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NEWS ARTICLES

New Kubota Utility Tractor

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New Kubota Utility Tractor: Leading groundcare machinery specialist, Kubota UK, has released its latest high performance L1361 Compact Utility Tractor, which offers unrivaled versatility, productivity and efficiency. 

For those looking to complete a wide range of maintenance tasks with ease, the 36.6 HP machine is a flexible choice, featuring a powerful three cylinder Kubota D1803-M-E2 engine, manual or three range speed hydrostatic transmission and a 38 litre capacity fuel tank for extended periods of use.

New Kubota Utility Tractor

The new L1361 also includes 4WD and live, continuous-running rear PTO exclusively available on the HST model. The frequent and alternating use of various implements are supported by the machine’s three-point hitch and impressive lifting capacity, for easier and flexible use.

By featuring a quick detach front loader, the model allows for easier and quicker use of implements, including the new Kubota LA525 front loader with a curved boom design, for easy completion of the biggest of tasks.

The bevel gear front axle has also been designed to deliver an extremely tight turning radius, with full power transfer to the wheels at every steering angle. This enables greater traction across all terrains for secure high performance.

However, productivity and performance aren’t the only key benefits of the machine. Ergonomics have also played a significant part in the L1361’s refreshed design, with a spacious operator deck and slanted front bonnet for greater field of vision when handling front loader operations to ensure maximum safety.

Speaking of the latest L1361 tractor, Adrian Langmead, Business Development Manager for Groundcare, said: “As a market leader in the manufacture of high performance solutions, Kubota is dedicated to developing machines that combine innovation and technology together to constantly improve the way in which the industry works.

“Regardless of terrain or job requirement, the L1361 allows operators to get the job done better and faster, all with greater comfort, performance and ease.”

For more information on Kubota and its extensive range of solutions visit www.kubota.co.uk or call 01844 268000.

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SALTEX Winners Six Nations Trip

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SALTEX Winners Six Nations Trip: After claiming the SALTEX College Cup title for the second year running, students from CAFRE College in Antrim, Northern Ireland, enjoyed an unforgettable experience of helping with pitch preparations at the 2018 Six Nations Championships at BT Murrayfield Stadium in Scotland.

The SALTEX College Cup, sponsored by Ransomes, and organised by the Institute of Groundsmanship (IOG), is a national student-led sports-turf challenge. It is an academic test of turf management knowledge for student competitors who are enrolled at colleges throughout the UK on relevant courses of study. Launched at the show in 2016, CAFRE was the first college to have its name engraved on the trophy and as part of the prize, the winning students were part of the Wembley grounds team at the 2017 FA Cup Final.

SALTEX Winners Six Nations Trip

CAFRE returned to SALTEX 2017 where they saw off competition from four other colleges to reclaim the trophy. As well as receiving a £500 cheque and £50 Amazon vouchers for each student, the CAFRE team was presented with another prize that money can’t buy – preparing the pitch at the 2018 Six Nations Championships for the Scotland vs England game.

The CAFRE team arrived at BT Murrayfield on the Friday afternoon before Saturday’s match and were soon mowing the pitch – firmly cementing the students’ names on the very small and exclusive list of people to have cut the BT Murrayfield pitch.

After a 7am start on the big day, the CAFRE team were part of the busy yet meticulously planned pitch preparations, and it would not be long before their work would be broadcasted to millions worldwide.

Commenting on the day, CAFRE student Matthew Barr said: “I found the whole experience incredible and one that I will never forget. I also learnt a lot of new techniques that I will be able to implement in my own work.

“My personal highlights of the weekend were being part of the grounds team and watching Scotland beat England for the first time in 10 years – the atmosphere was fantastic! Everyone was so welcoming and friendly.”

Alex Latto, assistant head groundsman at BT Murrayfield, was delighted to have the CAFRE students working alongside him: “Hosting the winners of the SALTEX College Cup was something we were really keen to do. Having the opportunity to help develop further some of the most promising students the turf care industry has to offer was a great experience for us.

The lads demonstrated good knowledge and practical experience and were willing to muck in with the unglamorous jobs associated with event set up. They left us with the assurance that they’d had an educational and enjoyable experience and we enjoyed working alongside them.”

Dan Prest, the IOG’s head of membership services, felt honoured to see such a finely tuned grounds team at work and was quick to thank everyone involved.

“I was amazed by the willingness of the BT Murrayfield grounds team to be here, there and everywhere for the greater good. It really was a case of all hands to the pump but they still gave the CAFRE students the best possible experience.

“Many thanks to Ransomes for their continuing support of this competition, Garry Blackadder, Jim Dawson, Alex Latto and Joanne Laing at BT Murrayfield for their support, work ethic and good nature in allowing the winners of the SALTEX College Cup to assist in a Six Nations’ match that will go down in history.”

All colleges interested in participating in the 2018 SALTEX College Cup should email Dan Prest at dprest@iog.org for more details.

To view show highlights and key interviews please visit www.youtube.com/MyIOG

For more information visit www.iogsaltex.com

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New Jacobsen Aerators

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New Jacobsen Aerators: Jacobsen, a Textron Specialized Vehicles brand, is releasing new models of its GA Aerator Series. The GA450 and GA580 aerators will sit alongside the GA600 to create an extensive line of tractor mounted aerators, with each model having a specific width and working depth that can be used in a multitude of applications for the course.

Each model features Jacobsen’s PerfectStrikeTM technology, which delivers unrivaled hole quality and increased productivity when equipped with the optional AerStrikeTM tine attachment system.

New Jacobsen Aerators

The PerfectStrike patented design ensures tines enter and exit the turf vertically and from an optimal height. Its precise movement creates a truly straight and more perfectly round hole, providing uniform aeration with minimal damage to the root zone to allow turf to recover quickly.

“With the addition of the GA450 and GA580, we provide the industry’s most comprehensive line of aerators, all featuring PerfectStrike technology which delivers superior hole quality while maintaining turf quality,” said Michael Parkhurst, Vice President, Golf for Textron Specialized Vehicles Inc., which designs and manufactures Jacobsen turf-care equipment. The company also manufactures E-Z-GO® golf cars and Cushman® utility vehicles under its Textron Golf brand.

Each GA series aerator can be equipped with an AerStrike attachment system that delivers up to 70 percent heightened productivity. Created for optimal spacing with a diamond pattern, the system enables single-pass aeration, reducing operation time and elevating turf conditions.

Additionally, the GA series features a rear-mount roller location, with superior ground-following capability and a design that allows for quick, simple adjustment of aeration and easier maintenance.

GA450

  • Ideal for greens and manicured green spaces
  • Spring dampening tine arm motion delivers superior quality
  • Lightweight design allows quick and efficient aeration

GA580

  • Aerate fairways up to 8” deep at industry-leading speeds
  • Capable of intermediate depth aeration on fairways
  • Designed for ease of operation and maintenance
  • Single-tool depth adjustments to achieve perfect aeration depth

The new GA models will join the GA600 in Jacobsen’s line of GA Series Aerators. The GA600, when equipped with the AerStrike 4-tine attachment system, operates as the industry’s only aerator that performs deep aeration in a single pass.

For more information, visit: www.jacobsen.com

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New Masterline ‘Colour Boost’

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New Masterline ‘Colour Boost’: New for 2018 from the Masterline range are 3 new and exciting ‘Colour Boost’ flower mixture formulations designed to create enhanced, attractive amenity spaces. Available in the UK through DLF Seeds, the range also provides an essential food source and habitat for many species of animals and invertebrates, especially pollenating insects.

The mixtures have been designed for maximum floral impact, incorporating both wild flower and garden flowering species, that establish rapidly to deliver a colourful display throughout the whole year. Sowing a colour boost mixture brings many cost savings for the commercial user compared to more traditional bedding schemes – particularly appealing to local authorities and golf courses with increasing pressure on budgets. The mixtures are sown directly onto the final recipient site, requiring little irrigation, fertiliser/chemical application or maintenance throughout the season.

New Masterline ‘Colour Boost'

Designed to create a robust and attractive display in any park; open space or golf course, Colour Boost 1, features high impact annuals that are quick to establish and offer a long flowering period from 8 weeks after sowing up until the first frosts. Colour Boost 2 is a low-growing seasonal annuals mix, particularly relevant for areas where final growing height is of paramount importance. Finally, featuring 90% perennial flower species and 10% annual species, Colour Boost 3 high impact perennial mix ensures good adaptability to different growing conditions and provides a colour scheme that changes throughout the season depending on which species are in bloom.

The mixtures within the Colour Boost range feature 100% flower seed which can be notoriously difficult to sow when applying at just a few grams per m2. To combat this and ensure even sowing and correct application rates, the mixtures are sold in conjunction with Rehofix MK1500 corn skin granule – a natural, biodegradable carrier which makes sowing at low application rates easier and saves the more expensive seed mix running out midway through a project.

For more information, visit: www.dlf.co.uk

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The Man Who Beat The Beast

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The Man Who Beat The Beast: When most of us were tucked up in bed, with the heating blasting and dreaming about what we were going to do with our football-free Saturday, Cambridge United stadium manager Ian Darler had other ideas.

In depths of the night, the stadium manager travelled to the Abbey, flicked on one floodlight and got to work.

It was 4 a.m.

Heading towards his 40-year anniversary with the club, when we caught up with him just before kick off he seemed unfazed by not only the 3 am start that morning but also even getting the game on, despite it being only one of 10 to beat the ‘Beast from the East.’

“It would have been very easy to turn a blind eye and the game would have been off,” he said.

“But I just think you just do your duty. It’s your professional pride at the end of the day.”

Indeed, Darler and his team – made up of a dozen or so volunteers from CFU and his fishing friends – had a long-term plan to ensure the game went ahead.

The pitches had been covered for nine days but the freezing conditions were still proving too much for them to deal with as temperatures dropped to as low as minus-11 with windchil.

And a bit of ingenuity – from using a customised plough to getting the snow to act as an incubator – meant there was very little danger of the game being called off in the end.

 “To be honest getting the game on wasn’t the challenge,” he said.

“We’ve have had had pitch covers on for nine days as I always work to a 10-14 day programme.

“Apparently I came in for a bit of criticism on social media because I took the sheets of yesterday but I could see quite clearly the actual pitch was frozen and the covers were insulating the frost on the ground.

“We saw snow was coming and that it was likely to climb to zero. Obviously zero from minus six, minus seven is a massive thaw so the troops came in yesterday for me, we got all the sheets off and blew the layers of snow off and I was praying for the snow last night as I’ve used the snow as a incubator previously.

“Got up this morning about 3.30 am and went outside and saw it was 0.5 degrees and thought, ‘happy days!”

“I got in here, put one floodlight on, cracked on and by time the safety officer turned up all I had was about 25% of one corner to do.”

His efforts were recognised and he was, along with the other volunteers, named the man of the match during the U’s 1-1 draw with Luton Town.

And as Darler said, it would have been easy to let this game slip away like a majority of those in the Football League did.

And that’s is what is most impressive about this all. It took a lot of hard work, a lot of heart and shows how much people really do care about the club, and Darler, who has a book coming out about his 40 years working in football, was quick to thank all those involved.

“I have got the most amazing team of ground staff, which is made up by stewards who have worked for me for over 30 years,” he said

“They just appear like the borrowers and then a load of fishing mates come out the woodwork to bail me out.

“Because they’ve worked with me for so long I don’t have to tell them, they know what the process is.

“12, 14 people showed up in the end and six, seven were from CFU and seven or eight are my friends.

“I’m a fisherman, I’m used to going out a three o’clock in the morning!

“It’s a nice end. I’ve been quite fortunate had a publisher come forward and I’m having a book out about forty years working within the football world.

He added: “These days are great. It just gives you the opportunity to I’m just as keen now as I was 40 years ago. It’s always a challenge.

“I just love the challenge.”

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