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NEWS ARTICLES

Woodchippers Bought After Trial

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Woodchippers Bought After Trial: Beechwood Trees and Landscapes Ltd has purchased three new Först Woodchippers, after a successful trial that saw the team of arboriculture experts thoroughly impressed with the high level of performance and robust nature of the machines.

Established in 1998, Beechwood is one of the country’s leading arboricultural, fencing and landscaping contractors, and is continuing to show sustainable growth and development. With a team of 30 staff members, the success of the business over the past 20 years has been vast and the company is now recognised as one of the most forward thinking, innovative businesses within the industry.

Woodchippers Bought After Trial

Simon Rotheram, who has been managing director of Beechwood since the company’s inception, explains why he chose to work closely with Först after using woodchippers for more than two decades.

He said: “The majority of our work consists of site clearances and sectional take downs with housing associations and local councils, so it’s vitally important that we utilise a woodchipper fleet that can tackle any job, whilst also keeping maintenance and service to a minimum. In our industry, time literally is money, so we can’t afford any machinery downtime or lack of performance.

“To make sure we maintain our high standards, we carry out a rigorous maintenance programme that sees us review all of our machinery fleet every 3-4 years to ensure we are utilising the best and latest equipment. Over the past 20 years we have generally stuck to what we know when it comes to woodchippers, but on this occasion Först kindly agreed to lend us an ST6 and ST8 machine for a week and we were curious to see how they matched up against our current fleet.

“We put both woodchippers straight to work and the feedback I received from my team of operators out in the field was great. In addition to the impressive productivity of the machines, the woodchippers are also light and mobile, which makes transportation and completion of jobs in difficult to reach locations very simple.

“Outside the operation of the woodchippers, the Först machines also come with a three year warranty, which is a great asset to our business as these woodchippers really are put through their paces. In addition, our local Först service partner is just down the road to cover any minor mishaps, so the service and aftersales care Först can offer is second to none. When you combine all of this, the decision to move across to Först really was a no brainer and we purchased three ST6 machines as soon as we could.”

With the investment in Först woodchippers made, Simon can only see the working relationship with the manufacturer growing stronger moving forward.

Simon concluded: “We are very excited about working with Först. Although it’s still early days, the service support we have received from the manufacturer in such a short period of time, as well as the performance of the woodchippers, is something I have been really impressed with and this enables the team and I to simply focus on the job at hand.”

For more information on Först’s high performance range of woodchippers, or to book a demonstration, visit www.forst-woodchippers.com or call 01264 721790.

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ICL’s Esteron New 2 Litre Pack

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ICL’s Esteron New 2 Litre Pack: ICL’s Esteron T, a low volume dual action selective herbicide, is now available in a more convenient 2 litre pack.

Esteron T is an extremely effective turf herbicide containing the active ingredients florasulam and 2,4-D. It has been designed for the control of weeds in sports and amenity turf as well as domestic lawns and combats a broad range of weeds including Dandelion, Daisy and White Clover.

ICL’s Esteron New 2 Litre Pack

The more convenient sized pack will make it easier to measure out and its ultra-low application rate (1.2 L/ha) means the new smaller 2 litre pack can still treat 1.67 hectares.

Esteron T can be applied at low water volumes (100-400 L/ha) and for best results it should be applied when weeds are in active growth, normally between March and October when the soil is moist.

Rainfast in just one hour, one treatment a year of Esteron T is all that is needed to make a dramatic impact.

Please contact ICL on 01473 237100 or visit www.icl-sf.co.uk or www.icl-sf.ie if you are in Ireland.

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Extensions Of Use For Herbicide

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Extensions Of Use For Herbicide: As of March 2018, the barrier acting, total herbicide, Pistol®, from Bayer, will be labelled with two new extensions of use, which will include applications by CDA (Controlled Droplet Applicator) as well as vehicle mounted sprayers, in addition to the current approval for knapsack application. 

Lewis Blois, Bayer national account manager, explains that treatments using a CDA allow for the herbicide to be applied evenly and effectively, so that contractors are not required to use a large amount of adjuvant or water.

Extensions Of Use For Herbicide

 

“This greatly reduces the overall weight of herbicide operators need to carry and saves a significant amount of working time, as they won’t need to continually stop to refill the tank.

“Vehicle mounted applications were actually removed from the Pistol® label in 2015, but the Bayer regulatory team has worked hard to bring about renewed approval. This will ensure that users can cover large permeable areas such as car parks, in a shorter space of time,” he says.

The updated label will not affect those currently using the product. However, those applying old-label products, with the extended application methods, should ensure that they have access to the updated label. This will be available from Pistol® distributors or can be downloaded from the Bayer website.

All Pistol® bottles will continue to be supplied with low drift nozzles, which allow amenity professionals to minimise chemical drift and ensure a targeted spray pattern.

“Using low drift nozzles is an essential part of pesticide stewardship, and without such practices we could see even more products removed from the market,” explains Lewis.

A key benefit of Pistol® is that it has a long lasting, systemic and residual mode of action. As well as killing weeds on contact, it continues to reside as a barrier in the upper soil profile to control and prevent germinating weeds from establishing for 3 months, post application.

“The updated label will offer all users the flexibility to apply the herbicide in the most appropriate way to suit their circumstances,” says Lewis.

To find out more about Pistol® and the label update, please contact the Bayer Turf Solutions Team on 00800 1214 9451, email turfsolutions@bayer.com or visit www.environmentalscience.bayer.co.uk

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Bones Found Under Football Pitch

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Bones Found Under Football Pitch: Workmen unearthed unidentified bones as they were preparing a new football pitch.

The remains were found underneath Ossett Albion’s Dimplewells pitch on Tuesday, as work was being carried out in preparation of the club merging with Ossett Town to form Ossett United.

And the discovery caused chaos, with one game being cancelled and police and forensic teams being called out to the scene.

But after initial tests, it was determined that they were fox bones and not human.

Phil Smith, chief executive at Ossett Albion, said: “I was thinking that someone had buried someone under our pitch.”

The bones were found during ground testing which was being carried out as part of plans for a new 3G pitch being laid at the site. The new pitch will become a training ground and will also be used by junior and ladies teams when the United merger goes ahead.

Workmen had taken a sample of grass and mud to see what lay one metre beneath it. But when the turf was lifted, the remains were revealed.

Mr Smith said police were alerted to the discovery and the area was taped off early in the evening on Tuesday. Investigations on Wednesday morning determined the bones were animal remains.

Mr Smith said: “There was uncertainty over what type the bones were. There was a shoe at the end of the longest bone.

“It turned out the remains were from a fox. The pitch is stood on what used to be a Victorian tipping ground. There’s all sorts under it.

“It was just a sheer coincidence that a fox died next to a shoe some 50 years ago.”

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New Customer For Toro

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New Customer For Toro: St Enodoc Golf Club has an impressive roll call. It is the premier golf club based in Cornwall, sixth in the country according to Golf World, and ranked 99th in the world by Golf Digest. Adding to that, is the fact that it is now a new Toro customer.

Based on that roll call it’s easy to see that this links course, based on the North Cornwall coast overlooking the Camel Estuary, has high standards to maintain. Simon Greatorex, general manager, explains why he and course manager Scott Gibson turned to Toro to help with that.

New Customer For Toro

Simon says: ”As a general manager I have spent a lot of time with the greenkeepers, and time and time again the preferred machinery choice is Toro. This is almost always down to their opinion on the brand’s reliability, build quality and machine support from the supplier and dealer, in this case Reesink Turfcare and Devon Garden Machinery. I happen to agree with them on all of these points.”

And that’s why the club has opted for Toro this time, and is in receipt of two Greensmaster 3400 TriFlex mowers, a Reelmaster 5410 and a Reelmaster 3100-D with Sidewinder, to tend the club’s greens, surrounds and fairways.

Of these machines, Scott says it’s the Reelmaster 3100-D with Sidewinder which is standing out for the club’s greenkeeping team of eight. In particular for “its versatility, excellent stability, clean and superior cut, and immaculate presentation,” says Scott. He goes on to praise all four machines for their ergonomic design.

Plus, there’s the service and support of Reesink Turfcare and Devon Garden Machinery. Scott says: “We have a long-standing relationship with Devon Garden Machinery who distributes Toro in our area, the service and support we get from them is second to none. And Reesink has made the whole process very straight forward, from the advice on the type of equipment we needed to purchase, to the many options that were open to us to finance the fleet, it has been nothing but easy.”

So why has St Enodoc opted for Toro now? Simon explains: “The club has an ongoing course improvement plan, plus the drive to attract some additional events to Cornwall. We already host the South West Ladies Match Week in July for Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, and in 2019 we will be hosting the English Senior Women’s Amateur Strokeplay Championship. With Toro on board we feel we stand in good stead for expanding this roll-call even further.”

For more information, visit: reesinkturfcare.co.uk

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