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European Commission Relicense Glyphosate

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European Commission Relicense Glyphosate: Weedkiller Glyphosate has been given a last minute reprieve after a European Commission (EC) committee granted a fresh licence for the herbicide’s continued use across the EU.

The relicensing follows months of indecision by the EC. The EC Appeals Committee finally reached a qualified majority to renew glyphosate for five years.

The decision to grant the herbicide a licence for a further five years was reached by the EU Commission’s Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed, comprising representatives of the 28 member states, after a series of meetings this year failed reach consensus.

The approval comes just a few days before the current licence expires on December 15, which left many professional users in the horticulture industry fearing a sudden ban with drastic effects.

A qualified majority of member states voted in favour of the Commission’s proposal for a five-year re-approval (18 in favour, nine against and one abstention). Germany voted in favour of re-approval, having previously abstained. This ensured the qualified majority for approval, as 18 member states voted in favour, including Poland, Bulgaria, and Romania which previously abstained, while nine member states voted against and just Portugal abstained.

The UK was in favour, as was Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Netherlands, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden, Ireland and Spain.

Against were Belgium, Greece, France, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta and Austria.

Health Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis said: “Today’s vote shows that when we all want to, we are able to share and accept our collective responsibility in decision making.”

Crop Protection Association chief executive Sarah Mukherjee said: “Whilst we are pleased that the science has eventually prevailed, the politicisation of what should have been a standard re-approval process sets a worrying precedent for the future of crop protection and sustainable farming in Europe.

“The loss of glyphosate would have caused significant damage to the economy, the environment and the agricultural sector.

“British farmers will be relieved that this vital tool will continue to be available to them, and they will be able to continue to do what they do best, providing us with safe, healthy, affordable food.”

NFU vice president Guy Smith said: “It is good news that farmers and growers will be able to continue using glyphosate for another five years. However, the fact remains that there is absolutely no regulatory reason why it should not have been reauthorised for 15 years, as was originally proposed.

“Independent regulatory bodies around the world, including the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), have looked at all the scientific evidence and concluded glyphosate is safe to use. But their conclusions have been ignored and their credibility has been undermined.

“Glyphosate reduces the need to use other herbicides, it helps to protect soil and cut greenhouse gas emissions by reducing the need for ploughing, and it enables farmers in this country to grow crops that help produce safe, affordable, high quality British food.”

MEP Anthea McIntyre said: “The scaremongering and indecision over this product had left farmers and growers fearing they were staring over a cliff edge, so this will be greeted with enormous relief.”

A World Health Organisation report labelled it a suspected carcinogen; but a large body of peer-reviewed studies have shown this not to be the case.
McIntyre, member of the European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee, added: “It should never have taken this long to renew the licence and it should have been renewed for a full 15 years but the last minute reprieve and the licence for five years is welcome.
“Many farmers are making a big effort to build up the levels of organic matter in soils by using ground cover crops and “no-till” farming methods, backed up by application of glyphosate. This gives us carbon sequestration, protection from soil erosion and avoidance of water evaporation.
“A de facto ban on glyphosate would have been a shocking and unscientific backward step.
“Farmers would have had to fall back on mechanical weed control. That would mean 25 per cent increase in greenhouse gas emissions and a significant impact on farm bird life – including skylarks, partridge, lapwing.
“For a zero Improvement in public health and safety, we would have been worsening food security, soil quality, biodiversity and climate change.”

Monsanto’s Gary Philpotts said: “The Roundup brand is doing well, considering the issues around glyphosate.”

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Teenage Groundsman Wins Volunteer Award

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Teenage Groundsman Wins Volunteer Award: A volunteer groundsman at Redditch Cricket Club has been named ‘young volunteer of the year’ at a prestigious sports awards.

Jacob Ottley, 17, won the accolade at the annual Herefordshire and Worcestershire Sports Awards at Sixways Stadium in Worcester on Thursday, November 23.

He only began volunteering at the club as part of his Duke of Edinburgh award, but has since completed a groundsman course to become an “integral” part of the club’s staff.

Club secretary Gary Fisher said: “I was very shocked and surprised but delighted that he has won it.

“You are going up against a big area and it is not just cricket, it is across all sports, so it is a very big honour for not only Jacob but for the cricket club as well.

“He has been integral in doing groundwork throughout the season which helped up win the Worcestershire league.

“He has become a massive part of the club not only as a young sportsman but as a member of the groundstaff.

“There is a lot of work on doing groundwork but he has got that knack about him to observe and take things in.

“It is fantastic news. It is great for a youngster to do what he is doing.”

The awards are organised by Herefordshire & Worcestershire Sports Partnership and have been running for 16 years.

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FA Take Advice From City Groundsmen

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FA Take Advice From City Groundsmen: Sports bodies across the UK are taking advice from Gloucester.

More than 18 months after the city council agreed to commit to improve pitches across Gloucester, council bosses say there has been a major improvement.

And there has been input from some of the nation’s greatest groundsmen at the most high-profile grounds.

The RFU, FA, and England and Wales Cricket Board have held pitch improvement workshops with clubs and groundsmen here in Gloucester, including an event at Kingsholm Stadium, which was led by the head groundsman of Twickenham stadium, Keith Kent.

In January 2016, the council agreed to undertake a new playing pitch strategy to turn their pitches around.

Since then they claim they have seen a 40 per cent improvement.

The report added that with commitment from city council officers, and representation with sporting interest groups such as Sport England, Active Gloucestershire and Aspire Sport and Cultural Trust, now the Football Association is developing a national case study based on Gloucester’s approach.

Gloucester City Council’s cabinet recently approved a report which stated that more people in the county are getting involved in playing sport.

Councillor Lise Noakes (C, Barnwood) said: “It’s exciting the progress that we’re making.”

Adam Gooch, principal planning officer at Gloucester City Council, said in a report: “The delivery of the playing pitch strategy is having a positive effect on sustainability in Gloucester, providing a framework for the protection, enhancement and provision on playing pitches and ancillary facilities in the city over the next 10 years.

“It will also set a good foundation for the ongoing consideration of playing pitches through future updates to the strategies.”

Terry Haines is a member of the Gloucestershire Playing Fields Association.

He said: “My impression is that things have improved but there’s a challenge to maintain them when the [council’s] resources have been reduced to almost nothing.”

He added the future of the pitches depends on “people doing something” to make sure the pitches are suitable for playing on.

But Martin Townsend, who is director of rugby for Old Centralians RFC at Saintbridge Road – which is maintained by White Horse Federation on behalf of Gloucestershire County Council – said his pitch needs improvement.

He said the pitch gets flooded when it rains, and if the team is playing when that happens, the pitch is out of use for four weeks.

“The standard of the pitch is terrible. When the school got moved here the White Horse Federation were supposed to have provided us with a decent playing facility,” he said.

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Winners Of SALTEX Innovation Award

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Winners Of SALTEX Innovation Award: The best in brand new grounds care technology was celebrated in the very first SALTEX Innovation Award at the NEC, Birmingham on 1 and 2 November 2017.

Making its debut, the Innovation Award attracted a number of high-quality entries from various exhibitors from across the globe. There were 24 entries in total spanning a wide variety of products, services and equipment.

Winners Of SALTEX Innovation Award

The entries were judged by an independent panel of industry experts who based their decisions on a number of factors including what the entry offers the industry and how it makes life easier for the person using it.

The standard was incredibly high, resulting in a tie for first place.

Backed by unanimous support by all judges, during the first day of the exhibition, Rigby Taylor’s Intelligent One autonomous robotic line marker and Fleet Line Markers’ MAQA line marking machine were announced as joint winners of the SALTEX Innovation Award 2017.

The Intelligent One (iO) is said to be the world’s first fully autonomous robotic line marker. It can mark out a standard sized football pitch in 35 minutes, using just 3.3 litres of ready to use Impact XP paint. The iO eliminates the task of stringing out for the first markings and operates hands-free. Once the pitch template has been entered into the supplied tablet, the iO is placed at the corner of the pitch and will mark out all the outside and inside straight lines, the ‘D’, centre circle, corner angles and penalty spot without any direct operator involvement.

The MAQA line marking machine uses GNSS technology to reduce the time it takes to mark by a massive 75 per cent. Initial marking that might have taken two men up to four hours can now be completed by one person in 20 minutes.

Winners Of SALTEX Innovation Award

The standard of all Innovation Award entries were of such high calibre that the judges chose to award second and third place awards as well.

Second place went to Oregon’s Gator Speedload, which judges said was a quick and simple device which negated the need to dismantle the head each time to re-load/wrap new strimmer cord. Third place went to the Etesia Hydro 80 MKHP4 E-Connect, due to its ability to set up multiple users and record data – allowing organisations or clubs to monitor the amount of use and user’s ability.

For more information visit www.iogsaltex.com

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PING partners John Deere

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PING partners John Deere: PING, a brand with a strong heritage and one that is synonymous with performance and innovation, is a family-owned business founded in 1959 by Karsten Solheim. The company, renowned for its innovative golf equipment, is also involved in golf course ownership at Gainsborough Golf Club, which is just a short drive from its European headquarters in Lincolnshire.

As part of a three-year plan that will see the club’s entire course maintenance equipment fleet updated to John Deere, Gainsborough recently took delivery of several new machines from area sales manager Steve Blanchard of local dealer F G Adamson & Son at Langworth, Lincolnshire.

PING partners John Deere

PING and John Deere have more than a local connection. The biennial Solheim Cup match between the best women golfers from Europe and the USA was founded by the Solheim family, and John Deere is a Patron of and machinery supplier to this prestigious event. “PING prides itself on the quality of its products and service,” says Gainsborough’s course manager Greg Skinner. “John Deere and F G Adamson & Son are built on the same ethos, so we are delighted to be working together.”

Greg and his greenkeeping team are responsible for two courses, the 123-year old Thonock Park and Karsten Lakes, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2017. “We needed to renew our ageing equipment fleet to improve the overall presentation of both courses and bring them up to the standard golfers expect from a PING-owned property,” says Greg. “Presentation and quality are very important to our members and for attracting more visitors to all of the club’s activities.

“F G Adamson & Son showed exceptional understanding of our requirements and their knowledge provided a huge amount of in-depth information that guided us through the machinery selection process. In addition, they provided several demonstration machines for us to test, which proved crucial in our final choices.”

Gainsborough’s general manager Ben Hatch adds: “Overall, the package is a huge investment and F G Adamson & Son showed us how quickly they could get parts from John Deere’s UK premises at Langar, Nottingham, its distribution centre in Germany and even the USA, if required. This level of after sales service and support gave us great confidence we were making the right decision.”

The latest additions to the fleet include a 9009A rough mower, 7700A 4WD fairway mower, two 2500E hybrid electric mowers for use on the greens and tees, two HPX Gator utility vehicles and a 1200A bunker rake. These have joined machines from the deal’s first phase in 2016, including a 7400A semi-rough mower and a 1600T wide area rotary mower, plus additional hybrid greens and tees mowers, Gators, bunker rakes and two rotary walk-behind mowers for use on the amenity grass areas.

“The club has ISO 14001 environmental accreditation and we want to be as green as we can,” says Greg. “The 2500E mowers are not just quiet, there is also less chance of hydraulic leaks. They produce a nice stripe and on the greens their offset cylinders eliminate the triplex ring effect on the clear-up lap, which minimises compaction.

“These go out most days and they run at lower revs, which we estimate saves us approximately 1250 litres of fuel a year. In addition, the brush tender conditioners are kinder on the grass, resulting in less disease. If we can cut out even one fungicide application a year, that’s a saving of £2000.

“When Steve Blanchard demonstrated the 9009A rough mower, it just blew the competition away for quality of cut, speed and presentation,” Greg adds. “It’s really changed the way we cut the Karsten Lakes fairways, as we’ve widened the semi-rough from one to four bands because of how well this machines performs. It’s made the whole course a much better experience for the golfer.

“The 7400A TerrainCut mower goes places its predecessor wouldn’t and has the traction to handle the banks on the courses and those around the clubhouse. I also believe nothing touches the HPX Gator for ride comfort, carrying capacity and towing ability – it’s a very, very good utility vehicle.

“It was a long process selecting the equipment and negotiating the overall package but that was a good thing, as we made better decisions and ensured we got exactly the right machines for our needs.”

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