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NEWS ARTICLES

Familiar face returns to Symbio

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Familiar face returns to Symbio: Turf managers in the South West of England will note the presence of a familiar face in the region after Neil Carter rejoined Symbio in a sales and advisory role.

Neil has more than 30 years of horticultural experience behind him. RHS qualified, he then completed an HND in Golf Course Management at Cannington College in 1996. A diverse greenkeeping career followed at venues including the Manor House at Castle Combe, Paris International, Dartmouth Golf & Country Club and the London Golf Club. He initially joined Symbio at the turn of the millennium and spent a decade with the Surrey-based soil biology specialists before starting a successful gardening business in his local area.

Familiar face returns to Symbio

Familiar face returns to Symbio

He rejoined the company in March and is looking forward to working with customers in Devon, Cornwall, Somerset, Dorset, Hampshire and Gloucestershire again. “It’s great to be back, and at an exciting time for Symbio. The team has grown significantly; the breadth of expertise our customers have access to today is incredible. New product research and development has continued and it’s fantastic to see additions such as Symbio Biotabs and Incision join mainstay products like Thatch Eater and compost teas in a portfolio that’s helping turf managers across the country.

I was reassured to see the company ethos completely unchanged. It remains driven by people with a passion for a biological approach that delivers results. It’s also positive to see that through education and networking, many more sports turf managers recognise that healthy soil is essential for sustainable improvements to playing conditions and also for problem solving and that there’s a growing appetite for managing turf with that as a priority.”

Neil can be contacted on 07928 574550 and by email at neil@symbio.co.uk.

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Greenkeeper airlifted to hospital

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Greenkeeper airlifted to hospital: The course manager of Pitlochry Golf Club is expected to make a full a recovery after being involved in a terrifying accident on the Perthshire course yesterday.

Stuart Griffiths, 44, was taken by air ambulance to Ninewells Hospital where his injuries are said to be serious but not life-threatening.

According to reports, he was trapped under a tractor after getting into difficulties on an embankment.

The Courier reported that the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service dispatched six appliances to the scene shortly after 8am on Thursday morning, with winch lines, cutting gear and a rescue board, while the Scottish Ambulance Service attended with a trauma team and special operations team, as well as the air ambulance.

Fortunately, a tweet from the club’s official Twitter account this morning confirmed that he is recovering well.

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Food aid project signs off on a high

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Food aid project signs off on a high: Organisations across Staffordshire today said a big thank you to JCB as the company served up its last meal under its ‘Food for our Communities’ initiative.

An idea of Carole Bamford, wife of JCB Chairman Lord Bamford, the scheme swung into action in March at the height of the Coronavirus pandemic to support those most in need.

Food aid project signs off on a high

Food aid project signs off on a high

Since then, more than 35,000 meals and over 8,000 sandwiches have been delivered to the vulnerable in Stoke-on-Trent, Uttoxeter, Rocester and Biddulph. Dishes made at JCB’s World HQ in Rocester included cottage pies, macaroni cheese and Bolognese.

The NSPCC – JCB’s nominated charity – is one organisation which has distributed the meals in Stoke-on-Trent, delivering almost 4,000 to families in the Chell, Chell Heath and Fegg Hayes areas.

Jennie Hammond, NSPCC Together for Childhood Development and Impact Manager, said: “We would like to thank JCB for such a generous donation at a time when some families might have struggled. The meals have been really appreciated by each family which has received them and the scheme has had a very positive impact on the community.”

More than 15,000 JCB meals were also distributed across Stoke-on-Trent by the Burslem-based Hubb Foundation to children and families in need. Founder Carol Shanahan said: “The impact of JCB’s ‘Food for our Communities’ project has been immense. It has supported families in Stoke-on-Trent when their need was at its greatest and help like this will never be forgotten.”

More than 8,000 sandwiches were made for distribution to the homeless in Stoke-on-Trent and for inclusion in food parcels for vulnerable people in the Uttoxeter and Biddulph areas. JCB also supplied St. Michael’s Church Support Group in Rocester with 100 meals a week for villagers who were in need. Over the course of the initiative the JCB team used around seven tonnes of potatoes, more than 3.5 tonnes of minced beef and almost two tonnes of both pasta and onions

In India – where JCB has factories in Delhi, Pune and Jaipur – the scale of the initiative to support local communities was even greater and more than 175,000 meals were served up during the project.

As well as providing thousands of meals, JCB has also donated vital PPE to front line workers. JCB and its employees also volunteered to produce visors for the NHS. Inspired by these efforts, JCB-sponsored athletes, slalom canoeist Adam Burgess and triple jumper Ben Williams, took on a marathon weight lifting challenge and have so far raised more than £2,400 for the Royal Stoke University Hospital.

JCB’s kitchens in Staffordshire were supported with the provision of food from organic farms at Daylesford in Gloucestershire. Daylesford – founded by Carole Bamford – has supplied organic beef mince to the project, with staff working seven days a week to support the food aid initiative.

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More kits, more value

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More kits, more value: Toro’s MVP (maintenance value performance) kits are widely known as one of the most effective solutions to minimising downtime. And for 2020 there’s a new pack available through UK distributor Reesink Turfcare offering more value and more time working, not waiting.

MVP kits were designed with specific maintenance and repairs in mind and extending the range of handy kits is the new Blade pack for the Groundsmaster 1200. It joins, among others, Groundsmaster Deck Kits, Groundsmaster Blade and Belt Kits and Groundsmaster Caster Wheel Kits.

More kits, more value

More kits, more value

All packs have one thing in common, they help save time and money. They help you track maintenance and bring peace of mind that you have the parts you need to keep your equipment on the job. So, instead of spending valuable time sourcing individual parts as issues arise, grounds teams can purchase all the parts they need for a particular maintenance or rebuild job 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: “Now more so than ever, machinery repairs and downtime need to be kept to a minimum and costs in check. It has never been more important for machines to work as an extension to the team, efficiently and effectively. And that’s where MVP kits come into their own, having all the required parts included in a single package to make ordering and completing the job easier and less expensive.”

Each pack come with instructions giving advice on when to perform specific maintenance tasks depending on the model and the number of hours of use, helping to prevent running machines into the ground and incurring unnecessary costs to repair them.

Michael continues: “Cutting grass efficiently is at the forefront of groundskeepers’ minds and highly productive machines are the means to achieving this. Downtime is a costly 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 226854, go to reesinkturfcare.co.uk, or visit your local dealer.

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New Soil Scout and GreenSight partnership

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New Soil Scout and GreenSight partnership: The team behind the wireless underground soil monitoring solution Soil Scout has announced a new equal distribution partnership with US-based GreenSight, a leading provider of autonomous aerial intelligence services for golf courses.

The technology partnership will give greenkeepers a real-time understanding of how to create optimal above and below ground conditions for their courses while increasing efficiency on water and nutrient usage.

New Soil Scout and GreenSight

New Soil Scout and GreenSight

“Understanding what happens is critical if fields are to reach their true potential,“ said Soil Scout CEO Jalmari Talola. “When it comes to greenkeepers, their challenge is real – to maintain extremely high-quality surfaces over large areas while facing pressure to cut water consumption and act in an environmentally sustainable way.

“Our technology partnership with GreenSight will see Soil Scout Sensors strategically buried across golf courses, giving greenkeepers instant insight into what’s happening below their soils. These insights will be combined in GreenSight’s TurfCloud platform with a cutting-edge machine vision analysis of the entire golf course captured by drone-mounted sensors. Greenkeepers will see everything happening on their courses – and be able to plan their day’s work – before they set foot outside.”

The equal partnership will see Soil Scout acting as a reseller of the GreensSight TurfCloud product line in Europe, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand, with GreenSight acting as Soil Scout reseller and distributor in the United States.

GreenSight CEO James Peverill commented, “GreenSight is excited to be able to offer our industry-leading product, TurfCloud, through the Soil Scout Company. Being able to add Soil Scout to our dashboard will greatly add to the data already being captured. 

“We look forward to helping their customers manage their soils more efficiently and improve their facilities across the world. We’re equally excited to be able to distribute their intuitive soil condition sensors to our growing customer base.”

Recently backed by Husqvarna last year’s seed funding round, Soil Scout was co-founded by Finnish agrotechnology Ph.D. and 19th generation farmer Johannes Tiusanen and electronics expert M.Sc.Eng Jussi Sirkiä with a mission of giving soil experts the information they need to effectively manage their lands. The Soil Scout team will work with GreenSight’s experienced robotics, spacecraft, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs/drones), advanced communications, agriculture and land management professionals to further develop new products and services for their customers.

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