Stage V M-Series arrive in UK

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Stage V M-Series arrive in UK: Boarcross Ltd, based in Driffield in East Yorkshire, has taken delivery of the first of the new Bobcat Stage V M-Series skid-steer loaders coming to the UK.

The new S450 loader was supplied by AMS Bobcat Limited, the Authorised Bobcat Dealer for Lincolnshire and East and South Yorkshire. It represents the latest generation of Bobcat loaders at Boarcross, which has been using the Bobcat brand for more than 10 years.

Stage V M-Series arrive in UK

Stage V M-Series arrive in UK

Company Director, Andrew Corrigan, said: “We did consider other makes but based on our good experience with the Bobcat loaders over several years, we decided on the Bobcat range for the replacement for our existing S450 unit. I was also impressed by the increased service interval and higher reliability of the new Stage V machine.”

Boarcross carries out the complete pig farming process from farrowing to finishing. The company has two breeding locations from which piglets are taken to various pig finishing units around East and North Yorkshire. The new S450 Stage V model and the other five Bobcat loaders in the Boarcross fleet are used to handle the straw used in the sow units and for mucking out the finishing units. The compact nature of the Bobcat loaders is also ideal for cleaning out the company’s poultry sheds which house around 90,000 hens.

More Power, Less Noise, Lower Emissions, Yet Still Compact

As well as the new generation S450, Bobcat has also launched new versions of its market-leading M-Series S510 and S530 models, the first in the Bobcat range to feature a specially developed Stage V compliant Bobcat D24 engine. The new Stage V M-Series loaders provide operators with increased performance, enhanced comfort and optimised maintenance requirements to maximise job site efficiency

Skilful design work has ensured that even with the Bobcat Stage V engine incorporated, the small dimensions of the new S450, S510 and S530 skid-steer loaders are maintained, offering a truly compact size and low weight, so they can work/manoeuvre easily in tight spaces and can be easily transported.

The new Bobcat engine provides 37% more torque and fast recovery from overload compared to the previous machines, which ensures increased comfort for the operator as they can work with the same power at lower RPM, at lower noise levels and with lower fuel consumption for the same jobs.

By offering the same power at lower RPM, the new Bobcat engine provides a significant decrease in noise levels, reducing operator fatigue and lowering fuel consumption for the same type of work. In addition, with an engine equipped with a diesel particulate filter (DPF) as standard, users can work in emission-regulated zones such as city and town centres.

The new Bobcat engine has also allowed the company to extend maintenance intervals with the first service now being after 500 hours and to reduce the number of fuel filter replacements required.

The new Stage V loaders now feature the previously optional Deluxe control panel as standard, offering a choice of different languages and telematics to protect machines and to monitor their performance. Bobcat has also extended the choice of factory installed tyres for the three models, ensuring they can be more closely matched to customers’ applications right from the start.

More Than 25 Years as a Bobcat Dealer: Over 3500 Machines Sold

Established in 1992, AMS Bobcat, based in Scunthorpe, is one of the longest standing Bobcat dealers in Europe with well over 25 years in partnership with Bobcat in the UK. Over the intervening years, AMS has sold well in excess of 3500 new Bobcat units into a wide range of industries, including construction, agriculture, shipping, plant hire, mining, landscaping and demolition.

AMS is responsible for sales and service of Bobcat skid-steer, compact tracked and all wheel steer loaders, compact excavators, telehandlers and attachments in its area. AMS also offers a full selection of genuine Bobcat accessories and parts to support both new and existing Bobcat customers in its area. Customers benefit from AMS’s well-established on-site service network, covering everything from emergency repairs to routine maintenance.

With well over 25 years of experience in the plant hire industry, AMS has also built up a state-of-the-art rental fleet of over 100 Bobcat machines, comprising compact loaders, compact excavators and telehandlers, complemented by a fleet of Bobcat attachments.

For more information about Bobcat and Bobcat products, visit the website www.bobcat.com

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New Zealand greenkeepers return

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New Zealand greenkeepers return: Mowers started up for the first time in three weeks on Tuesday at many of New Zealand’s 400 golf courses.

Greenkeepers returned “just in time”, with some facing overgrown roughs and disease encroaching on the greens.

The Government gave the all-clear for golf course maintenance to resume, following lobbying from those in the golfing community. The stipulation from the Ministry of Primary Industries, which applies to bowling and croquet greens and nurseries, is that the maintenance must be urgent.

The upkeep of golf courses is a daily task, and if maintenance were delayed further, it could have a million-dollar impact, said Remuera golf club superintendent and NZ Golf Superintendents Association board member Spencer Cooper.

“We’ve got back to work just in time. It’s essential we maintain the properties so we’ve got something to go back to,” he said.

“Delaying… there would be tens of millions of dollars worth of damage.

“A lot of golf courses wouldn’t survive and it would result in a lot of people losing their jobs unncessarily.”

Cooper arrived on Tuesday to find “really nasty” fungal disease starting to appear on the greens. Some diseases can spread “extremely quickly” and wipe out entire greens within 48 to 72 hours.

“For the golf courses that do financially survive, the damage could be quite severe which would cost a lot of money to repair,” he said.

“It would keep the golf courses that do survive closed for longer and it would take longer for people to get back to playing golf.”

Golf is one of the most popular sports in the country, with more than half a million players picking up the golf clubs in the last 12 months.

Cooper’s club has a membership of 1600, and has more than 60,000 rounds of golf per year.

While Cooper is sceptical about the sport resuming in the next few weeks, he said golf offers an opportunity for exercise while in isolation.

“I believe people can go and play golf, in pretty much isolation, out in nature, get a bit of exercise, getting a bit of sunshine, without coming across too many other people,” he said.

“If we do it properly we believe we’re one of the few sports that can really be viable when others can’t…[and] there’s a huge mental health benefit.”

For now, he and his team are happy to be out on the course, also working on their mental health.

“This something extremely therapeutic about mowing grass and the smell of it… it was amazing,” he laughed.

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Well-being Wednesday: what is stress?

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Well-being Wednesday: what is stress?: We all know what it’s like to feel stressed, but it’s not easy to pin down exactly what stress means. When we say things like “this is stressful” or “I’m stressed”, we might be talking about:

  • Situations or events that put pressure on us – for example, times where we have lots to do and think about, or don’t have much control over what happens.
  • Our reaction to being placed under pressure – the feelings we get when we have demands placed on us that we find difficult to cope with.
Well-being Wednesday: what is stress?

Well-being Wednesday: what is stress?

There’s no medical definition of stress, and health care professionals often disagree over whether stress is the cause of problems or the result of them. This can make it difficult for you to work out what causes your feelings of stress, or how to deal with them. But whatever your personal definition of stress is, it’s likely that you can learn to manage your stress better by:

  • managing external pressures, so stressful situations don’t seem to happen to you quite so often
  • developing your emotional resilience, so you’re better at coping with tough situations when they do happen and don’t feel quite so stressed

Is stress a mental health problem?

Being under pressure is a normal part of life. It can help you take action, feel more energised and get results. But if you often become overwhelmed by stress, these feelings could start to be a problem for you.

Stress isn’t a psychiatric diagnosis, but it’s closely linked to your mental health in two important ways:

  • Stress can cause mental health problems, and make existing problems worse. For example, if you often struggle to manage feelings of stress, you might develop a mental health problem like anxiety or depression.
  • Mental health problems can cause stress. You might find coping with the day-to-day symptoms of your mental health problem, as well as potentially needing to manage medication, heath care appointments or treatments, can become extra sources of stress.

This can start to feel like a vicious circle, and it might be hard to see where stress ends and your mental health problem begins.

Why does stress affect me physically?

You might find that your first clues about being stressed are physical signs, such as tiredness, headaches or an upset stomach.

There could be many reasons for this, as when we feel stressed we often find it hard to sleep or eat well, and poor diet and lack of sleep can both affect our physical health. This in turn can make us feel more stressed emotionally.

Also, when we feel anxious, our bodies release hormones called cortisol and adrenaline. (This is the body’s automatic way of preparing to respond to a threat, sometimes called the ‘fight, flight or freeze’ response). If you’re often stressed then you’re probably producing high levels of these hormones, which can make you feel physically unwell and could affect your health in the longer term.

www.mind.org.uk

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Plymouth pay NHS tribute

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Plymouth pay NHS tribute: Plymouth have paid tribute to the NHS with a special decoration of their Home Park pitch.

The League Two club got their head groundsman Chris Ralph to work with the mower, cutting a pattern reading “Thank You NHS” into the turf.

Plymouth had already handed their stadium over to the local NHS Trust, who are using it for phlebotomy and antenatal appointments during the coronavirus pandemic.

A club statement released to the PA news agency said: “The club is proud to have worked in partnership with the local NHS Trust at the earliest possible opportunity – handing over our stadium to be used for routine phlebotomy and antenatal appointments.

“We feel a civic duty to support our local community at this time, and the pattern on the pitch was cut by grounds staff to show our immense gratitude for our NHS heroes, working at Home Park and further afield, during this time of crisis.”

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Together, we’ll beat coronavirus

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Together, we’ll beat coronavirus: We at Turf Matters are well aware of the impact Coronavirus is having on every aspect of our lives.

It is something that has not been faced by any of us in our lifetimes.

Together, we’ll beat coronavirus

Together, we’ll beat coronavirus

We are all trying to get through the next few weeks and months as best as we can. Keeping working, if we are at all able to, helps retain some sort of normality in what are anything but normal times.

We are a small, close-knit industry which is good in so many ways. We always have someone to call on while help is always there when needed. In other ways it is not so good however. Being small makes us more vulnerable and we can lack the resources which help bigger industries cushion themselves through hard times. It can be a hand to mouth existence, something we’ve seen when weather extremes have impacted on various elements of our industry.

It all means we must stick together wherever possible. For that reason we at Turf Matters are giving a shout out to all our partnering companies.

We wish you all well over the difficult times ahead. You can be assured that Turf Matters will be with you, side by side, through it all.

We not only have our health to protect but our futures and we will provide all the help we can to showcase the work you continue to do and perhaps shine a light on the wonderful, often behind the scenes acts of kindness for which our great industry is known.

Let’s take care, let’s stay well, let’s stick together, let’s get through this.

Scott MacCallum, editor

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