Agrovista Amenity looks to the future

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Agrovista Amenity looks to the future: Over 60 grounds professionals recently attended Agrovista Amenity’s The Future of Football Estate Management seminar, which was held at St George’s Park – the home of England’s national football teams.

Agrovista Amenity is committed to offering training and development and this insightful seminar focussed on the future of football estate management. Content included discussions on legislation, environmental pressures, fertiliser coating technology and nutrition, and ecology management.

Agrovista Amenity looks to the future

Agrovista Amenity looks to the future

The company joined forces with DLF, ICL, Campey Turf Care, and BASF to ensure the seminar programme featured a variety of expert speakers.

Andy Gray, Head of Grounds and Estates at St George’s Park, was delighted to host the seminar and stressed the importance of industry events: “Covid stopped events like this for a while, and it isn’t until they do stop that you realise how much you miss them,” he said.

“Throughout my career I have always found events such as these to be very beneficial – they are priceless in many ways.

“I’m very proud to show people what we have achieved in a small amount of time here. If one person takes just one thing away from what we do here at St George’s Park, then that is enough for me.”

Danny Stunt, Head of Grounds at Tonbridge School in Kent, was one of many delegates who benefitted from attending the seminar: “To visit St George’s Park was amazing and the event has given me something to aspire to. Not only that, but it has showed me how to get there. This has been the best place to come to help further my career.

“We are very invested in ecology and sustainability so to find out more about that was fantastic,” continued Danny. “I will be going away and introducing wildflowers to certain areas at the school, and I will be putting lots of things I have learnt today into practice.”

Joe Berry, Head Groundsman at Bristol City FC’s training ground, was particularly interested in finding out more about BASF’s Attraxor® plant growth regulator: “I am planning on using this product soon, so to see the presentation on that was very helpful. It has given me the confidence to go and use it during the grow-in period – which is what I was hoping to achieve by attending today.

“Events like this are very important to not only experience new products but also to speak to people in the industry and pick their brains about what they might be doing on their sites at different times of the year. The more we talk to one another the more we learn from one another.”

Pete Ashworth, Head Groundsman for Preston North End FC agreed: “It has been brilliant to come to this stunning venue to see old and new friends – it is great to share stories with one another and catch up. Sometimes you get stuck in a rut with products and other things, so it is good to get out and learn about new technologies. Going around the pitches at St George’s Park and seeing what Andy and the team do here has helped me to pick up a few new ideas.”

Reflecting on the seminar, Dan Hughes, Agrovista Amenity’s Head of Commercial, said: “It is really important for us to bring experts and expertise together. When you put professional turf managers together, they start sharing their problems and solutions; and at Agrovista, it is core to our ethos to facilitate that. I hope that today has inspired ideas to focus on, and the future challenges we will be presented with. I would like to extend a huge thank you to everyone that attended.”

For more information about Agrovista UK, visit www.agrovista.co.uk/amenity

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Rolawn supplies winning gardens

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Rolawn supplies winning gardens: The UK’s leading turf and topsoil supplier has supplied its Medallion® Turf to multiple award-winning gardens at this week’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show.  

Rolawn’s Medallion Turf is currently being used in multiple show gardens and stands at the prestigious Chelsea Flower Show – many of which have been awarded coveted RHS gold medals.

Rolawn supplies winning gardens

Rolawn supplies winning gardens

The company has seen its turf incorporated into schemes by some of the country’s leading garden designers at this year’s show, including the gold-winning design by leading Garden Designer and Plantsman, Chris Beardshaw, who also incorporated Rolawn’s topsoil and compost into his “A Life Worth Living Garden.”

Rolawn’s partner stockist, London Lawn Turf Company, were also involved in supplying product to exhibitors at the show.

Along with RHS Chelsea Flower Show, Rolawn is the chosen supplier for some of the country’s most prestigious events, gardens and garden designers, including to The Royal Parks and Palaces.

Jonathan Hill, Rolawn’s Sales Director commented “Our products are trusted by gardeners and garden designers because they know through experience that they can have confidence in them, that their gardens and planting schemes will meet gold medal standards – at the point of judging and for the duration of the five-day event.”

He added, “We understand the pressures of curating a show garden, so we always go the extra mile to be sure that the products designers request are delivered when promised and in prime condition.”

RHS Chelsea Flower Show is one of the highlights of Rolawn’s yearly event schedule, but the market-leading turf and topsoil supplier will be continuing to supply its products to show gardens and events throughout the 2023 season, including the full calendar of this year’s BBC Gardeners’ World Live events.

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Padded straps available on Cooper Pegler knapsacks

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Padded straps available on Cooper Pegler knapsacks: Professional knapsack specialists Cooper Pegler have introduced cushioned straps on more of its models to heighten operator comfort and limit body strain for operators.

Many of the go-to knapsacks across the popular brand include ergonomically tailored harnesses to channel loading forces in a way that limits stresses on the body.

Padded straps available on Cooper Pegler knapsacks

Padded straps available on Cooper Pegler knapsacks

The latest advance from manufacturer Hozelock-Exel, which follows extensive trialling, further enhances operator safety and protection to include cushioned strapping on Cooper Pegler’s Classic and Series 2000 knapsack models.

“This is a global initiative,” says Allan Wainwright, Hozelock-Exel’s UK Sales Manager, “which aims to make our knapsack brands fully inclusive for all spray operatives.”

The cushioned strapping is introduced at a time when more sports venues and amenity sites are reducing the quantity of treatment liquids they apply in a bid to improve their green credentials.

Golf course greens teams report they are using knapsacks increasingly for spot-spray weed control, a practice that cuts the quantity of liquid applied significantly.

More knapsack hand spraying raises the importance of operator comfort to new levels, therefore.

“Those who spend a full day knapsack spraying will find the new cushioned straps more comfortable,” Allan adds, “reducing the stresses and strains possible on the body during extensive sessions in the field.”

The strapping is now available on new knapsacks but models already in use can be retrofitted with the accessory.

www.cooper-pegler.com

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Menai Tractors joins the Etesia family

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Menai Tractors joins the Etesia family: Menai Tractors, based in North-West Wales, has been appointed as a new Etesia dealer and will be distributing Etesia’s complete product range which includes ride-on mowers, scarifiers, brush cutters, green technology and pedestrian mowers.

Founded by Robert Wyn Jones and his wife Gillian in 2007, Menai Tractors specialises in groundcare and agricultural machinery. Since its creation it has gained an excellent reputation for delivering a first-class service to its customers.

Menai Tractors joins the Etesia family

Menai Tractors joins the Etesia family

Robert believes that the Etesia brand is a strong addition to its extensive portfolio.

“Whenever I speak to someone who has previous experience of using Etesia machinery, they do not have one bad to say about them,” he said. “They are well built; the quality is second to none and I genuinely think the company is one step ahead of everyone else.

“I would point anyone who is interested in Etesia towards the reliability of the machinery and the quality of cut. It doesn’t matter how tall or wet the grass is – it goes straight through it every time.”

Specialists in manufacturing high quality grass cutting machinery for both the professional and domestic market, Etesia’s extensive range of products have been in consistent high demand for a number of years. It is for this reason that the company’s vast dealer network continues to grow. From the UK to Ireland, Etesia dealers are providing their customers with innovative solutions for their green space requirements.

“We’ve already sold a few of the Etesia ride-on mowers,” continued Rob. “I think the next 12-24 months are going to be very interesting. I have no doubt that the Etesia brand will be very popular with our customers, especially the local authorities. We deal with several caravan parks too and I think it will strike a chord with them too.”

For further information, please contact Etesia UK on 01295 680120 or visit www.etesia.co.uk.

For more news, reviews and insightful views, you can follow Etesia UK on Twitter @EtesiaUK and like the company’s Facebook page – www.facebook.com/EtesiaUK. You can also view the latest Etesia videos by visiting www.youtube.com/EtesiaUK.

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15 years of DLF R&D delivers sustainability you can rely on

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15 years of DLF R&D delivers sustainability you can rely on: DLF’s continued focus on breeding environmentally responsible varieties has seen the introduction of a number of exceptional cultivars, helping facilities and turf managers achieve their own objectives for more sustainable management.

In trials for the Chewings Fescue category, DLF’s Orionette demonstrated a high-quality sward that is more drought tolerant and resistant to disease, reducing the reliance on inputs. It is therefore no surprise to see its inclusion in a number of top-performing DLF golf mixtures and find it ranked as number one in the 2023 BSPB Seed Guide!

15 years of DLF R&D delivers sustainability you can rely on

15 years of DLF R&D delivers sustainability you can rely on

Chewings Fescue grass (Festuca rubra commutata) is a popular cool-season grass, valued for its fine texture, early growth habit, attractive green colour and ability to thrive in a range of soil conditions. Its upright growth results in dense tufts without rhizomes, so it doesn’t spread like it’s Slender or Strong Creeping cousins. Over the years, Chewings Fescue has been extensively bred and developed to offer a hardier and even more adaptable turf, tolerant of close mowing and typically blended with other fescues to create a golf mixture with exceptional ball roll and playability.

In recent years, breeding efforts – including those by DLF – have focussed on developing Chewings Fescue cultivars that require less water and fertiliser and be naturally more resistant to pests and disease, reducing the need for chemical inputs and therefore improving environmental sustainability. Orionette is the result of more than 15 years of research and development, created by combining plants of the very best germplasm available in DLF breeding. Extensive screening across DLF’s European trials network followed, including for drought tolerance in France, winter tolerance in the Czech Republic as well as green trials conducted in Denmark.

The results showed superior performance in all aspects and thanks to its high tiller density, Orionette is more tolerant to winter diseases such as Red Thread and highly resilient to wear and tear.

It’s ability to perform under a lower Nitrogen-input programme is another reason why Orionette excels in a number of popular Johnsons Sports Seed mixtures for fine turf – both as a drought-tolerant fairway cultivar in J Premier Fairway or in a disease and weed resistant capacity in a greens mix such as J Fescue and J Green. J Premier Fairway is a high-performance blend of seven fescue cultivars for the sustainable management of non-rye tees and fairways. Orionette makes up 15% of both J Fescue and J Green, requiring less water and fertiliser and contributing to fast and sustainable surfaces.

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