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An Update From Scott MacCallum

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An Update From Scott MacCallum: Well, as we enter August it gives us a little time to catch our breath, at least before the start of the football season again. Oh yes and the little matter of the Ashes!

What a month July proved to be. We had the English ladies getting to the semi final of the World Cup, and Scotland’s ladies proving that shooting themselves in the foot is not the preserve of the Scottish men!

An Update From Scott MacCallum

We had a momentous Cricket World Cup with England surviving a mid tournament slump to reach a final, which will go down in the annuls as of the greatest cricket, if not sporting, matches of all time – congratulations to Karl McDermott and his team for producing the perfect wicket for bat and ball.

Then there was the return of The Open Championship to the island of Ireland and the dream of a home winner. Shane Lowry was immense, but so was Graeme Beatt and his team who produced a test of golf to match the occasion. It has certainly put Royal Portrush back on the map, and more importantly, the Open rota, and we won’t have to wait another 62 years to see that magical Portrush links put through the ultimate test.

I use sporting events as the landmarks through my life – Ah, that was the year Tom Watson, won at Carnoustie (1975); that was when Aberdeen won the European Cup winners Cup (1983); that was when Scotland last won the Grand Slam (1990).

This year is going to offer up so many new landmarks. And we are not yet two thirds through the year!

Scott MacCallum

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Rid Slugs From Your Plot and Pots

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Rid Slugs From Your Plot and Pots: Slugs can be active throughout the year, but they cause the most damage when the weather is humid and wet.

The slimy gastropods will make a meal of a huge variety of vegetables, even when you think that your plants are large enough to have escaped the threat. They will munch through peas, beans, lettuce leaves and tomatoes, and are partial to underground potato tubers; so even plants that you think are safely buried underground are at risk from the hungry pests. This is because, at any one time, 95 percent of the slug population lives underground, feeding on plant roots and potatoes.

Rid Slugs From Your Plot and Pots

The answer to stopping further damage is easy as watering on a simple, environmentally sound, pest control product – Nemaslug. Not only are nematodes extremely effective when they come into contact with slugs, but they can also reach the places that other slug control methods simply can’t.

When nematodes are watered on, they don’t simply lay on the surface of the soil like pellets and other pest control options do, they travel down through the soil to the pest and attack them before they get a chance to damage your plants. Also, nematodes are naturally occurring worms already present in the soil, so using Nemaslug helps top them up!

Gavin Wood, business development and key account manager for nematodes, said: “Unlike pellets, Nemaslug can be used as a preventative pest control, so even if you are lucky enough to have not seen any damage caused by slugs, treating the garden to a dose of Nemaslug will keep the critters at bay before they become a real problem. All of our nematode products are organic, pet and child friendly and easy-to-use.”

The best time to target slugs is when they are newly hatched, so the period between March – October is ideal. A regular regime of using Nemaslug every six weeks is the most effective way to protect plants throughout the growing season and will help to ensure that your vegetables survive long enough for you to eat them!

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An Update From Scott MacCallum

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Golden Graemes

As I write we are deep into both the Cricket World Cup and the Women’s World Cup, while we are listening to endless stories relating to the transfer window. Where would we be without our sporting fixes.

And though it all is the weather. This time last year we were in the middle of the finest summer since 1976 and water shortages were the inevitable consequences. This year, completely different. We’ve had a month of rain in the space of a night and today’s forecast talked of temperatures of 45 degrees in France over the next couple of days.

An Update From Scott MacCallum

And through it all you guys have to maintain consistent surfaces and pitches.  For golf it’s replacing the wetting agent and irrigation from last year with squeegees and effective drainage.

For Royal Portrush who will be hosting their first Open Championship since 1951 I wish all the very best for the last couple of preparation weeks and the Championship itself. I know that Course Manager, Graeme Beatt, and his team have been working wonders to ensure the first Open to be hosted off the mainland for 68 years will be a spectacular success. You can be sure that Frankie Molinari, will be trying to defend his title in front of galleries which will be as knowledgeable and enthusiastic as any in the world.

It was also good to see Graeme McDowell, a Portrush lad, hole a long putt to ensure his entry into the Championship. Not to have played would have been hard for the former US Open Champion to take.

Good luck to both the Graemes – Beatt and McDowell – for The Open.

Ransomes’ Nigel Church Retires

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Ransomes’ Nigel Church Retires: One of the UK’s most respected and valued members in the turf industry, Nigel Church, is retiring at the end of June after almost 50 years in the sector. We had the pleasure of working closely with Nigel for decades and his knowledge, technical ability, eloquence and downright likeability shone through in everything he did.

Nigel joined Ransomes Sims & Jeffries as an apprentice back in the 1970s along with other industry notables such as Bob Buckingham, Bob Bevan, Paul Watson, Richard Bishop, Richard Walne, Graham Dale, Jeff Anguige and Barry Beckitt.

Nigel Church Retires From Ransomes

Readers of a similar age will recognise many of these names demonstrating that this generation of apprentices were the base for the new Toro European distribution – all built on the Ransomes skills they had been taught by John Wilson, Ken Buckledee & Guy Catchpole. In its day, Ransomes was considered the ‘university’ for the UK turf industry.

Nigel fulfilled many roles within the Ransomes business and the industry in general. In his time, he has been a demonstrator, technical rep and area rep; had responsibility for export sales, national accounts, regional sales management and training.

Included in his impressive CV is an eight-year sojourn, when he left Ransomes to work for one of their dealers, Kingston House Mowers in a sales role. He was back at the company in 1998, when it was purchased by Textron, became Ransomes Jacobsen and played a significant part in providing continuity as the two businesses merged together.

Later in his career he joined the new Cutting Edge Training division at Ransomes Jacobsen with a remit to pass on his extensive knowledge and experience to the next generation of sales and technical professionals within the dealer network. This was another area where Nigel excelled and the quality of training delivered by him and his colleagues was arguably the most concise, detailed and effective across the entire industry.

In the past few years he has continued to expand this role travelling to all points of the globe delivering training in his enthusiastic, effervescent manner and has recently returned from his final visit to the Far East. Many of us will never forget the long days and short nights at exhibitions and shows, where we enjoyed the camaraderie of a close-knit team in which Churchy was often the pivotal point … with a beer or gin and tonic in hand.

Nigel has forgotten more than many people in this industry will ever know and he will be sorely missed as he rides off into the sunset (probably on a Ransomes Highway 3). It has been an absolute pleasure to work with a man of this calibre – kind, knowledgeable, dedicated, humorous, affable –  and who is instantly recognised across the industry. Just try walking with him across the halls at SALTEX, BTME, GIS and any other international event and see how long it takes to get from A to B!

The global turf industry’s sincere best wishes go out to you Nigel, to Sylvia, your family and grandchildren, for a very long and happy retirement. It is well deserved.

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An Update From Scott MacCallum

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An Update From Scott MacCallum: It’s quite amazing to think that, as I write we are still in May, yet we have already enjoyed two of the four golf Majors – well done to Brookes Koepka for his amazing feat in being the first person to defend successfully both the US Open and the USPGA and hold both at the same time – and we are about to launch into both the Women’s World Cup, in France, and the Cricket World Cup here in the UK.

It seems we are in the middle of the sporting year and we haven’t even had a chance to catch a breath. It won’t be long before we are enjoying the thrills and spills of the Rugby World Cup, in Japan.

An Update From Scott MacCallum

Sport really defines a year. If you think back 12 months we were about to start the emotional roller coaster that was the World Cup and it was nice to go into it without the usual hype about England’s chances of winning. Those lower expectations seemed to work as Gareth’s boys came closer than any England side since 1990 to getting to the final.

Although a tad detached from it all, coming as I do, from the other side of Hadrian’s Wall I can still recall sitting in bars watching games and enjoying the feel good factor which engulfed the entire country. Maybe Scotland’s ladies will do what England’s men did last year and exceed expectations.

Can I wish perfect weather conditions and every success to all those groundsmen and greenkeepers who are working so hard to produce first class conditions for all the summer’s sporting events.

Best wishes

Scott MacCallum