermore, the electric start offers a high comfort level, rack and pinion steering, plus hydrostatic drive. Special attention has also been paid to sound and vibration levels to reduce them to a very low level – making it ideal for public areas.

“I have been using the Attila 98X throughout the Oak Collection, new plantation sites in the park and along the river bank – all day every day,” said Harry.

“I’m sceptical and I really didn’t think the machine would be able to do what it did. The demo was great but it is different when you sit on the machine yourself, and I have managed to do exactly what I wanted to do. The machine just cruised up and down and it destroyed everything that it needed to. The work would have normally been done by hand on that bank and taken two weeks, but that work with the 98X was completed in an hour.

“It has exceeded all expectation and you wouldn’t recognise the areas where we’ve used it. It is an outstanding bit of equipment.

“The Oaks area I could open tomorrow, with access right up the trees and pathways all clear – no hairy moments on that bank in the brambles either! I now consider myself an expert with the 98X and really know how to use it to its maximum capability.

“I would say that the stability and the cut are the best features of the machine.”

For further information, please contact Etesia UK on 01295 680120 or visit www.etesia.co.uk.

For more news, reviews and insightful views, you can follow Etesia UK on Twitter and Instagram @EtesiaUK and like the company’s Facebook page – www.facebook.com/EtesiaUK. You can also view the latest Etesia videos by visiting www.youtube.com/EtesiaUK.

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Deep Aeration Cures Waterlogging

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Deep Aeration Cures Waterlogging: Heavy downpours of rain on compacted grass areas on sports pitches, bowling greens, golf courses and amenity areas can leave standing water, rendering them unusable and stopping play. The action of normal aeration, use of machines and foot traffic over time can leave areas compacted and panning occurs, causing poor drainage and depriving grass roots of oxygen and nutrients. Sports turf specialists Terrain Aeration have been providing a long-term solution to this for over twenty five years, using one- metre deep penetration of the playing surface.

The Terrain Aeration Terralift machine not only solves the immediate compaction problem, the process has a beneficial effect that lasts many years. It works like this. The Terralift hammers a hollow probe one metre into the soil using a JCB road breaker gun (this is because the ground is usually so compact at depth that it needs this hammer to break through).  Once the probe has reached one metre depth, compressed air is released up to a maximum of 20Bar (280psi), the Terralift being the only machine using such high air pressure, which is needed to fracture and fissure the soil. The probe is withdrawn and the process repeated using two-metre centre spacings on a staggered grid pattern – this means that each shot interconnects with the previous ones.

Deep Aeration Cures Waterlogging

On the tail end of the air blast, dried seaweed is injected which sticks to the walls of the fractures and fissures and, over time, expands and contracts with the moisture content in the soil – similar to “breathing” underground.   The 1½” probe holes created by the Terralift machine are backfilled with aggregate to provide a semi permanent aeration/ventilation shaft, helping to keep the whole aeration process working.  The top 1″ should be topped with the usual top dressing to encourage grass growth over the probe holes.  The Terrain Aeration process is ecologically sound, there is no mess and once the pitch or green has been given a light mow it’s ready for play to resume.

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New Bernhard Sharpening System

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New Bernhard Sharpening System: BIGGA’s Turf Management Exhibition (BTME) at Harrogate gave turf professionals their first opportunity to see Bernhard and Company’s Anglemaster 4500 – a revolutionary automated sharpening system.

Sporting an unrivalled control system, the Anglemaster 4500 delivers even sharper accuracy. The use of RFID technology allows different users and set-ups to be easily recalled, making the new bedknife grinder the most flexible system within the range. Meanwhile the smart motors provide variable speed, enabling users to match the most efficient speed to the stone required for the material of the blade.

New Bernhard Sharpening System

Working alongside the Express Dual 4250, its new drive adaptors and fully automated feed system through touchscreen operator interface mean that sharpening your mowers has become much smarter than it has ever been before.

Steven Nixon, Director for Bernhard and Company, said: “We have had a fantastic year at Bernhard and we are confident that the new additions to the range will provide equipment managers and mechanics with a greater choice of machines that adapt to different ways of working.”

Matt Bloomfield, Engineering Manager for Bernhard and Company, added: “We were extremely pleased to see the response we had at BTME to the Anglemaster 4500 and we are very excited to present yet more innovations at GIS.”

Bernhard will be at the GCSAA Golf Industry Show on stand 3652 on 6th and 7th February to present the Anglemaster 4500 and other new sharpening systems, as well as the brand new golf lighting rig from MLR.

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