Add mowing to TYM Tractor to-do list

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Add mowing to TYM Tractor to-do list: With TYM’s subcompact T194 and TS25 customers can expand their tractors’ to-do list to include mowing.

Both models are truly versatile additions to maintaining and caring for the grounds of private estates and large gardens. They tackle all the small and mid-duty tasks around the garden, orchard, paddock, woods and fields with ease and, in the T194, deliver a quality cut to lawns too.

Add mowing to TYM Tractor to-do list

Add mowing to TYM Tractor to-do list

A dependable 19hp engine in the innovative T194 has generated acclaim in the market since its launch last year because it brings customers the functionality of a ride-on mower with the additional features of tractor.

Equipped with a 54-inch mid-mounted deck as standard, mowing height can be adjusted from the seat via the onboard height-of-cut lever which is easy to use and intuitive to set. Its tractor credentials excel on the category one three-point linkage and 540 rpm rear PTO which allows for many rear-mounted attachments to be fitted.

The TS25 meanwhile brings more power, upping the ante from 19hp to 25hp, and with a mid-mounted mowing deck will mow brilliantly too. With a hydraulic lift capacity of 600kg, it’s renowned for delivering superb value and outstanding performance. An optional front loader further increases its versatility opening it up to many more applications such as landscaping and light groundworks.

Both can just as easily handle the tasks of summer and autumn, as well as winter sweeping and clear-up, and spring aeration, it’s what gives both their reputation as all-season machines, says Steven Haynes, TYM’s sales manager at distributor Reesink Turfcare: “These machines really are neat little workhorses and particularly appeal to customers who want a powerful, multi-purpose option in a compact package all-year-round.”

Both tractors benefit from a powerful diesel engine, hydrostatic power-steering for effortless manoeuvrability, a tight turning circle ideal for barn work and paddock clearing, and a heavy-duty, four-wheel-drive front axle for greater traction where needed.

Steven continues: “TYM understand the requirements of its customers: one machine with a range of abilities and the benefit of being able to mow earns its place in any shed. It brings value and versatility to towing, moving and maintenance tasks. These smaller tractors are widely termed a multi-tasking wonder and with good reason – they provide customers an effective, but compact solution for most of their needs.”

Reesink Turfcare, the UK distributor of TYM, has long been known for offering more when it comes to its service, after-sales support, parts and warranties and new for 2020 these models are available with a three-year bumper to bumper warranty package to safeguard customers’ investment.

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Glassboys raise toast to MM60

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Glassboys raise toast to MM60: Volunteers are the lifeblood of grassroots football and you would be hard pressed to find anyone as dedicated to the cause than Ian Pilkington. In fact, he spends most of his free time tending to the pitch at Stourbridge FC’s War Memorial Ground, which he says has been hugely benefited by Limagrain’s MM60 grass seed.

Stourbridge through and through, Ian’s involvement with his beloved club, who are also known as the Glassboys, goes back a long way. When he attended his first game as a seven-year old boy, little did he know that one day he would become a director and a groundsman.

Glassboys raise toast to MM60

Glassboys raise toast to MM60

“My dad started taking me to watch the matches at Stourbridge when I seven years old and I’ve followed them ever since,” said Ian. “After the club got relegated in the year 2000 a number of us were invited to run the committee and then we evolved into a limited company and became directors.

“I started helping to run the club in a number of areas and was lending a hand to the groundsman. Unfortunately, he suffered an injury and there was no one to do the work, so I thought I’d better have a go myself.”

That was 16 years ago, and Ian has tended to the pitch ever since. Without fail, he is at the ground every Sunday morning and every spare moment he has during the week, preparing, repairing, and treating every inch of the pitch to keep it in superb condition.

“I’m a keen amateur,” he says. “I’ve found that you never stop gaining knowledge in the groundcare industry. There are always people that I can ask for help and advice and that is how I have managed to do this job for so long.

“To be honest, I could probably do with retiring, but I enjoy spending time at the club. I love being outside and working on the pitch. However, I have found that you can never do enough in this game, and I am always thinking about what else I can do to improve the pitch.”

Ian claims that he saw a remarkable development in the pitch ever since he started using Limagrain’s MM60 grass seed ten years ago after it was recommended to him by trusted supplier Agrovista Amenity.

Limagrain’s MM60 grass seed is renowned for producing an excellent playing surface. It is a 100% Ryegrass formula which is perfect for renovation and divot repair, has a high disease resistance, fantastic aesthetic qualities and offers extremely fast germination – which is boosted by the inclusion of Headstart GOLD®.

“We use MM60 for our renovation at the start of May. We share the ground with a cricket club so as soon as we finish the football season there is change over to cricket. Therefore, we need something which is very quick in establishment and we’ve found that the MM60 is ideal for that – it gives us great coverage.”

“I also tend to overseed in autumn – so I will use the MM60 on areas which need a bit of a boost, or where the fox has been or where the birds have been pecking at the surface.

Glassboys raise toast to MM60

Glassboys raise toast to MM60

“The colour is also very strong throughout the year – it’s always a vibrant green and is healthy.”

MM60 also includes Limagrain’s Ryegrass cultivar Annecy which has outstanding disease resistance particularly against Leaf Spot. The mixture’s high disease resistance coupled with its hard-wearing sward makes MM60 a seed that Ian can rely on.

“We never suffer from any disease here and I’ve found that the MM60 provides great recovery – even in bad weather conditions. Ultimately, we have consistently good results year in year out.

“I’ve been working with Mark Allen from Agrovista Amenity for more than 10 years and have been using the MM60 throughout that whole time. It’s been a fruitful partnership, which combined with use of the Limagrain seed, only benefits the club and will continue to so in the future.”

For further information, please contact Limagrain UK on 01472 371471 or visit the company’s website www.lgseeds.co.uk/mm – you can also follow the company on Twitter: @MM_Seed

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Foxes keep groundsman busy

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Foxes keep groundsman busy: A brush with the local fox population is keeping Leeds Rhinos’ groundsman Ryan Golding busy during the coronavirus crisis.

Most of Rhinos’ 150 employees have been placed on furlough, a form of paid leave, but Golding is among a handful still working – and vulpine pitch invaders are giving him plenty to do.

“They are a nightmare,” Golding said of the four-legged hooligans.

“They live near the railway track, in all the bushes there.

“On a night, when they are scavenging for food, they come into the stadium and they always dig in the same place on the pitch.

“They are digging bones into the pitch – I am finding bones all the time.”

The urban foxes are sometimes spotted on the terraces after games, which is one reason why cleaning crews are brought in so quickly following the final whistle.

Golding hopes fencing will deter the pests and noted: “It’s a unique problem, with it being an inner-city stadium.

“You

wouldn’t have a problem like that on an industrial site, it’s just another thing we have to deal with.”

On the other hand, the foxes do keep Emerald Headingley’s pigeons – another traditional groundsman’s enemy – at bay.

“They are stalking around the pitch on a night, waiting for the pigeons to land,” Golding reported.

“There are feathers everywhere! On a morning I have to go around picking pigeon carcasses up.

“It is like a war zone, but they don’t go near our feed, fertilizers or chemicals, which is good.”

Even without the foxes, Golding has his hands full restoring the pitch to its usual glory following unprecedented rainfall last winter.

“My assistants have been furloughed, so it’s just me,” he said.

“I am having to look after all the stadium and all of Kirkstall [Rhinos’ training base] on my own.

“It is challenging, but it’s quite enjoyable – it is taking me back to when I was younger, getting my hands dirty.

“It is very negative circumstances, but it is what it is – there’s people dying, so you can’t really moan.”

The last few months have been tough for Rhinos’ ground crew who, as well as looking after Headingley, had to cope with flooding at Kirkstall.

Golding recalled: “We had a record three months of rainfall – around 300-350 millimetres.

“That is a hell of a lot – and it wasn’t necessarily the weather, it was the timing.

“We always seemed to get downpours the night before games and the morning of.

“We weren’t really getting any luck and the game where it turned was the double-header [when Headingley staged Rhinos’ Betfred Super League opener against Hull immediately after Castleford Tigers had faced Toronto Wolfpack].

“We had a lot more rain than expected after the first game.

“I had two choices, to leave it as it is and have a slow surface, or take it on the chin and make it a fast one.”

Rhinos scored 154 points in their three home games after the loss to Hull and Golding added: “People say it looks like a beach, but it plays really well.

“That’s something I had to discuss with the management team, Rich [Agar, Rhinos’ coach] and Kev [Sinfield, director of rugby].

“I am not bothered what people say if it allows us to play fast rugby and get two points.

“That’s what we did, we applied sand quite regularly to make a fast, stable surface to enable the players to gain purchase – rather than it turning into a mudbath.”

The break has allowed Golding time to work on the pitch, but – with no clear indication when rugby will resume – he explained: “I don’t want to throw everything into recovery yet.

“It’s a bit like a finely-tuned athlete, you don’t want to hand it all the supplements and everything it requires now because it’s going to keep needing that.

“It is a sand-based surface so it drains very quickly and leaches nutrients very quickly, so I have to be careful with what I am applying.”

Life won’t get any less hectic for Golding – and his team – when the season eventually resumes.

Midweek matches are likely as Super League clubs race to make up for lost time, but Golding has no concerns over having to prepare the ground for multiple games in a short space of time.

He stressed: “I don’t see it as a bad thing.

“You get some groundsmen who are very much ‘keep off the pitch’, but I wouldn’t have a job if it wasn’t for the sport so let’s get as many games on as we can and get back to enjoying sport.”

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Rigby Taylor a Soil Scout reseller

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Rigby Taylor a Soil Scout reseller: Data collection and interpretation are critical for making good agronomic decisions on Turf, use of in situ sensor technology developed by Finnish company Soil Scout provides a particle and cost-effective method to achieve this objective.

Peter Corbett, Business Development Manager for Rigby Taylor says “We are excited to be taking on the Soil Scout product in the UK. We see this technology as a step forward for our customers and Agronomist to work off real data to make better more timely and sustainable decisions. This data combined with our agronomic knowledge, Turf products and access to the latest Rain Bird irrigation control equipment provides an unbeatable combination.”

Rigby Taylor a Soil Scout reseller

Rigby Taylor a Soil Scout reseller

Soil Scouts International Sales Manager, Adam Sedgwick, says ” to have a company with the Professionalism, and reach of Rigby Taylor is a massive coup for our relatively new business. We are there alongside them now, to offer full backing and support with the solution we provide, to a company with such high acclaim in the UK”

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Sheep taking over golf courses

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Sheep taking over golf courses: At least two closed and empty English golf clubs have been taken over by sheep during the coronavirus lockdown – where the ruminants have been taking on the grass cutting duties normally reserved for the currently furloughed greenkeepers.

Several UK golf courses are located near to farmland but animals are typically deterred from venturing towards the courses due to the presence of golfers and greenkeepers. Plus, their source of food, which is now growing more quickly than it has been in recent months, is usually mown away just as rapidly.

But with no golfers bar one or two breaking the rules, and with most golf clubs furloughing all but one greenkeeper, golf courses are proving to be rich pickings for hungry sheep.

Avington Park Golf Course and Bramshaw Golf Club, both in southern England, have showcased the hard-working animals on social media.

According to entertainment website TMZ, there have been about 100 sheep roaming and grazing on Avington Park’s 32-acre golf course.

Bramshaw Golf Club also saw the funny side of the invasion – and also outlined the benefits to the course.

The club wrote on Twitter: ‘Been out there for a couple of days. Not doing any harm at the moment.. free labour!’

While sheep on golf courses due to a lack of golfers because of a pandemic may be something new, many golf courses around the world do use herbivores to help out with the maintenance of their facilities.

Machrihanish Dunes in Scotland has used sheep to control the rough in the past.

A spokesman told The Golf Business in 2014: “Here at Machrihanish Dunes we are very proud of our eco friendly status.

“By using the natural lawnmowers to thin out the rough on the course we are able to help preserve several rare and protected species of orchids that grow here on this site and in few other places. The added benefit is visitors can enjoy the company of these unique companions as they play a round. These woolly wonders will have people flocking to see them in action.”

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