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SALTEX Shapes The Future Of Groundscare

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SALTEX Shapes The Future Of Groundscare: From robotics to hybrid mowers and digital apps, ground-breaking ideas to thought provoking debates, career enhancing advice to limitless opportunities; the recent SALTEX 2018 at the NEC in Birmingham was a landscape packed with possibilities and prospects for the future of groundscare.

Europe’s largest annual groundscare event featured 300 exhibitors, many of which embraced new technologies through the launch of their latest products and services showcased at the event.

SALTEX Shapes The Future Of Groundscare

One visitor – Chris Wood, ECB pitch consultant, was certainly impressed with the machinery on show: “My job with the ECB is to gather as much information on all the new innovations and this is one tremendous outlet for that. I always think that we are one big family in this industry and SALTEX is the one occasion of the year where we can come together, network, and look at all the new machinery – it’s like a toyshop at Christmas.”

The vibrant show floor offered a fantastic opportunity to witness just how these latest technologies are having a positive impact in the groundscare industry – particularly in the all new Innovation Hub where visitors were free to attend live interviews with industry experts and trend setters at the forefront of new groundscare innovations.

This new Hub was also the ideal platform to showcase and celebrate the SALTEX 2018 Innovation Award. After making its successful debut at last year’s show, the SALTEX 2018 Innovation Award attracted even more entries from various exhibitors across the globe and included a wide variety of high-quality products, services and equipment. Judged by an independent panel of industry experts it was decided that the Toro Outcross 9060 from Reesink Turfcare, PrecisionPro from Sherriff Amenity and the ROBOCUT from McConnel were the stand out entries. Sherriff Amenity’s PrecisionPro was crowned as the winner.

Sherriff Amenity representatives however were not the only trophy winners at the show as Bridgewater & Taunton College saw off fierce competition to win the SALTEX College Cup and the winning students can now look forward to visiting the All England Lawn Tennis Club, in the run up to the Wimbledon tournament, to experience court preparation from Neil Stubley, head of courts and horticulture.

There were also an increased number of visitors looking to progress within the industry as Frank Newberry’s Job Clinic sessions were fully booked between 9am and 3pm on each day of this year’s show. The expert careers advisor offered some fantastic tips on: perfecting a CV and cover letter; how to succeed at job interviews; negotiating a package; proactive job searching and self-employment.

The many opportunities to gain expert advice prompted John Ryan, founder of Lawn Care Legends, to travel from Northern Ireland to SALTEX: “I found my visit extremely beneficial because there are a lot of industry people you can connect with that can help provide ideas on how to develop a business. It’s great to see people with such a passion for the industry and share it with others. For anyone who wants to know what’s going on in the industry, I would recommend that they visit SALTEX.”

Free advice was available at every turn throughout the three large halls at the NEC. Visitors had the opportunity to gather one-to-one sports turf management advice from IOG regional pitch advisors at the Ask the Expert feature and Pathology and Soil Science LIVE provided an opportunity to share soil samples which were magnified, displayed on a large screen and assessed.

Learning LIVE 2018, SALTEX’s all-encompassing education programme, featured more than 50 free-to-attend seminars. Visitors gained CPD points for attendance and got to hear from expert speakers from the UK and abroad who focussed on vital issues that affect the industry.

James Pope, grounds manager at St Paul’s School in London, said he visited SALTEX to explore new concepts: “I’ve gained more ideas just from coming to this one show than I have all year. SALTEX is the right time of year and it’s the busiest and most vibrant show around – everyone is always in high spirits.”

Echoing James, was Ted Mitchell from the RFU, who was pleased to see just how the world’s longest standing groundscare exhibition has transformed over the years. “I’ve been attending SALTEX for many years and to see the event as it is today is incredible – it takes your breath away. It offers such a unique opportunity to meet the range of people at SALTEX in five or six hours that would, in any other circumstance, take me a huge amount of time over a number of months. SALTEX brings the industry together all in one place.”

SALTEX does indeed unite every corner of the industry – the manufacturers and suppliers, the visitors and speakers, the governing bodies and associations; who contributed to the conversations, the learnings, the ideas, the debates, and actively played their part in shaping the future of groundscare and creating opportunity for all.

For more information visit www.iogsaltex.com

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Lloyd Ltd And Bobcat Construction Expansion

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Lloyd Ltd And Bobcat Construction Expansion: Carlisle-based Lloyd Ltd, the Bobcat dealer for County Durham, Teesside, Cumbria and Northumberland in England and the southern part of Scotland, covering South Ayrshire, the Border counties and Dumfries and Galloway, has expanded the services it provides for customers in the construction and hire markets, bringing significant benefits for both Lloyd Ltd and Bobcat.

Results have been especially impressive in product and aftermarket sales for the Bobcat range of compact loaders, compact excavators and attachments. As well as the construction and rental markets, the other main sectors for Lloyd are agriculture, groundcare and materials handling, where sales of Bobcat equipment have also increased.

Lloyd Ltd And Bobcat Construction Expansion

This has been supported by Lloyd’s own finance team, with a wide choice of finance options available to suit different customers in the market. It is one of the advantages that arises from cross-fertilisation with the motor vehicle side of the Lloyd business, covering the same areas in the North of England and the South of Scotland.

Alistair Whitby, Dealer Principal at the Lloyd branch in Bishop Auckland, said: “The expansion in construction has delivered a 20% rise in Bobcat business. This is backed by similar increases in the number of finance packages we have sold. We are also investing heavily in our facilities and processes to ensure that it is even easier for new and existing Bobcat customers to do business with us. The Construction side is headed by our Construction Sales Manager, Chris Stephenson, who runs out of Bishop Auckland and Newcastle.”

Family-owned Business

Founded in 1964 as a tractor dealership in Carlisle, Lloyd has grown considerably over the past five decades but has retained its approach and style as a family-run business with local roots. A key feature of the company is the easy accessibility customers have to interact with personnel at every level of Lloyd Ltd.

As well as Bishop Auckland and Newcastle, Lloyd Ltd has branches right across the North of England in Alnwick, Carlisle and Penrith and at Dumfries and Kelso in Scotland, where the company has increased focus on the construction sector with the appointment of construction sales representatives at each of the branches.

As well as building new premises for the Penrith branch, the construction expansion includes new investments in facilities together worth over £7 million, including refurbishment of the Carlisle, Newcastle and Kelso branches.  The investment also includes a new facility Lloyd Ltd is planning opposite the current Bishop Auckland branch, where a new 2900 m2 building will be constructed on company-owned land that will offer an outstanding showroom, triple workshop area and a training centre.

In addition, with the Bobcat range now fully available from Kelso, Lloyd offers Bobcat products from every branch. The expansion at Lloyd has coincided with numerous developments in the Bobcat range with new Bobcat products with enhanced features and quality designed and supplied from plants in the Czech Republic and the USA.

In the six years the company has been a Bobcat dealer, Lloyd has developed very close ties with Bobcat, with regular focus meetings with Paul Hyslop, the Bobcat District Manager UK North. The focus meetings explore every aspect of the Bobcat-Lloyd relationship, with a key discussion being customer focused actions to ensure the right customers are targeted with the right solutions and including forward planning on stocks of Bobcat products to help optimise lead times for customers.

Paul Hyslop commented: “I have been very pleased with the strides taken over the last two years by Lloyd, which have provided a significant boost to Bobcat sales in the areas they cover. I was delighted that Bishop Auckland was able to host the recent 2018 Bobcat Customer Roadshow as it toured England and Scotland, providing a great Bobcat experience for existing and prospective customers alike.”

Bobcat Roadshow at Lloyd

The Bobcat Roadshow provided visitors with a great opportunity to experience first-hand the latest products in the Bobcat range under the guidance of expert demonstrators from the Bobcat European headquarters in the Czech Republic and staff from Lloyd’s sales and finance departments.

One of the main themes of the Roadshow event was a focus on the Bobcat range of compact track loaders and the landscaping/groundcare market using a wide variety of Bobcat attachments on these machines. This was illustrated by using the Bobcat T450 compact track loader and MT55 mini track loader with a number of Bobcat attachments for these applications.  The Roadshow also offered visitors their first look at the new E26 mini-excavator, one of five models in Bobcat’s new ground-breaking R-Series 2-4 tonne excavator range, taking performance and innovation to new levels.

The T450, MT55 and E26 were complemented at the event with a range of other Bobcat machines and attachments provided by Lloyd.  This demonstrated the fantastic versatility offered by the machines in the Bobcat range, where the operator can switch quickly between different attachments to carry out a wide range of different types of work with the same machine.

Summarising, Alistair Whitby added: “Our Bobcat Roadshow event was a great day for our staff and customers. We had visitors from as far afield as Scotland, with several families joining in with the fun. With its unique atmosphere, the Roadshow allowed us to close off several new deals for Bobcat equipment. We are looking forward to a very exciting future with Bobcat and the expansion which will soon become a reality at Bishop Auckland with the planning permission finally in the bag.”

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New Germinal Appointment

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New Germinal Appointment: Alan Thomson has been appointed as Germinal’s new Amenity Technical Sales Representative for Scotland and the North East of England.

Based from his home in Glasgow, Alan will provide technical sales support to Germinal’s customers throughout his region, and will be responsible for promoting the company’s popular range of Grade-A sports and amenity grass seed mixtures to golf course greenkeepers, turf growers, sports groundsmen and landscapers.

New Germinal Appointment

Currently training with the STRI (Sports Turf Research Institute) to gain his FACTS (Fertiliser Advisers Certification and Training Scheme) qualification, Alan will also be responsible for promoting Germinal’s specialist amenity fertiliser range which includes conventional compound products as well as liquid and phased-release fertilisers and specialist sward conditioners.  Alan will also promote Germinal’s range of regional and general landscaping wildflower seed mixtures.

Alan joins Germinal from Glasgow-based John Deere dealership, Nairn Brown, where he was the company’s area sales manager for the central Scotland region.  Prior to this he has worked as the Scottish sales manager for Tacit Golf and also has previous greenkeeping experience from his time at Bothwell Castle Golf Club.

Alan can be contacted via the following:

Mobile: 07887 578802

Email: alan.thomson@germinal.com

Web: www.germinalamenity.com

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Wiedenmann To Exhibit At BTME

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Wiedenmann To Exhibit At BTME: Wiedenmann UK’s popular rough management duo,  the Super 500 and the Terra Rake,  give Wiedenmann Terra Spikes a run for their money when it comes to  greenkeepers’ wish list kit.  Fortunately all three machines will be well represented on stand Red 218 at BTME 2019.

“For rough management, it’s the combination of time saved plus their unrivalled versatility that makes them so popular,” say Wiedenmann UK.

Wiedenmann To Exhibit At BTME

“If you have ‘traditional ridge and furrow’ undulations the Super 500 follows contours easily without scalping and produces a consistent height of cut, whether scarifying or flail mowing. It also is a very thorough leaf collector. The Terra Rake will work in tandem. It scarifies, pulls out thatch and can help us with a long list of other tasks.”

With 11 separate Terra Spikes it’s the class leading Terra Spike GXi8 HD that will get the nod for Harrogate.  Superfast, efficient and precise the 1.8 m wide GXi8 HD can potentially access all areas at depths to 250 mm.

Wiedenmann To Exhibit At BTME

Look out, too, for the Terra Float Air pneumatic seeder and the 230* swivelling Mega Twister blower. It’s a great opportunity to see these up close and appreciate the simplicity and excellence of their German engineering.

For more information, visit: www.wiedenmann.com

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Secret Valley Fight Water Reduction

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Secret Valley Fight Water Reduction: The Secret Valley Golf Resort in Cyprus, managed by Troon Golf, has used PBS 150 from Aqua Aid Europe to combat a lack of water caused by climate change.

Cyprus is one of the hottest countries in Europe and has average temperatures nearing 30°C from June to September. During this time the average rainfall is 0mm with a small reprieve in September when it rises to 3mm.

Secret Valley Fight Water Reduction

Recently, rain during the winter months has reduced, leading to reductions in water around the island. This has caused Golf Course Superintendent, Derek Smith, to focus on methods of reducing hydrophobic conditions on the course.

Derek’s employment history has seen him work in warm climates before when at Palmares Golf Resort, Portugal, Alcanda Golf Course, Majorca and The Wave Golf Course, Oman, but a lack of water to manage heat, similar to what was experienced in the United Kingdom in the summer of 2018, was a challenge he had to address quickly.

Derek explained: “Due to climate changes the winters have changed in Cyprus with less and less rainfall falling. The dams are running at under 30% and they are our only source of water, so reductions from the water authorities have left us struggling for water.

“I have always been very water efficient as I truly understand how this is affecting the turf industry. Because we could not spend the value of water in our budget due to the cuts, we decided to use some of that money to help the plant in other ways. One by using a high-quality wetting agent and another by using growth retardants.

“We had already started using OARS HS and from my experience using them, I trust Aqua Aid products and their longevity. After meeting a representative from Aqua Aid Europe and explaining our issues it was decided that we’d try PBS150. We applied it once in the middle of May and during the summer months we saw a water reduction of around 30% and I’ve seen a much better sward density and far, far less isolated hydrophobic areas.

“For us, saving water is beneficial enough, but by not having to spot water we have reduced labour costs. I also hope that by using PBS 150 we can work on our very poor river silt soil and turn it into a healthier environment.”

PBS 150, or polyfunctional branched surfactant to use its full name, utilises multi-branched molecular technology to address the source of performance loss – biodegradation of the surfactant molecule by soil microbes.

It is designed to reduce hydrophobic conditions on a sustainable basis for five months or more, encouraging a pattern of hydration and re-hydration that improves the amount of available water in the soil profile to meet the metabolic demands of the plant. The 3D Multibranched technology  helps to even-out moisture difference in multiple directions, providing a great tool to give more control over moisture conditions.

By doing this the uniform movement of water into and through the soil matrix is restored and the stress tolerance is improved along with the turf quality and colour.

For more information on the range of products please visit the www.aquaaid.eu

For the latest industry news visit turfmatters.co.uk/news

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