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British Sugar TOPSOIL expands analysis

August 24, 2021/in News, Press Release/by External Source

British Sugar TOPSOIL expands analysis: British Sugar TOPSOIL has long been trusted to provide detailed and current analysis of its soil products to meet and exceed the British Standards for Topsoil and Subsoil. To further inform and assist customers with their choice of products, the company is now having all its soil and topdressing products […]

Retirement for Robert Bayliss

August 23, 2021/in News, Press Release/by Sofia Martins

Retirement for Robert Bayliss: Robert Bayliss has said goodbye to Weymouth Golf Club in Dorset after 42 years serving the James Braid-designed parkland course. Now 65 years old, Robert originally came from a sports-ground maintenance and horticulture background, landing a post as head greenkeeper at the club in 1978 when he was only 22. Initially […]

British Sugar TOPSOIL expands analysis

August 24, 2021/in News, Press Release/by External Source

Retirement for Robert Bayliss

August 23, 2021/in News, Press Release/by Sofia Martins

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

British Sugar TOPSOIL expands analysis

August 24, 2021/in News, Press Release/by External Source

British Sugar TOPSOIL expands analysis: British Sugar TOPSOIL has long been trusted to provide detailed and current analysis of its soil products to meet and exceed the British Standards for Topsoil and Subsoil.

To further inform and assist customers with their choice of products, the company is now having all its soil and topdressing products tested with new, state-of-the-art, soil microbiology technology that is used in agriculture to determine soil health and fertility.

British Sugar TOPSOIL expands analysis

Detailed analysis under a microscope looks at the levels of bacteria and fungi in TOPSOIL’s products. It is anticipated that, carried out at regular intervals over time, this level of analysis will help build a picture of soil health in terms of living organisms and give TOPSOIL customers yet more important information on which to base their purchasing decisions.

Working with Hampshire-based SoilBioLab, samples of each TOPSOIL product were submitted for analysis, together with a local arable soil, to establish and compare the amount of:

Active Bacteria
Total Bacteria
Active Fungi
Total Fungi
Hyphal Diameter (a physical measure of the branching filamentous structure of a fungus – in lay terms, the wider the branching structure, the more mature the fungus)

National TOPSOIL Manager Andy Spetch said: “We want to provide as much detailed technical information as possible on our products, which is freely available to anyone on our website. It is too early to draw any conclusions from this first analysis but we anticipate that, over time, we will be able to build a helpful picture of the health and effectiveness our products.”

This first set of results, which can be viewed on the TOPSOIL website at www.bstopsoil.co.uk in the TOPSOIL Information section under Analysis, Research and Development, are very much a starting point.

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Retirement for Robert Bayliss

August 23, 2021/in News, Press Release/by Sofia Martins

Retirement for Robert Bayliss: Robert Bayliss has said goodbye to Weymouth Golf Club in Dorset after 42 years serving the James Braid-designed parkland course.

Now 65 years old, Robert originally came from a sports-ground maintenance and horticulture background, landing a post as head greenkeeper at the club in 1978 when he was only 22. Initially thinking of the position as he says, “another rung in the ladder”, he ended up enjoying his work so much he stayed until his retirement, over four decades later!

Retirement for Robert Bayliss

One of Robert’s biggest achievements while at Weymouth Golf Club has been his involvement in training and education, club accreditation and charity work, he says: “Training and education are paramount when it comes to staff improvement. In the early days, one of my priorities was to obtain funding for training and education from committees. Although challenging, once it became apparent that increased technical skills, as well as greater motivation and morale, resulted in an overall improvement on the work carried out on the course, getting support for these areas became a lot easier.

In Robert’s long-run career he’s experienced many advances to the greenkeeping profession, some of which he calls “remarkable”. He says: “The evolution of mechanisation and machinery is remarkable and has made the lives of greenkeepers everywhere a lot easier and safer, not to mention more productive. There’s now an open world of possibilities when it comes to the maintenance and design of turf, which simply wasn’t there when I started out.

“I sometimes relay to younger greenkeepers how many of the machines they take for granted today didn’t exist when I started, and when they did, it was only a few prestigious clubs that could afford them. The rise of technology means now we all have the machinery we need to do the job properly.”

Toro is the one brand Robert has worked with from the very beginning. “Bringing new equipment from the United States, it completely revolutionised the greenkeeping world,” he says. “One machine that, without a doubt, made my daily routine so much better was the Toro Greensmaster 3 riding greensmower; it did so much to cut maintenance time on the course.”

Robert’s personal favourite, however, was the Toro Sidewinder with its mowing units able to shift sideways, allowing the mower to cut close to obstacles while keeping both operator and machine away from hazards. “If ever there was a mower that can lay claim to being in a class of its own, then surely this is it,” says Robert.

With the club a Toro customer and considering Robert’s long-term relationship with local Toro dealer Devon Garden Machinery and his long-standing contribution to the greenkeeping profession, the news of Robert’s retirement was certainly a milestone to be marked.

John Pike, previous regional manager at Reesink Turfcare, who has also recently retired after 48 years in the turfcare industry, was happy to be involved, he says: “I was delighted to come out of my retirement for the special occasion of marking Rob’s retirement. I worked with Rob for many years as did Dennis Lumley, who worked at Devon Garden Machinery before his retirement, so we arranged a surprise lunch meeting for Rob. There, Elliot Wellman, who is Weymouth’s current contact at Devon Garden Machinery, and I presented Rob with a Reesink/Toro decanter, plus a nice bottle of malt to fill it!”

Robert calls himself “extremely fortunate” to have been surrounded with individuals who would end up becoming long-time friends, one of which is deputy Rob Mabb, a most-trusted work companion of 35 years and recently promoted to the course manager position at Weymouth upon Robert’s retirement, is one of them. A choice that Robert couldn’t be “more pleased with”.

For the latest industry news visit turfmatters.co.uk/news

Get all of the big headlines, pictures, opinions and videos on stories that matter to you.

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram for fun, fresh and engaging content.

You can also find us on Facebook for more of your must-see news, features, videos and pictures from Turf Matters

Half Sized Blog Element (Single Author Style)

Half Sized Blog Element (Multi Author Style)

British Sugar TOPSOIL expands analysis

Retirement for Robert Bayliss

British Sugar TOPSOIL expands analysis

Retirement for Robert Bayliss

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

British Sugar TOPSOIL expands analysis

British Sugar TOPSOIL expands analysis: British Sugar TOPSOIL has long been trusted to provide detailed and current analysis of its soil products to meet and exceed the British Standards for Topsoil and Subsoil.

Retirement for Robert Bayliss

Retirement for Robert Bayliss: Robert Bayliss has said goodbye to Weymouth Golf Club in Dorset after 42 years serving the James Braid-designed parkland course.

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