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Trilo Makes Leaf Collection Easier

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Trilo Makes Leaf Collection Easier: Four SU60 vacuum units from Trilo are the latest additions to fleet at the City of Wolverhampton Council, and have quickly made the momentous task of leaf collection that much easier.  At just shy of five million square metres in area, the grounds maintenance and street cleansing operation is certainly ‘large in scale’. The 131-person team, including six dedicated grass cutting teams, is headed up by Citywide Area Manager for Environmental Services Richard Macvicar.

“Our leafing period usually lasts from October through to Christmas and the New Year” explains Richard, who has been in his current role for 26 years. “During this time, the mechanical road sweepers are out but trying to collect all the leaves saw them blocking up quite quickly, so we looked around for something that could be used in conjunction with our current activities.”

Trilo Makes Leaf Collection Easier

With the team having previous experience of Trilo equipment and recognising its reliability and effectiveness, Richard went to local dealer Oakleys who carried out a demonstration. “We looked at a few alternatives at Saltex but after seeing the SU60 on demonstration, together with our past experience, we had no problem in placing the order.” The council took delivery of two units at the beginning of 2017, and another two in the autumn, split between the two city depots. They went into the leafing period with four units ready for full-time operation, shared between the parks, highways and street cleansing teams.

“The Trilo SU60’s are towable on a general license and can be detached and easily manoeuvred for easy transportation around the yard and out in the field. The manual wonderhose helps us get to
space-restricted areas, with the size and capacity of the machine ideal for roadside work, where you’re additionally restricted by traffic and pedestrians. As planned it’s also been great working alongside our road sweepers, which gather the leaves into piles before the Trilo’s come along and collect them.”

Final word from Richard, “For many years, the lads swore by our previous Trilo unit for leaf collection. This doesn’t look like it’ll change now with our new fleet – my supervisor on the ground said the operation over 2017/18 had never gone so well.”

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Pitch Renovations At Wycombe

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Pitch Renovations At Wycombe: Campey Turf Care Systems has assisted contractors Turf Tonics with the first in-house renovation of Wycombe Wanderers Football Club’s award-winning pitch at Adams Park.

 The Buckinghamshire club enjoyed success on two fronts on the pitch during the 2017/18 season, not only achieving automatic promotion to League One but also scooping the League Two Grounds Team of the Year for the work conducted by Turf Tonics, led by full-time groundsman Sean Woodley.

Pitch Renovations At Wycombe

Preparations are now underway for the Chairboys’ first campaign back in League One since the 2011/12 season, with the playing surface playing an integral part to the team’s aspirations of another successful year, as Wycombe Wanderers general manager Michael Davies explains:

“We aspire to have a pitch which complements the football team rather than inhibits them, and it worked extremely well for us last season. Naturally, the players and the management staff request the best possible pitch that we can provide with the resources available to us, and our long-standing partnership with Turf Tonics enables us to meet those requirements with an outstanding surface.

“It’s testament to Turf Tonics and their hard work, expertise and dedication that we won the League Two Grounds Team of the Year award. It’s a phenomenal achievement and it is something we will be striving for again in League One.

“Last season we staged 50 games on the pitch, including 28 of our own in league and cup fixtures, plus Reading Ladies and Reading Under 23s matches as well as tournaments after the season had finished.

“Our club president, Ivor Beeks, is effectively the custodian of the pitch and carefully manages its usage and availability to ensure it remains in the best possible condition. The pitch is a highly sought-after commodity, and we receive many requests for private hire for matches or commercial use, but football comes first and it’s vital that we strike the right balance,” he added.

Bringing in additional income via third party pitch usage is important to the club, and whilst it’s clear that they respect the limits of the surface, the recent success has led to expectation and for Steve Gardner, a managing partner of Turf Tonics, a successful first in-house renovation is vital for the club’s financial and football plans.

“We’ve seen the renovations Premier Pitches have done at Adams Park in the last two seasons and they used what I’d regard as the industry standard machines by Campey,” he said.

“Because it was our first in-house renovation, it was important to us that we used the best equipment and Ben Taylor at Campey has really helped us out. We used their new 1.6-meter Koro FTM with Universe Rotor because it’s a Desso Grassmaster pitch and that went one direction across the pitch yesterday and took a majority of the top off.

“We also used Campey’s Raycam TB 220 brush, Raycam Speedresser and Raycam Aeraseeder to complete the rest of the work. Our first game is on 14th July, we’re making excellent progress to be able to provide the highest quality of surface for the season ahead.”

As part of the renovation, groundsmen were invited to attend and view the machines in action to gain the first-hand experience of best practice and learn more about renovating a hybrid pitch as they continue to grow in popularity throughout all professional tiers of football and rugby.

For more information, visit: www.campeyturfcare.com

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Fertilisers Enhance Pitches In Russia

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Fertilisers Enhance Pitches In Russia: A specialist range of phased-release granular fertilisers is being used at all 12 of the Russian stadiums hosting the current FIFA World Cup.  Designed specifically for use on all sports pitches where a consistent and long-acting supply of nutrients is required, the Floranid®TWIN range of fertilisers from COMPO EXPERT provides up to 16-weeks of nutrients from a single application.

Due to the high demands placed on a World Cup stadium pitch, and the hot, dry conditions which are symptomatic of a typical summer in Russia, most of the 12 stadia hosting the tournament are using hybrid turf pitches which contain a combination of artificial fibres and natural grasses to achieve improved root zone and sward stability, a consistently even surface and optimal functionality.

Fertilizers Enhance Pitches In Russia

Pitches of this type, and indeed any hard-working sports turf facility, require specialist nutritional products to keep the natural turf in prime condition, not just during the tournament itself, but in the run-up to the opening match and after the final game has been played on 15th July.  All 12 of the World Cup stadia are therefore using specialist FloranidTWIN phased-release fertilisers from COMPO EXPERT.

These fertilisers are specifically designed to provide a consistent and efficient source of nutrients to enable the pitches to perform well under difficult weather conditions.

“Floranid fertilisers have been used by the majority of Germany’s Bundesliga pitches for several years, where they are chosen for their ability to give a phased release of nutrients over a 16-week period,” explains Richard Brown of Germinal – COMPO EXPERT’s UK distributor.

Floranid fertilisers contain a proportion of fast-acting nitrogen in ammonium and nitrate forms, as well as a phased-release element based on the advanced isobutylidene diurea (IBDU) or ‘Isodur®’ molecule.  They also contain a second phased-release element in the form of crotonylidene urea or ‘Crotodur®’.

The inclusion of Crotodur raises the Activity Index of FloranidTWIN fertilisers from approximately 95% to over 98%.

“By comparison, the slow release fraction in conventional methylene urea (MU) fertilisers only contains around 40-60% of ‘true’ slow release N at best, whilst many contain less than half.  Put simply, that means the remaining nitrogen is either quick release, and therefore no more value than standard fertiliser, or so insoluble that it may take years to be released,” Mr Brown continues.

“In contrast, Isodur and Crotodur fertilisers have an efficiency rating of 98-99%, meaning that almost all of the N supplied will be slowly and steadily released into a form which can be taken up by the pitches over a period of around 16 weeks.”

In addition to supplying fertiliser to each of the 12 World Cup stadia, COMPO EXPERT has also invested a great deal of time and resource into ensuring that each pitch performs and looks as good as possible in the run up to and during the tournament.  “COMPO EXPERT has been working with the groundsmen at each stadium since 2016 to provide detailed sward nutrient advice via a programme of seminars,” Richard Brown adds.  “As anyone who has been watching the tournament will know, the pitches have performed perfectly as well as looking incredible, and are a credit to the hardworking groundstaff who have produced excellent playing surfaces for the world’s largest sporting event.”

The FloranidTWIN range of fertilisers is available in the UK via an exclusive distribution agreement with Germinal.  For more information visit www.germinalamenity.com

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Terra Float Air Delights in Lancashire

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Terra Float Air Delights in Lancashire: In a previous life Stuart Hogg, Course Manager at The West Lancashire GC was among the first to own the Wiedenmann Terra Float & Terra Seed. Last year, more by coincidence than by design, he found himself back in the market for an overseeder just as the Terra Float Air was re-engineered and relaunched with an added computerised pneumatic unit.

“We bought one of the original launch Terra Float and Terra Seed combinations in autumn 2010 when I was Course Manager at St Anne’s Old Links, on the Fylde coast. They served extremely well. When I moved to The West Lancashire in April 2015, I inherited a more traditional type seeder. For the first couple of seasons we made do then we hired in equipment. Last winter a funding package allowed us to invest in a new machine. Darren Barker at dealers, Balmers GM, showed me some others but I liked that the three Wiedenmann drums are floating so cope well with undulations of a links green.  I knew I liked it before and the Air version was better again,” he said.

Terra Float Air Delights in Lancashire

Offering maximum accuracy at quantities as little as 1 g / m² the Terra Float Air, combines three units in one. A base unit aerates or loosens soil to 30 mm using either spikes or fine slits assuring a receptive seed bed either pre or post top dressing. Next the distribution of the seed is absolutely uniform via the air flow and deflector system.  Finally, a brush and roller combination incorporates top dressing materials to the ground before smoothing the surface.  With its very fine seed rollers exact calibration is achievable. Those with expensive or ‘rare seed’ can be confident of success while memory function on the control pad stores input and calibration data for the next use.

The West Lancashire GC is a proud host of R&A and England Golf competitions as well as featuring in the Top 100 Golf Courses in Great Britain.  It is one of England’s ten oldest clubs and will celebrate its 150th anniversary in 2023. The role earmarked for the Wiedenmann Terra Float Air has been well considered to help deliver incremental improvements to the quality of the course and take advantage of the machine’s versatility and potential.

“This purchase is not just about one area or one type of grass or indeed just limited to seeding,” said Stuart Hogg.  “We want to be able to do tees, greens, fairways and walkways with different grass species.  The fact that the seed delivery hoses are kept dry and clean with the airflow is a big plus. If we want we can brush the greens without overseeding or we can sarrel roll the greens. There is much that can be done. But for now we’re going with little and often; playing the long game. It will take a period of time before we see a change of any botanical composition in the grass but that’s where we want to be in seasons to come.

“So far the Air has had one outing around the pathways with dwarf rye fescue mix, a couple of passes on the tees and three passes on the greens both with a pure fescue mix but we’re on a break until after The R&A’s Open qualifying and the club championships.  During August, September and possibly October, weather dependant, I expect it to be constantly overseeding the greens every two to three weeks to let germination happen ahead of winter.”

Terra Float Air Delights in Lancashire

Where the Air comes into its own is its high performance air stream which effortlessly directs precise amounts of the seed to the prepared perforated holes A series of steel deflector plates ensures uniform depositing of the seeds from a short distance while lifting the unit automatically triggers a shut off.

“The in-cab control saves time and effort.  Our team really likes this. If one of the greens, or a specific area is a bit weaker there’s no requirement to get out and recalibrate the machine.  It’s a couple of presses of a button and the machine does it for you, storing the data for next time. You are far more in control of which green gets what and such versatility on a golf course makes the job a little bit easier,” concluded Stuart Hogg.

Stuart Hogg is one of a rare breed of course managers having spent his entire career on links courses.  He took up his Course Manager post at The West Lancashire GC after 11 years at St Anne’s Old Links and before that spells at two other links courses, Fortrose & Rosemarkie GC on the Black Isle and West Kilbride GC at Seamill in Ayrshire. At The West Lancashire he is supported by a team of seven full time plus three seasonal staff.

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AgriArgo Appoint National Sales Director

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AgriArgo Appoint National Sales Director: Farm and groundscare tractor distributor AgriArgo UK & Ireland has expanded its management team with the new appointment of Ben Agar as Sales Director.

He joins the company based in Harworth, South Yorkshire from the UK office of a French manufacturer of light construction machinery. But before that he worked for 20 years at a global farm equipment company, half of which was spent in area sales and national marketing roles within the UK.

AgriArgo Appoint National Sales Director

Ray Spinks, AgriArgo managing director, said: “Ben comes to us with a great deal of valuable experience working across multiple farm equipment brands. He brings a fresh pair of eyes to the challenges we face in selling our products in an intensely competitive market.”

AgriArgo is the distributor of Landini and McCormick farm tractors in the United Kingdom and Ireland, supplying the machines to farmers, contractors and other rural enterprises through a network of independent local dealers.

The company’s dealers also handle Valpadana turf and groundscare four-wheel drive tractors, with all products supported by a technical services team and a parts operation that holds several million pounds worth of replacement parts to support dealers’ own stock.

Ben Agar said of his appointment: “Although I enjoyed the stimulus of working in the construction equipment market, which was new territory for me, my heart remains in agriculture and I’m genuinely excited at getting stuck into the farm machinery scene once more.

“My impression is that today’s modern Landini and McCormick tractors are underestimated in some respects; their features, performance, build quality and reliability are up there with the best, so I’m looking forward to working with AgriArgo’s dealers and area sales managers to bring these very positive characteristics to the attention of end users.”

When not encouraging farmers to get more Landini, McCormick and Valpadana tractors working on British and Irish farms, Ben enjoys time at home in Kenilworth, Warwickshire with his wife and two children, and in his role as an inspector with the Special Constabulary providing support to the local Roads Policing team.