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NEWS ARTICLES

No Repeat Of Glyphosate Saga

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No Repeat Of Glyphosate Saga: There will not be a repeat of the Glyphosate saga, promises EU’s new committee on authorisation of pesticides.

The new special committee on pesticides started looking into the EU authorisation procedure during its first working meeting on 12 April.

No Repeat Of Glyphosate Saga

MEPs discussed the state of play of the procedure with European Food Safety Authority executive director Bernhard Url and the European Commission.

Committee chair Eric Andrieu (S&D, France) said: “We must dare to do everything and not forbid ourselves on this real question of society: we are talking about the health of 500 million Europeans, 42% of foods are identified without pesticides… the margin is large.

“In December, when we will vote on our report, we will have to make a commitment to citizens that the food they eat and the air they breathe are not dangerous to their health.

“Our Special Committee must lay the foundations for new practices guaranteeing transparency and independence. Above all, it must restore citizens’ confidence in the European process.”

Co-rapporteur Bart Staes (Greens/EFA, Belgium) said: “This new committee gives us the opportunity to delve into the work of the different European and national agencies, the quality of the evidence used, the role of industry and the independence and transparency of the entire evaluation process.

“Protection of public health and the environment must be at the heart of EU decisions. We want to make sure there can no re-run of the glyphosate saga”

The EU re-authorised glyphosate for five years in November amid controversy around carcinogen claims.

“The re-authorisation of glyphosate highlighted some serious problems with the current process. We will now examine the evidence in detail and come forward with recommendations to make sure that the authorisation procedure for pesticides as a whole is fit for purpose, so that future decisions are fully transparent and respect the relevant EU regulation” Staes said.

Co-rapporteur Norbert Lins (EPP, Germany) said: “The main goal of the PEST-committee is to look at the authorisation procedure from every angle and to identify possible improvements based on a scientific approach.

“The Commission and EFSA gave us a good overview about the current legislation which was a good start to understand the process. Nevertheless we will need more input from all stakeholders, to see how the theory works in practice. It is of particular interest for me to put an effective and efficient process in place which does not only focus on transparency but ensures safety for environment and health and strengthens innovation” he added.

The special committee will hold its next meeting on the 26th of April.

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Award For Council Groundsman

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Award For Council Groundsman: An award has been presented to a member of Tendring District Council’s Open Spaces team for his work maintaining a popular cricket pitch.

Chris Russell won the Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Cricket Championship Groundsman Award at the annual general meeting of the Essex Cricket Board Groundsman Association.

Chris was given the award for his work preparing pitches at Clacton Cricket Club’s Vista Road ground during the 2017 season. The pitches received top marks from a panel of umpires right across the season.

Stuart Kerrison, head groundsman at Essex County Cricket Club’s Chelmsford ground, presented Chris with his award.

Barry Dunwell, the outgoing chairman of Clacton Cricket Club, said the club was fortunate to have such a hard-working, dedicated and conscientious groundsman preparing their pitches.

“It was not a surprise that Chris received this accolade for his efforts,” he added.

Chris works at a number of recreation grounds right across the District in his role with Tendring District Council.

Trevor Mills, Open Space Manager at Tendring District Council, added his congratulations to Chris.

“We all know how hard Chris works to look after our open spaces, and his sterling efforts at Clacton Cricket Club are just one example of his year-round fine work,” he said.

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Toro MVP Kits Increase Uptime

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Toro MVP Kits Increase Uptime: Greenkeepers, workshop technicians and mechanics can prevent maintenance headaches in the season ahead with Toro’s MVP kits.

 As the grass growing season gets into full swing and your fleet’s workload increases, the last thing needed is extended machinery downtime and unexpected maintenance costs. This is a situation that can be avoided with Toro’s MVP (maintenance value performance) kits.

Toro MVP kits Increase Uptime

With an individual kit for blades, roller rebuilding, cutting unit overhauling, seals, and blades and belts, whichever kit you go for, one thing guaranteed is that you will have all the genuine Toro parts needed to quickly get your turfcare machinery working again.

So, instead of spending valuable time sourcing individual parts as issues arise, greenkeepers can purchase Toro MVP kits in one convenient box that comes with the added benefit of saving up to 20 percent in repair expenses.

Michael Hampton, Reesink Turfcare parts manager, comments: “As we all know, time is of the essence for greenkeeping teams in the summer and machines are worked hard to keep turf in play and in immaculate condition. Owning an MVP kit means no longer being caught out by a machine in need of care, as you will be prepared with every part needed to quickly get your turfcare machinery back into action.”

Instructions give advice on when to perform specific maintenance tasks depending on the model and the number of hours of use, helping prevent running machines into the ground and incurring unnecessary costs to repair them.

Michael continues: “Keeping turf in premium condition is rightly at the forefront of greenkeepers’ minds, with constantly high-performing machines being the means of achieving this and downtime being a possible obstacle. Toro’s MVP kits enable you to react and resolve maintenance or repair issues immediately, keeping uptime at an all-time high.”

Added to this, if used to perform regular maintenance, MVP kits keep cost of ownership low and allow for more accurate forecasting when setting budget aside for parts and servicing.

Investing in Toro MVP kits is, says Reesink Turfcare, a wise decision.

For more information contact distributor Reesink’s Toro parts department on 01480 226800, go to reesinkturfcare.co.uk, or visit your local dealer.

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Sherriff’s First MyTurfClub Event

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Sherriff’s First MyTurfClub Event: Sherriff Amenity recently hosted the very first myTurfClub event at Syngenta UK’s Jealott’s Hill Research Centre in Bracknell – and by all accounts it was regarded as a huge success.

myTurfClub is a new initiative from Sherriff Amenity which has an ultimate goal of helping to improve the UK turf amenity sector stewardship of pesticide and products. The event proved a great opportunity to meet other like-minded individuals, share and gain knowledge, learn best practices and ultimately enhance their education. Every delegate also gained 6 BIGGA CPD points by attending.

Sherriff's First MyTurfClub Event

Following an introduction by Sherriff Amenity’s Joseph Dormer; Dan Lightfoot, UK and Ireland business manager for Syngenta, proceeded to provide a fascinating industry update and a great insight into fungicide planning.

Next up was Rod Burke, Syngenta’s portfolio development manager for Europe, Africa and the Middle East, who offered some extremely helpful tips in his presentation entitled “Pigments – a first look”

Prior to lunch, Joseph provided a virtual tour through the online mySherriffAmenity platform. Sherriff Amenity has always been a big advocate of education within the turf and amenity industry and many have benefited from using mySherriffAcademy which is a feature of this platform. mySherriffAcademy is ideal for learning more about the amenity business as users can participate in courses to enhance knowledge on a wide range of topics such as disease and the correct products to use.

Lunchtime offered all attendees a great chance to network before they embarked on a tour of Syngenta’s impressive, state of the art facilities. Jealott’s Hill is a key site in Syngenta’s global research and development network and key activities include research into discovery of new active ingredients, new formulation technologies, product safety, technical support of products and seeds research.

To conclude the event, Joe Kinder (Sherriff Amenity Technical Manager) advised on tank-mixes before Johnny Beck (Sherriff Amenity Amenity Specialist) delivered a captivating insight into trial work as well as revealing key results.

Sam Evans, Head Greenkeeper at Fulwell Golf Club in Middlesex, was in attendance and believes that an event like this is essential to the future of the industry. “I came along today because I wanted to develop my spray-tech knowledge and have a look around the impressive Syngenta site. There are some really exciting products coming out and it is good to know that companies like Sherriff Amenity and Syngenta are looking to the future and are passionate about developing products. Events like these are vital for head greenkeepers and course managers; it’s all about enhancing your knowledge and planning for disease prevention because it is so critical in our industry.”

Ben Mills-Reed, Assistant Greenkeeper at Rustington Golf Centre in Sussex, is currently working his way through the mySherriffAcademy modules and felt that by attending the seminar, he gained a greater knowledge of the products he is using on a regular basis.

“I attended the event to find out more about the products we use, why we use them and how they are made. It has been really informative. I’m doing the mySherriffAcademy modules at the moment and I’m piecing all the bits together so today has been a big help.”

Commenting on the successful day, event organiser Joseph Dormer said: “We put this event together specifically because there is a need to become more pro-active in our industry. We need to be able to predict what is going to happen and have a plan in place because we are slowly losing all of the fire-fighting products.

“This event is all about giving something back and to not just host an event where everyone is sat there staring at a presentation on a screen. We wanted to create an event which is all about getting the delegates to be a bit more interactive and ultimately try to ensure that everyone leaves here with something – from the assistants all the way up to the course managers.

“I’m absolutely delighted with the turn out today, considering the pressure everyone is under at the moment with the weather. Plus a lot of people are trying to get greens renovations done and get their courses up to scratch for spring.

“I’d like to say a big thank you to Syngenta for hosting the event. I’m planning on partnering up with all of our key suppliers so there will be a number of different subject matters in this myTurfClub series. I’m sure this will be the first of many great events.”

For further information, please contact Sherriff Amenity on 01638 721 888 or visit www.sherriffamenity.com

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Pellenc’s Factory Award

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Pellenc’s Factory Award: After transforming its state of the art factory in Pertuis, France, the Pellenc group has been presented with the Industry Showcase of the Future award.

Since the Pellenc group was created in 1973, the company has based its development on a policy of constant innovation. The group’s ability to be able to anticipate changes in its markets has led to the registering of 1081 patents – winning numerous awards for the excellence of its products.

 

A forerunner when it comes to lithium-ion technology, Pellenc has established itself in the “Zero Emission” professional power tools market. The company has seen rapid growth since 1973 and in just the last five years Pellenc has doubled its turnover. With a policy of investing 10% of its turnover back into research and development, the group is committed to continually developing its industrial processes and this led to the transformation of its factory.

Pellenc’s factory transformation objectives were to not only improve operations but also to enhance the working conditions for employees – increasing their safety and optimising the comfort of the workstations.

The transformation of the plant has already proved to be hugely beneficial. Assembly times have been significantly reduced, while service rates in the workshops and production line areas have also been greatly improved. In turn, the teams involved feel better prepared and trained for the various stages of production.

Pierre-Antoine Barre, Pellenc Industrialisation Methods Manager was delighted to have achieved such large-scale objectives: “Transformation of the Pertuis site means that the Pellenc group’s capacity and industrial flexibility has grown, and the competitiveness of its product range has improved, building on French know-how, a symbol of industrial excellence and a source of employment reaching +7% a year.”

Pellenc's Factory Award

Aurélien Blanc, technical assistant in the portable power tools shop, offered a great insight from an employee’s point of view: “The changes in the plant have reduced movements needed and distances covered. They provide real improvements in ergonomics, productivity and quality of work.”

The Industry Showcase of the Future award is testament to the success of the factory transformation, but Pellenc refuses to rest on its laurels. There are many more factory projects planned for this year, including new innovations for the newly created areas, new workflow displays and automation systems.

Always seeking further improvements, the Pellenc group continues to innovate and it is no wonder that its products are spearheading the markets throughout Europe and beyond.

Pellenc products are exclusively distributed in the UK by Etesia UK.

For further information, please contact Etesia UK on 01295 680120 or visit www.pellencuk.com

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