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Why Radley College Continues to Choose MM Seed

September 7, 2026/in News, Press Release/by Admin

Why Radley College Continues to Choose MM Seed When you’ve spent more than 25 years looking after some of the country’s busiest school sports facilities, consistency becomes invaluable. For Adam King, Head of Grounds at Radley College, that’s exactly why MM Seed has remained his first choice for more than two decades. Set within the […]

How robotic mowing is transforming daily life at Rowlands Castle

September 7, 2026/in Machinery, News, Press Release/by Admin

How robotic mowing is transforming daily life at Rowlands Castle For Course Manager Kevin Hensman, robotic mowing has been a long time coming. Having managed Rowlands Castle Golf Club for 6 years, he has long believed autonomous technology could play a major role in the future of course maintenance. That belief became reality when the […]

Why Radley College Continues to Choose MM Seed

September 7, 2026/in News, Press Release/by Admin

How robotic mowing is transforming daily life at Rowlands Castle

September 7, 2026/in Machinery, News, Press Release/by Admin

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

Why Radley College Continues to Choose MM Seed

September 7, 2026/in News, Press Release/by Admin

Why Radley College Continues to Choose MM Seed

When you’ve spent more than 25 years looking after some of the country’s busiest school sports facilities, consistency becomes invaluable. For Adam King, Head of Grounds at Radley College, that’s exactly why MM Seed has remained his first choice for more than two decades.

Why Radley College Continues to Choose MM Seed

Set within the Oxfordshire countryside, Radley College is home to an extensive range of sports facilities. The team maintains 14 rugby pitches, which become 16 football pitches during the winter, nine cricket squares, a nine-hole golf course and extensive college grounds, supporting around 770 boarding pupils throughout the year.

“It’s all about making sport happen,” says Adam. “The boys are at their happiest when they’re out playing. They learn just as much about teamwork and life on the sports field as they do in the classroom.”

Keeping those facilities performing at the highest standard demands products that can be relied upon year after year. For Adam, that relationship with MM Seed began with a visit to one of the company’s production facilities in the Netherlands, where he saw first-hand the research, development and quality control behind every seed mixture.

“It really opened my eyes,” he explains. “You realise just how much research goes into developing new grasses. Some of the work they’re doing today has been ten years in the making. Seeing how clean everything was and the care that goes into producing the final product gave me a huge amount of confidence.”

That confidence has only grown over the years.

“The cultivars within the MM mixtures have always been excellent,” says Adam. “They’ve consistently stayed at the top of the list. We’ve trialled individual cultivars over the years as well, including Melbourne, which I absolutely loved for cricket. It’s been great having that relationship where we’re able to trial new grasses and see what works.”

Perhaps the greatest endorsement comes from the fact that, despite trying alternative products over the years, Adam always finds himself returning to MM50 for cricket square renovations.

“We’ve used MM50 for more than 20 years,” he says. “Every now and again we’ve renovated a square with another manufacturer’s seed just to make sure we’re still getting the best product. Every single time we’ve gone back to MM50. That’s testament to its consistency.”

That consistency is evident in every stage of the renovation process.

“We get excellent wear tolerance, strong recovery, good germination and a healthy sward going into winter. Those are the things that matter.”

Even during one of the driest summers in recent years, when renovation timings were dictated by prolonged drought, Adam remained confident in the seed’s ability to perform once moisture returned.

“This year has been really challenging,” he explains. “We renovated early but then had virtually no rainfall. Once we started getting some moisture back, the seed came through well. We’ve seen similar conditions before and MM50 has always established strongly once the weather turns in our favour.”

Alongside MM50, Radley College also uses MM60 alongside MM Tetrasport across winter sports pitches and MM9 on the golf course, giving Adam confidence across every area of the site.

For Adam, however, it isn’t just about one successful product.

“I think there are three things everybody wants from seed: good cultivars, good germination and cleanliness. MM consistently delivers all three.”

He has also become a firm believer in MM Seed’s Headstart coating technology after initially approaching coated seed with some scepticism.

“I was probably like a lot of people and wondered whether coatings really made much difference,” he says. “But when you compare it with an uncoated seed, the plant just seems stronger. You get that little bit of extra vigour during establishment, whether that’s quicker rooting or stronger early growth. Sometimes that’s all you need to give the grass the best possible start.”

With increasingly unpredictable weather patterns, Adam believes flexibility has become just as important as product choice.

“We can no longer stick to a fixed renovation calendar,” he says. “We have to work with the weather and adapt our timings. That’s just part of modern grounds management.”

What hasn’t changed is the confidence he places in MM Seed.

“When you’ve been using a product for over 20 years and you keep coming back to it, that tells its own story. It’s the consistency that makes the difference.”

Visit the new and improved MM Seed website at www.mm-seeds.co.uk

You can also follow the company on X: @MM_Seed.

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How robotic mowing is transforming daily life at Rowlands Castle

September 7, 2026/in Machinery, News, Press Release/by Admin

How robotic mowing is transforming daily life at Rowlands Castle

For Course Manager Kevin Hensman, robotic mowing has been a long time coming. Having managed Rowlands Castle Golf Club for 6 years, he has long believed autonomous technology could play a major role in the future of course maintenance.

How robotic mowing is transforming daily life at Rowlands Castle

That belief became reality when the club introduced robotic mowers from Kress in September and, just a few months on, Kevin says the impact on day-to-day operations has already been significant.

“When I took over 6 years ago, I texted a picture of a robot mower to my boss and said: ‘It’s going to happen one day. I want one of these.’ They’ve always been at the back of my mind.”

Kevin oversees a small team responsible for maintaining 18 fairways while delivering the presentation standards expected by members throughout the year. Like many golf clubs, balancing staffing levels, time and course quality is an ongoing challenge.

“We used to maybe just about get everything done by Friday, but we were always chasing our tails,” he explains. “We only have five staff to get everything done.”

Since introducing robotic mowing, however, the dynamic has shifted dramatically.

At many golf clubs, winter conditions can make it difficult to get machinery onto the course, often leading to long grass and a lengthy recovery period once spring arrives. At Rowlands Castle, the robotic fleet has helped break that cycle.

“We’re a parkland site. We can’t get the machines out all the time,” says Kevin. “Normally as the weather finally starts to warm up and dry out, we have a mountain of grass to cut and by the end of April we are finally getting there.”

Instead, the Kress robotic mowers continued quietly maintaining fairways and key areas throughout the winter months, preserving presentation standards while reducing turf disruption.

“The mowers have just been ticking over keeping the place neat all winter,” he says. “In January I was walking around one of the lovely little par-three holes and that’s when it really hit me. It was looking lovely and we wouldn’t normally have got that cut until probably April.

“That’s when I knew that for this site, they are an absolute game changer.”

The lightweight design of the machines has also proved invaluable during ongoing renovation work around the course. While redeveloping bunkers, freshly laid turf areas were too delicate for conventional equipment.

“We can’t go on the new turf with ride-on’s,” Kevin explains. “But the robotic mowers are light enough that they can. We would quickly map the area and off they would go. Their light touch was just right.”

As with any major operational change, there was some initial scepticism, particularly from members more familiar with traditional maintenance methods. According to Kevin, those doubts quickly disappeared once the results became clear.

“Even the members that were really sceptical about the Kress robot mowers were won over,” he says. “They’re ideal for this place.”

For Kevin, the biggest benefit has not simply been the quality or consistency of cut, but the freedom it gives the team to focus on other important tasks around the course.

“They just free us up to do other things.”

That extra time is now being invested into the finer presentation details that can make a significant difference to the overall golfing experience.

How robotic mowing is transforming daily life at Rowlands Castle

“We take the strimmers around now with us, getting to places we always meant to do but kept leaving,” he says. “Now we have the time.”

Those smaller finishing touches, from edging and tidying around trees to emptying bins and refining presentation, are often the details golfers notice most.

“It’s the little finer details that make the big difference,” Kevin explains. “You can have everything right, but if the bins are not emptied or a certain tree is not strimmed around, those are the things that members notice.”

One unexpected consequence of robotic mowing has been the change in the team’s day-to-day routine. Rather than spending hours on machinery trying to stay ahead of grass growth, staff are now far more visible around the course carrying out improvement work.

“One afternoon my deputy Graeme and I noticed we were dodging more golf balls,” Kevin laughs. “That’s when we realised it was because we were actually out there doing the work, getting to things we’d never had time for before.”

For Kevin, that moment perfectly summed up the wider operational shift taking place at the club. Instead of constantly firefighting, the team is now able to spend more time refining and improving the course. And with the technology still relatively new to the club, he believes they are only beginning to see the full potential.

“It’s still new for us,” he says. “We feel as though we haven’t even felt the full benefits yet.”

At Rowlands Castle Golf Club, robotic mowing is proving to be far more than a labour-saving tool. It is helping a small greenkeeping team maintain higher standards more consistently, improve efficiency during difficult conditions and dedicate more time to the finer details that elevate the golfing experience.

For golf clubs facing increasing pressure on staffing, budgets and presentation standards, Kevin’s experience offers a clear insight into how robotic mowing technology can support modern course maintenance without compromising quality.

For more information, please visit https://www.kress.com/en-gb/

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)

Why Radley College Continues to Choose MM Seed

How robotic mowing is transforming daily life at Rowlands Castle

Why Radley College Continues to Choose MM Seed

How robotic mowing is transforming daily life at Rowlands Castle

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

Why Radley College Continues to Choose MM Seed

Why Radley College Continues to Choose MM Seed

How robotic mowing is transforming daily life at Rowlands Castle

How robotic mowing is transforming daily life at Rowlands Castle

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