Upgrades and Launches for Etesia UK

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Upgrades and Launches for Etesia UK: Etesia UK will have a range of pedestrian and ride-on mowers, brushcutters and the award-winning ET Lander electric utility vehicle on display at SALTEX 2022.

Etesia, located on stand E072, are specialists in building high quality grass cutting machinery and have been a regular exhibitor at SALTEX over the years, choosing the show as a platform to launch new products and make exciting announcements. This year is no exception.

Upgrades and Launches for Etesia UK

Upgrades and Launches for Etesia UK

In addition to showcasing many of their most popular products, Etesia UK will be launching the Electric Bahia M2EL lithium and will be announcing a new feature of the ET Lander electric utility vehicle.

The groundscare industry first got the chance to view the utility vehicle at SALTEX in November last year, where it won the prestigious SALTEX 2021 Innovation award within the vehicle category, while also finishing second within the environmentally friendly category.

The ET Lander will be returning to this year’s SALTEX but this time visitors will be pleased to see that the new models will be fully N1 homologation compliant meaning that the ET Lander will be fully road legal along with being able to be used off road.

The new models will also feature lithium-ion batteries which ensures that the range of the ET Lander will extend to 100km and have a charger system compatible with a standard type 2EV car charger. These models will also come in a new sleek, black option.

100% electric, spacious, well-equipped and user-friendly, it is built on a robust chassis and has an array of options including a three-way tipper bed with dual control from the fully fitted two-seater cab or by remote control when outside the vehicle. With a length of just 3.72 meters, the ET Lander is very compact. Thanks to the power steering, the short turning radius of 4.40 meters and 360 ° visibility, it goes anywhere. The autonomy of the vehicle lasts for a full working day – without noise pollution, can transport loads of up to 940kgs and can also tow up to 750kgs.

Etesia’s other exciting news is that the Bahia M2E – the world’s first 100% electric professional ride-on-mower with grass collection, is now powered by a 48V, 100Ah lithium battery. This enables users to get up to 4 hrs 30 mins of action before it needs recharging.

A pocket-size ride-on mower, just 0.82 m wide and 1.98 m long, the Etesia electric Bahia features an incredibly tight turning circle. It nips into every nook and cranny and can be easily transported. With its low centre of gravity, the Etesia electric Bahia’s 33/67 weight distribution on the front/rear axles make it a highly stable mower that masterfully copes with slopes.

It is also highly economical – the electric Bahia’s running costs are £0.35 against £3.57 for the petrol version and there are the obvious reduced maintenance costs – such as no belt, no filters, and no engine oil.

As always, the company’s knowledgeable staff will be available throughout the two days to advise and assist.

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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Allett announces lawn stripes champion

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Allett announces lawn stripes champion: Now in its 10th year, the Allett Mowers annual Creative Lawn Stripes Competition once again attracted entries from all over the world. The prize is an Allett Liberty 43 mower with all cartridges and two cartridge stands.

The past few years have been tough for everyone, say Allett, but what they have noticed is a growth in lawn-care enthusiasts spending more time in their gardens. The aim of the competition is to encourage homeowners to use their lawns to design the most creative, eye-catching designs that truly show off the craftsmanship and dedication that goes into grass maintenance. The standard of this year’s entries has again been exceptional, and it gets better year on year. This year’s judge was 2021 Champion Dennis West of Provo, Utah, USA following an internal vote done by a specialist Allett panel with the top six entries forwarded to Dennis to choose the winner.

Allett announces lawn stripes champion

Allett announces lawn stripes champion

“It was an honour to be asked to judge this year’s competition,” he says, “the top six presented some very strong entries, all of which show a love for lawn creativity Picking one winner was a tough job, but after analysing the entries I found one that, for me, embodied not only lawn striping creativity, but also a representation of the beauty of the United Kingdom.”

The top six entries came from England, Wales, Australia and Canada and the 2022 Champion is Edward Aitken, Head Gardener at Cornbury House, Oxfordshire. Cornbury Park is a private estate in the town of Charlbury, fifteen miles from Oxford, England. The estate includes 1,700 acres of the most ancient forest in Britain and is host to events such as the award-winning Wilderness Festival and charity fundraisers. Ed has entered the Allett competition three times and been placed in the top six each time. The judges’ comments praised the standard achieved.

‘The combination of radiating, straight, and angled stripes in this expansive design brings to mind the sectional features of an aerial image of the English countryside with rolling hills divided by rock walls. The strong stripes that seamlessly blend from curved forms to straight demonstrate an expertise that ensured the final design met very particular standards of perfection’ Ed describes the process that led up to the winning design. “Our lawn is a very old lawn which we have been renovating to get it up to standard. It was cut with a ride-on originally, which didn’t pick up the grass clippings, so it was a bit of a mess. Now we cut with a Hayter 56 at various heights of cut. I changed the height depending on what part of the lawn I was cutting. The circle area has to be cut higher compared to the area closest to the house just because of the thickness of the lawn and how much thatch is left in the lawn. Each different pattern is cut at a different height, which helped to show off the pattern a bit more. The inspiration for the design comes from the centre circle part of the lawn where the chequerboard is, which is actually a helicopter landing area. The idea was that it looked amazing when the family and their guests were coming in in the helicopters, which I thought was quite effective. Once I’d cut the circles, it was a case of breaking the lawn up into a couple of different sections and making sure it looked nice as you’re looking out. The family I work for have an outdoor eating area just outside the house so it looks good when they’re looking over the garden. I’d say it’s taken about a year to get it looking good. I cut it once a week with certain areas cut twice a week, so the central checkerboard area is cut twice a week in a different direction. I’m delighted to win as I’ve entered three times now. I was third the first time, second the last time. I thought I’d stand a chance this year with the circles making it an interesting lawn, so I’m very pleased to have won. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with the prize. I’ll probably use it in my own garden at home as I’ve got quite a large lawn. Maybe I will start doing some patterns!” Competition judge Dennis West’s final comment was to offer congratulations to all the finalists, saying, to make it this far is quite an accomplishment. “Most of the winners in recent years entered more than once before winning the prize, so keep entering and you may be next!”

2nd Place

Paul Wigman Nottingham

Head Gardener Clumber Lodge

3rd Place

Emile Hernandez gardener

Somerville College Oxford

4th Place

Simon Rice, South Australia

5th Place 

Dan Milne Canada

6th place

Tom Frampton, Wales

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Love at first sight

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Love at first sight: Two ISEKI compact tractors are making a difference at Powfoot Golf Club and Head Greenkeeper Neil Hamilton claims they struck a chord from the very first demonstration.

Set in breathtaking scenery in Dumfriesshire, South West Scotland, Powfoot Golf Course presents a mixture of both links and parkland golf. Opened in 1903 and redesigned by the legendary James Braid in 1923, the course offers a superb test of golf with its many challenging holes which are set among whins and rough and has earned Powfoot the tag of ‘one of golf’s best kept secrets’.

Love at first sight

Love at first sight

Neil and his two trusty assistants maintain this wonderful course and for the last 5 years the team has had a little help from two ISEKI tractors in the TG range. It was love at first sight according to Neil.

“We originally had a demonstration with a few various tractors from different manufacturers, but we just loved the ISEKI models from the very first minute,” he said.

lSEKI’s TG Series sets the benchmark for compact tractor performance. Designed and manufactured in Japan, the TG Series is built to exceptional standards of quality — starting from the front lights through to the back three-point linkage. Every component, including the engine and transmission, features lSEKI’s stamp of approval for quality and excellence that is rarely seen in the compact tractor category. With a host of options and features to choose from, the lSEKI TG Series provides unrivalled reliability to get the job done fast, efficiently and in comfort.

Neil opted for the TG6495 – a 47 hp tractor with the innovative IQ dual-clutch 24-speed transmission and the TG6675 – a 65 hp tractor with a 6-speed hydrostatic transmission.

He provided a glimpse of how the two are commonly used on the course.

“We use the TG6675 with the front loader on it to do some flailing work – this is to thin out the roughs, to get rid of the coarse grasses and to promote the fine grasses.

“The TG6495 is used to pull the trailer and then we tip all the grass cuttings into it and then dispose of them. With the IQ transmission we can change gear without dipping the clutch, which is a massive advantage when you are working and doing flailing jobs.

“I also like the Headland management system, which is very important when you are vertidraining. It helps a lot because at the end of each line you don’t need to keep operating levers, you can just lift it to the desired height that you have set it to.”

Users of the TG range also frequently praise the spacious factory fitted cabins which are available on all models and come fitted with air conditioning as standard. All control elements are extremely clear and positioned in a readily accessible manner within the field of vision of the driver, reducing fatigue.

“The main benefits of these tractors are the ease of use and the comfort in the cab,” continued Neil. “If you are in it for long periods of time, it has everything you need from air conditioning to a radio which keeps us entertained.

“The way everything is situated around the operator is also great – from the PTO button, the throttle shifter, to the lifter which enables you to lift the arms at the back.

“We have had the tractors for approximately five years, and we will continue to use ISEKI in the future because of the reliability of them and the ease of operation.

“The dealer (Rickerby Horticulture) has been brilliant through the whole process, but I can’t really comment on the back-up because nothing has ever gone wrong with them – so in this respect, the less we see of the dealer the better!

“Ultimately, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the ISEKI tractors to any golf course.”

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Trencher Hire service just the job

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Trencher Hire service just the job: A Toro TRX-16 pedestrian trencher – supplied with operator – dug-out 400 metres of trenching in challenging land conditions in just one and a half days to the delight of customer Steve Stringfellow.

Steve, who lives in a remote farmhouse in Lincolnshire, wanted to lay a new water line from his house to the main water main, as the old existing iron water pipe ran across the farmer’s field and during ploughing often got damaged.

Trencher Hire service just the job

Trencher Hire service just the job

He commented: “We expected some problems with the property being built in 1850. The ground is fairly heavy clay agricultural land, with lots of trees and other obstacles within it. My initial reaction was to get a JCB for the job, but realised that this would have caused a great deal of disruption. I also calculated that around 84 tons of sand would have been needed to backfill the trenches, which would have proved costly both in terms of buying the sand and the labour needed to do the work.

“One of my colleagues, who had used Trencher Hire UK in the past, recommended them. When I contacted the Operations Manager Steve Kingdom, he ran through a few options open to me and I selected a Toro TRX-16 with operator.

“Not only was the trencher cheaper to hire than a JCB but, with its narrow-gauge cutter, could access areas a digger couldn’t. In addition, the narrow neat channels created by the Toro meant that probably only 30 tons of sand would be needed to backfill afterwards – saving both material and labour costs compared to a digger.

“The trencher operator Paul was brilliant and cracked on with the job straight away, but was also honest and upfront highlighting patches of ground where he could not get the Toro through and had to find another path.

“The new 32mm water pipe has been re-routed, but did have to pass over the old one and Paul was able to dig down without damaging it.

Most of the trenching was dug-out to a depth of 650mm and 100mm wide, but in some places adjustments were needed to be made because of large rocks and other obstacles. This meant that in some areas he only dug down to a depth of 500mm, or even as low as 400mm.

“I could not fault the service from Trencher Hire – it was ‘spot-on’. They arrived on time, did the job that they agreed to do and with no excess costs.

To find out how Trencher Hire UK call help, contact us on: 0121 751 9319, or email: team@trencherhire.com or visit our website: www.trencherhire.com

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Learn how to create perfect surfaces

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Learn how to create perfect surfaces: The Grounds Management Association (GMA) has revealed a spectacular seminar lineup as part of the SALTEX 2022 Learning LIVE Programme designed to help grounds people to create the best playing surfaces across a range of sports and settings.

Following on from the Lionness’ success in the Euros, and with the Rugby League World Cup and the first ever winter Football World Cup coming up, what better time to find out how the surfaces that make such events possible are created.

Learn how to create perfect surfaces

Learn how to create perfect surfaces

There’s something for most sports surfaces from some of the best in the business. For rugby, Catherine Hall (Premiership Rugby), Dr David James (Labosport) and Dan Prest (GMA) talk about raising Premiership Rugby pitch standards. For cricket, Gary Barwell (Edgbaston Stadium), Karl McDermott (Lord’s) and Steve Birks (Nottinghamshire CCC) discuss how new cricket formats impact on the modern-day grounds manager. Tennis is covered off by Neil Stubley (Wimbledon) who presents the All England Tennis and Croquet Club’s court expansion project.

But all top level surfaces start somewhere – at grassroots level – and Rob Sullivan presents the Football Foundation’s strategic ambitions to improve grass pitch quality and Chris Smith tackles the funding process to improve pitches. Perhaps there’s a role for hybrid pitches in the community – Dr Richard Earl (TGMS) reveals data findings from the Sport England hybrid pitch pilot for community use in London’s Regents Park.

Those in the education sector will no doubt be interested to hear how Whitgift School’s recent hybrid pitch installation was the first in the independent school sector and panelists Daniel Ratling (Whitgift School), Dr Richard Earl (TGMS) and D James Welsh (Whitehorse Contractors) session look at the rationale, the design/planning process, the construction, the project outcomes and the ongoing maintenance and renovation of the project.

Geoff Webb, CEO of the GMA, says: “So many visitors to SALTEX work in grounds maintenance and this series of seminars provides relevant, invaluable information whatever the playing surface they work on from speakers and panelists with a wealth of experience and solutions to real-time projects. Anybody wanting to stay ahead of the game in the grounds care industry will benefit from the learning and connections they can make whilst at SALTEX. We are grateful to all those industry experts and leaders that are taking time out to speak at Learning LIVE and support those working hard across the industry to make sport possible across the UK.”

The SALTEX 2022 Learning LIVE schedule this year has been extended to over 30 sessions, they are free to attend across the two days of the show on 2-3 November and contribute to CPD-accreditation. More information can be found on the event’s website at www.saltex.org.uk/learning-live. Free visitor registration is now open at saltex.org.uk / register here.

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