Tag Archive for: Helps

Kubota Helps Young People

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Kubota Helps Young People: Kubota UK has joined forces with PACCAR Scout Camp, a charity funded organisation dedicated to helping young people achieve their physical, intellectual and social potential.

PACCAR Scout Camp, located in Buckinghamshire, provides a fun and exciting camping experience for youth organisations, including Scouts, Guides and school groups. Visitors have the opportunity to experience an assortment of activities, from abseiling and archery, to climbing, high ropes and bushcraft.

The Japanese manufacturer is working in partnership with PACCAR Scout Camp as part of its on-going initiative to support charities that are focused not only on improving the prosperous life of humans, but also protecting the environment.

Karen Tipping, Kubota UK’s Marketing Manager, said: “We are delighted to support the PACCAR Scout Camp.  The work and commitment of its 120 volunteers to give children of all ages the opportunities to experience the great outdoors is fantastic.

“For many of the camp’s 50,000 visitors a year, it can be the first time they will have ever experienced the outdoors like they can at PACCAR Scout Camp.  It’s an adventurous experience that’s not only fun and entertaining, but it can help build self esteem, confidence and team building skills.

“These values are important to Kubota and we are extremely proud of our manufacturing excellence and our commitment to the environment, highlighted by our ‘For Earth, For Life’ brand statement. Being partnered with PACCAR scout group is excellent and we are so pleased that we can aid them with the brilliant work they do’’

 To help the camp’s volunteers get around the 67-acre site, Kubota has donated its rugged and robust RTV-X900 utility vehicle.

 Cliffe Brooke, Operations Manager at PACCAR Scout Camp, commented: “On behalf of everyone at PACCAR, we would like to thank Kubota and our local dealer George Browns for their support. We are a charity organisation, and like all charities, we need funding to be able to survive. With Kubota donating us the RTV-X900, it means we can focus our funds on what’s most important – continually improving our site and facilities to make the experience our visitors have when they come here, even better.

“The machine will make a huge difference operationally, making life much easier for our volunteers, from ferrying equipment around for activities, to woodland management and general maintenance. It will also allow us to access areas of the 67-acre site that we previously couldn’t.

“The Kubota brand is synonymous with quality and reliability, we’ve had a Kubota compact tractor now for over ten years and it never lets us down. We are really looking forward to putting the RTV-X900 through its paces now and seeing what it can do. It will be an integral piece of machinery that will be used every single day so we are delighted to receive Kubota’s support.”

For more information on Kubota UK call 01844 268000 or visit www.kubota.co.uk.

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Verti-Top Helps Improve Efficiency

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Verti-Top Helps Improve Efficiency: The latest addition to their vast fleet of machinery at South Wales Sports Grounds (SWSG) is a Redexim Verti-Top 1200 from Charterhouse Turf Machinery.  SWSG undertake a wide variety of grounds maintenance contracts for a range of clients from local authorities, major contracting groups, universities and colleges through to individual sports clubs and private clients – with no two days bringing the same tasks and demands.

Established in 1964, SWSG has continued to cultivate a reputation as one of the leading sports surface contractors in the region. “The demand for synthetic maintenance, especially with local authorities, schools and sports clubs, has increased to the point where our machinery is in use on a daily basis” explains Construction Director Francis McDermott. “We started to have quite a few issues with our previous machine so decided to have a look at what else is available. We already have several pieces of Redexim equipment for the maintenance of natural surfaces, and recognise it as being good quality, so took a look at their Verti-Top 1200.”

Verti-Top Helps Improve Efficiency

The Verti-Top conducts surface and deep-cleaning, utilising a rotary brush to lift the pile and extract up to the top 15mm of infill and foreign material. The infill is then sieved to remove dust and detritus before being returned and brushed into the surface leaving a clean, level and aesthetically pleasing finish. “We looked at a few alternatives but felt the Verti-Top was a better machine all-round”, which saw Francis and his team taking delivery of one in March this year.

“Richard Lucas of Charterhouse, together with local dealer Frank Suttons, came over to install the machine. We have one specialist who operates the Verti-Top, and although he’s well versed with this type of machine, it was really helpful for Richard to come and outline the key differences. In the relatively short amount of time we’ve had the Verti-Top we’re noticing a better quality of finish, and at 1.2m, its wider working width than our previous machine means our efficiency has also improved.”

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Graden CSI Helps St Augustine’s GC

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Graden CSI Helps St Augustine’s GC: At more than 100 years old, Kent’s St Augustine’s Golf Club has changed a lot over the last century and is now far from the grazing land that once occupied its 60 acre site. However, the pop-up greens, on original clay soil, used to cause Head Greenkeeper Gary Kennington and his team a headache when it came to topdressing and drainage. That was until the club discovered the benefits of the Graden Contour Sand Injection (CSI) unit, which has helped to improve water dispersal and greens speed, all with minimum surface disruption.

“Though we’re not strictly a links course, as there’s a road between the club and the Kent coast, we do still have to deal with the climatic challenges our location brings” explains Gary. “One year in particular, going back now 7 years, the weather meant the usual tactic of tining and topdressing wasn’t getting sand down into the greens as well as the team hoped.  At the time the Graden CSI was a relatively new concept in the UK so we hired a unit and quickly realised that it could really help.”

Graden CSI Helps St Augustine’s GC

The Graden CSI is a 3-in-1 verti-cutter with the ability to aerate, scarify and remove thatch to any depth between 1mm-40mm, whilst simultaneously backfilling the grooves with either sand or a combination of sand and seed. Its ability to conduct multiple jobs in one pass reduces play downtime without causing any detrimental effect to the firmness of the ground. “With this CSI you’re getting the sand into the green, rather the putting it on the top, allowing you to get greens back into play in as little as half an hour.”

Gary and his team now use the CSI on all 18 greens twice a year and continue to see marked improvements. “From the very first use we reduced the thatch content of the greens and worked the sand down into the soil profile which helped with drainage and greens speed. With it being a pedestrian unit, we have great manoeuvrability and it means we can still go out and use it in conditions that may not always be ideal. Should we need that little extra advice or support we now have John Fitzpatrick of Charterhouse Turf Machinery who is great to have at the end of the phone.”

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Kubota Helps Transform Pitches

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Kubota Helps Transform Pitches: Kubota, the market leading manufacturer of high performance groundcare solutions, has assisted a team of dedicated volunteers to transform the sporting facilities in one of the country’s most deprived areas.

72-year-old Philip Swann and his team of six volunteers have given up their time to dedicate countless hours to make huge improvements to the state of the grounds for Handsworth Old Boys FC and Handsworth Old Boys Cricket Club in Birmingham.

Kubota Helps Transform Pitches

Philip has been a Handsworth Old Boy member for over 55 years, started volunteering at the ground following his retirement as a sales director for a hardware manufacturer.  He said: “When I volunteered to be groundsman, I had absolutely no experience, it was more because I had a passion for the club and wanted to help in anyway I could.  However, I soon realised the magnitude of the issues I faced, which even experienced groundsman might have seen as a challenge!

“The main issue at the site is access.  The grounds are enclosed by railway lines on all sides, with only one access point over the tracks that also has a very steep and dangerous incline.  This makes it almost impossible for any larger machines to be able to access the site safely.  To compound this, the driveway down to the facilities is only 7ft in width, which means the maximum size of a vehicle that can fit down the drive is a transit van.  For bulk deliveries, HGVs or 3.5t trucks have to park over 250m away at the entrance to the grounds, adding serious workload to an already demanding job!”

“What’s more, when I first started, everything was done on the seven-and-a-half-acre site by hand, the cricket square was in terrible condition and too many football matches were being cancelled because of water logged pitches as a slitter was needed.”

Philip knew that he needed the right machine to help him start tackling these issues.  Due to budget restrictions of this amateur club, it needed to offer excellent value for money, be versatile and durable, but also be easy to operate for the volunteers that would be using it with limited to no machinery experience.  The final requirement was to ensure all the retired volunteers could carry out their work comfortably.

Kubota’s STa-30 (which has more recently been superceded by the STW30 model) was the ideal choice, with the ability to handle a range of tasks with quick and powerful performance, a large hydraulic pump capacity to operate a wide range of attachments and excellent comfort for operators.

Philip continued: “The Kubota machine has been invaluable in helping us carry out a wide range of jobs with ease.  During the summer months, the grass is cut twice a week (which takes roughly four and a half hours to complete each time) and it also allows us to use other key attachments for aeration and scarifying.  The tractor also enables us to move and transport all sorts of materials around the site, as well as load up the trailer when we are tending to the 160 trees around the perimeter.

“So much of the work on the playing fields is carried out by the tractor, that in the event of it breaking down, all work on the grounds would come to a standstill.  But it never does, it’s an absolute workhorse, clocking thousands of hours and it’s still going strong, a real testament to the reliability and durability of Kubota machinery.”

The result of all this hard work, commitment, and hours and hours of volunteering time by Philip and his friends – success on the pitch for Handsworth Old Boys.  This season, three out of the five football teams are top of their respective divisions and the cricket team has been promoted in three of the last four seasons.  The grounds are also now a valuable asset for the local community, with many local football and cricket teams using the facilities, providing vital additional funding for Handsworth Old Boys.

Philip concluded: “My aim over the years has been to gradually improve the sports pitches.  I’ve taken advice from turf specialists and also had advice from the groundsman Ian Allmark at Handsworth Grammar School for Girls to help us achieve this.  Today, the satisfaction the volunteers get seeing a beautiful sports ground being maximised to its potential makes me extremely proud and is a validation of all the hard work and effort that has been put in over the years.”

Following its partnership with Kubota, Philip is now looking to invest further in his machinery, with Kubota’s experts recommending its new L1361 compact tractor as the best model to suit the demands of the sporting facility.

For more information on Kubota and its extensive range of solutions for the groundcare sector, or to find your local dealer, visit www.kubota.co.uk or call 01844 268000.

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Dealer Helps Air Ambulance

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Dealer Helps Air Ambulance: Nigel Rafferty Groundcare of Redruth, Cornwall were more than happy to loan one of their Iseki demonstration tractors at short notice to the Cornwall Air Ambulance for the launch of the Charity’s £2.5m New Heli Appeal on Tuesday 24 April.

The tractor was used to tow and position the next generation AW169 helicopter flown in especially for the launch between the helipad and the hanger.

Dealer Helps Cornwall Air Ambulance

Nigel Rafferty says, “We are very pleased to have been asked to help with the launch of this appeal – even in this small way. We were in no doubt that our Iseki TL3400 tractor would cope well with towing the new helicopter to and from the hanger to the helipad.”

Cornwall Air Ambulance are now embarking on a two-year fundraising campaign, the New Heli Appeal, to urgently raise £2.5m to bring this next generation air ambulance helicopter to Cornwall by April 2020, the date the lease runs out on its current aircraft.

To donate visit Cornwall Air Ambulance website.

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