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Vanmac become UK distributors for Brouwer Kesmac

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Vanmac become UK distributors for Brouwer Kesmac: Vanmac Ltd have announced they are now an authorised full line distributor for the Brouwer Kesmac portfolio of turf and groundcare machinery.

With a long-standing, established reputation in the turf grower sector, the Brouwer Kesmac range of harvesters and pedestrian rollers, together with trailed verti-cutters, aerators and cylinder mowers are now available to local authorities, landscapers and grounds managers via Vanmac in the UK.

Vanmac become UK distributors for Brouwer Kesmac

Vanmac become UK distributors for Brouwer Kesmac

Founded by Gerry Brouwer and his son Eric in Ontario, Canada, Brouwer Kesmac is now established worldwide, built on a reputation of developing innovative equipment solutions that deliver quality and reliability. Vanmac Ltd, known throughout the UK for the distribution of the Trilo range of blowers & vacs, will offer sales and service support across the full range of Brouwer Kesmac products, along with supplying a vast selection of spare parts – which will be available to order through Vanmac Ltd’s website.

Of particular note from the range is the five-gang Kesmac verti-cutter, based on the proven design of the Kesmac cylinder mowers. Each of the five gang reels features 21 high-quality steel blades at 31mm spacings, to cut and remove thatch build ups – and at over 3m in width, it is ideal for use on larger areas such as golf fairways and parks. Another popular machine from the Kesmac collection is the Pedestrian Turf Roller, which can be filled with water to provide a smooth, clean surface, particularly suited to landscapers and contractors.

The appointment of Vanmac Ltd in the UK extends the distribution agreement between Brouwer Kesmac and Vanmac bv across Europe. For Vanmac Ltd, Area Sales Manager Jeremy Vincent, said, “We’ve been working hard to extend our portfolio here in the UK and are delighted to have added the Brouwer Kesmac collection to our offering. The range compliments everything that we currently offer to customers in the turf grower market and extends our offering to those managing professional turf surfaces. Over the next few weeks, we will begin supporting all of the existing Brouwer Kesmac customers and are excited to hit the road and begin introducing the quality range to new facilities around the country.”

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ICL’s Riptide Makes an Impact

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ICL’s Riptide Makes an Impact: ICL’s Riptide, the no1 ranked creeping bentgrass, has made an impact at Trentham Golf Club, according to Course Manager, Ed Stant.

Exclusive to ICL, Riptide is the no1 ranked creeping bentgrass variety on the STRI lists. It is ideal for seeding new areas or when used for interseeding as part of a course renovation programme. This fine-leaved, densely-shooting, creeping bentgrass establishes quickly, especially in spring, growing upright but low to the ground with high tiller shoot density and keeping its bright mid-green colour right through autumn and winter.

ICL’s Riptide Makes an Impact

ICL’s Riptide Makes an Impact

In fact, Riptide, has gained a wide following throughout Europe and has been adopted by several UK courses due to its adaptability in a wide range of growing conditions.

When Ed Stant, Course Manager at Trentham Golf Club in Stoke-on-Trent, was looking to incorporate a new seed for a new project, he found that Riptide was highly recommended.

“Having taken the decision to rebuild the short game green in March we sought advice from our STRI Agronomist Paul Woodham,” said Ed. “Rather than turfing or seeding, we took cores from the 18 course greens during greens maintenance before deciding to over-seed with ICL’s creeping bent Riptide.

“We are really pleased with the result; the cores have meant the green was in play quickly and matches the course greens. Riptide has established nicely into the sward and is improving daily.”

Riptide responds very well to lower nutritional inputs and less frequent watering, potentially significantly reducing costs involved in a higher maintenance programme and offering a more sustainable approach; less fertilizer, fungicide, scarification and verti-cutting.

“Over the past 3 months Riptide has filled in beautifully and is really starting to come into its own,” continued Ed. “During early morning dew you can see the creeping bent beginning to outcompete the Poa dominated cores and establishing well.”

Creeping bent as a species for golf greens fell out of favour with many course managers due to varieties proving difficult to manage or the results from over-seeding were just disappointing. New varieties such as Riptide have sparked new interest. The ability to establish quickly and aggressively colonise greens is creating outstanding results, bringing greens back into play quickly. The real beauty of Riptide is its lighter green colour aspect, enabling excellent integration into UK and Ireland greens.

Riptide certainly provides the opportunity to create excellent greens surface with lower inputs of fertilization and disease management. High tolerance against Michrodochium patch and Dollar spot reduces the frequency for fungicide applications.

“Good advice, good product and competitively priced – I would have no hesitation in recommending Riptide,” concluded Ed.

For more information on Riptide and other products in ICL’s ProSelect grass seed range please contact ICL on 01473 237100 or visit www.icl-sf.co.uk or www.icl-sf.ie if you are in Ireland.

For more news and insightful views, you can follow ICL on Twitter @ICL_Turf

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Great Field project for Terrain Aeration

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Great Field project for Terrain Aeration: Poundbury, the urban extension on the outskirts of Dorchester is well-known for reflecting the design principles of HRH The Prince of Wales, on whose land, the Duchy of Cornwall, it is built.

The Great Field, at some 12 ha, is the largest area of green space in Poundbury and work began on it in 2014, with the building of sports pitches, outdoor gym equipment and a multi-use games area. One area which is developing especially well was sown around five years ago and is now a sea of Common Knapweed, with plentiful Ladies’ and Hedge Bedstraw, Quaking Grass, Bird’s-foot Trefoil and other meadow wildflowers.

Great Field project for Terrain Aeration

Great Field project for Terrain Aeration

During 2020, further significant work has been undertaken with the planting of over 400 trees and 26,000 shrubs and hedging plants. The charity People Need Nature has worked with the Duchy of Cornwall and local seed supplier, Heritage Seeds, to sow another wildflower meadow on the Great Field. Exceptionally wet conditions followed by unusually dry periods, led to compaction and waterlogging, resulting in a slow start for the meadow.  Improving the ground conditions to assist establishment of the trees, shrubs and hedging was identified as particularly important.

The services of specialists Terrain Aeration were called upon to relieve the compaction and panning on the top half of the field. They brought in their Terralift machines, which work on the principle of hammering a hollow probe one metre deep into the soil, using a JCB road breaker gun; the soil is compact at depth and requires the hammer to break through. At one metre depth, a hydraulic blast of compressed air is released at up to 20Bar (280psi). This fractures the soil, creating fissures. The process is repeated at two-metre intervals on a grid pattern with the fissures interlinking to create a system of aeration and drainage.  The Terralift is the only machine which uses such high pressure to enable the process to work. On the tail end of the blast, dried seaweed is injected and this sticks to the walls of the fissures, expanding and contracting with the moisture content in the soil. The probe holes are backfilled with aggregate to maintain the aeration process.

The new Great Field meadow sown with wildflower seed collected from existing meadows in Purbeck, should be flourishing within the next two years. The local sourcing helping to protect local populations of native wildflowers. As part of the usable green space area for the local community, the meadow will be cut in July, with the low-growing flowers, such as Red Clover and Bird’s-foot Trefoil, continuing to flower and provide nectar and pollen for insects.

Terrain Aeration 01449 673783

www.terrainaeration.co.uk

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Reesink’s Richard Harris retires

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Reesink’s Richard Harris retires: Richard Harris, managing director of Reesink Turfcare IRE, has announced his retirement from the company. Richard was instrumental in the development of the Lely, Reesink and Toro brands in Ireland and leaves a career which spans 31 years in the turfcare industry.

Richard started his career in 1974 working with a leading supplier to the petrochemical industry, followed by a move to a major distributor within the electrical industry. He started working with the then Toro distributor for Ireland, J C Distribution, in 1989.

Reesink's Richard Harris retires

Reesink’s Richard Harris retires

In 1994 Richard took on the management and development of Lely Ireland (as a sister company of Lely UK) into a combined agriculture and turfcare machinery business. He has played a leading role in helping develop the Toro brand and reputation for quality products that today sees it as a market leader in golf. A past president of the Farm Tractor Machinery Trade Association (FTMTA) in 2014, when the agriculture and turfcare divisions separated within Lely, Richard moved with the turfcare side of the business which then joined the Royal Reesink Group in 2016.

The last few years have seen Richard spearhead considerable investment by the Royal Reesink group in both Toro and other brands (such as Trilo and TYM) in Ireland through their base in Nurney, Co Kildare. Focusing on establishing a stand-alone business, the industry-respected Reesink Turfcare sales team has been together for many years moving along with the company changes. This allowed Richard to focus on building up the customer service, parts and technical support areas to enhance Reesink’s support for Toro and Trilo fine turf and grounds customers in Ireland. Richard hands the business over in a strong state to maintain and build customer satisfaction levels on a par with all Toro European distributor operations.

Roon Hylkema, managing director of Reesink Turfcare BV and a colleague of Richard’s since 1991, says: “Richard and I have worked together for a great many years. We were originally from different companies, I was with Jean Heybroek BV and he was with Lely UK, but we had the Toro brand in common. Then in the last four years when Reesink acquired Lely, as Reesink had acquired Jean Heybroek in 2010, much more closely as we worked together to raise the Reesink profile in Ireland. He’s the type of colleague, employee and friend you’d want in your professional life, honest, straight-forward, loyal and reliable, and he’ll be greatly missed for the contribution he has made to the development of the business in that time and throughout his career.”

Richard says: “During my career I have had the privilege of working with so many great teams of people both within our own companies in Ireland, the UK, The Netherlands and Denmark, as well as within The Toro Company and more recently Vanmac/Trilo. I have shared some great experiences and relationships with many colleagues and contacts within these companies and the turfcare and agricultural machinery industry at large over the years. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time working within this industry.

“While looking forward to now having time to focus on other interests, I will certainly miss it all and will keep an eye with interest on the future development of the business and the turfcare industry. While COVID-19 has affected the whole industry and will bring many challenges and changes to the way we do business in the future, I have no doubt that Reesink, Toro and the turfcare industry will bounce back over the next couple of years and grasp the opportunities that will present themselves.”

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Unicorn Athletic achieve full maintenance programme

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Unicorn Athletic achieve full maintenance programme: In March 2020, after 20-years of vying for control of their main Smiths Field site from Trafford Council, Unicorn Athletic JFC has begun life in charge with equipment from Campey Turf Care Systems.

The club is home to 34 teams and operates at different schools and pitches in the local area, with their main site used by the under-8’s Saturday club, youth teams from 14 years old and upwards and their open age group teams.

Unicorn Athletic achieve full maintenance programme

Unicorn Athletic achieve full maintenance programme

The New Holland Boomer 35, Trimax 190 Striker and SISIS Quadraplay will be vital for the community club as they aim to improve the condition of their site. The story of their pitches over two decades is a sadly familiar one, with budgets cuts in the council leading to less and less maintenance and inconsistent mowing.

For Darren Storey, treasurer, part-time groundsman and operator of the walking football team, finally taking control of the maintenance will allow the club to give children playing in their teams the pitches they deserve.

“It was unbelievable to use the new stuff. To be honest, I felt like I was ten. It was like being a kid in a candy shop,” Darren began. “The whole field was cut in an hour, and it looks the part because it’s been done with proper grounds maintenance machinery, and it looks exactly as our kids deserve.

“In the past when the council hasn’t cut the grass, we’ve begged, stole and borrowed petrol mowers and cut it by hand with a team of volunteers but those days have long gone hopefully.

“We started the process by speaking to one of the subcontractors that works for Trafford Council, Paul Grange, who has worked on our pitches and helped us with stuff in the past. Over the years the pitches have been in shocking condition because Trafford had no money, So, we used to pay extra money out of our own funds to get them upgraded.

“Campey has been ace. From costing, to specifications and the equipment that we needed, and more importantly could afford, they’ve been great. They kept us updated at each stage, and we asked for upgrades like a tracker on the tractor, and although they don’t normally do it, they sorted it. We put a grant application into the Football Foundation which they helped us with, and without that, we wouldn’t have the equipment, so John Campey and his team have been very good.”

With the first cut of many completed on the day of delivery and installation in late July 2020, Darren and the club are already looking at ways they can improve the wider area. Because it is a community field, they want to make it better for everyone, not just the players, and a part of this plan is creating a Friends of Smiths Field group. By doing this they hope to raise funds that will allow them to improve the landscaping, put in nature and fitness trails and complete other projects to make it a more usable area for the wider community.

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