Tag Archive for: Soil

Soil Scout appoint Richie Stephens

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Soil Scout appoint Richie Stephens: Richie Stephens has been appointed to the position of Sales Executive for Soil Scout, effective from 4 January 2021. In his new role Richie will be responsible for identifying new business opportunities and generating sales, whilst also developing existing customer and reseller relationships.

Richie will be working alongside Soil Scout’s VP of International Sales, Adam Sedgwick.

Soil Scout appoint Richie Stephens

Soil Scout appoint Richie Stephens

Prior to his new position, Richie was Course Manager at Ringway Golf Club in Cheshire and previously Head Greenkeeper at Flixton Golf Club. Richie has spent much of his career in management roles building fantastic relationships with fellow greenkeepers, groundsmen and contractors from across all sports. He has also been commended for demonstrating a forward thinking approach to his work and embracing new technologies and better working practices.

Richie commented: “I am delighted to be joining Soil Scout at a really exciting time for the company. I’m looking forward to working with a great team promoting the huge benefits of such an innovative product. It’s a change of direction for me, but I hope to bring my 20-years experience in the sports turf industry to help Soil Scout’s customers achieve their soil monitoring goals.”

Commenting upon the appointment, Soil Scout CEO Jalmari Talola said: “We are delighted to welcome Richie to the Soil Scout team. He joins us with a wealth of industry knowledge and will be a huge asset to our relatively small but fast-growing operation.”

Adam Sedgwick commented: “We are really pleased to be able to appoint someone with Richie’s understanding and enthusiasm for the industry. He demonstrated a real passion for our remote real-time soil monitoring products and he’s a highly driven individual who will bring a new dynamic to the sales team.”

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Thomas Turf Services simplifies soil testing

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Thomas Turf Services simplifies soil testing: Thomas Turf Services (TTS) has taken its mission to aid the building and maintaining of the best possible quality turf facilities to another level by simplifying the testing of soils.

The new Golf Green Health Indexing service delivers results without disturbing the surface and represents a new tool for turf managers to use.

Thomas Turf Services simplifies soil testing

Thomas Turf Services simplifies soil testing

For the new service, TTS provides greenkeepers, superintendents and field managers with a bespoke sampling kit and easy to understand instructions for the collecting, packaging and sending of the samples.

“Our latest equipment is so sensitive that it only requires small quantities to establish the soil condition and to determine the presence of unwanted organisms or materials. It only takes four easy steps to collect and courier the samples to our laboratory in Texas.  Here we prepare a report within 7-10 working days,” explains Jim Thomas.

Reports can provide full elemental analysis (including pH, P, K, Mg, Ca, Mn, Cu, Zn, Fe, & Na), an organic matter profile, saturated hydraulic conductivity, total porosity, air-filled porosity, water-filled porosity and water retention, as well as the bulk density.

“The new approach makes it possible to collect samples without major disturbance to the current soil conditions. The fear that sample extraction will contribute to the vulnerability of the surface, is now something of the past,” Thomas adds.

Golf courses and venue operators can use the service to establish a benchmark or to monitor the grass conditions continuously. “We advise to have the soils tested on an ongoing basis, preferably once a year, to monitor the developments and progress made. When using this diagnostic tool, problems and trends can be caught early which will help with arresting or managing them.”

TTS offers the Golf Green Indexing service to all golf courses and sports venues in the Americas, as well as the Asia-Pacific region. “We have Spanish speaking agronomists employed. This makes it easier to liaise with clients in the Central- and South-American region directly.”

Earlier this year, The R&A, the European counterpart of the U.S. Golf Association, adopted the method to ensure the venues used are maintained optimally and provide first-class surfaces for member and championship golf. The service for The R&A is provided by European Turfgrass Laboratories, based in Scotland. Like TTS, ETL is also part of the Labosport group of companies.

Worldwide only 8 companies are accredited to conduct soil testing services.  The fact that both TTS and ETL are both accredited and part of the Labosport group of companies allows them to continuously benchmark their performance through inter-company knowledge exchange.

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WINSTONgolf deploys Soil Scout sensors

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WINSTONgolf deploys Soil Scout sensors: WINSTONgolf, Germany’s number one golf venue in 2019, has announced a new partnership with wireless underground soil monitoring solution Soil Scout to further its vision of becoming Europe’s forerunner in greenkeeping technology.

After an initial pilot using 27 sensors in one green at three different depths to find an optimal all-round wetting agent, WINSTONgolf will deploy Soil Scout’s sensors to its Open and Links course greens.

WINSTONgolf deploys Soil Scout sensors

WINSTONgolf deploys Soil Scout sensors

WINSTONgolf in Vorbeck, Germany, home to the WINSTONgolf Senior Open, is well known for its unique topography. Often nicknamed the “moonscape” course after its unusual hills and crater-like bunkers, the course presents moisture retention challenges for Head Greenkeeper Erwan Le Cocq.

“Soil Scout has been a game-changer for us in our search for the perfect wetting agent, which are notoriously difficult to program. Our main aim was to find the perfect wetting agent that holds enough moisture at high points but also drains enough moisture lower down. The only way to efficiently understand the physics of the green and moisture penetration was to measure at 6.5 cm, 15 cm, and 25 cm depths using Soil Scout’s underground soil monitoring solution,” says Erwan Le Cocq, Head Greenkeeper at WINSTONgolf.

Unlike above-ground solutions, Soil Scout’s sensor is the only system capable of transmitting moisture, temperature, and salinity data in near real-time from up to 2 meters below the surface, for up to 20 years, maintenance-free.

“Because we’ve had so much rainfall recently, it would be impossible to accurately sample and measure moisture levels without Soil Scout – by the time you start taking samples and the time you finish, your data is redundant. With the sensors in place, I can get an accurate near real-time snapshot on my phone while I’m in the office or at home,” continues Le Cocq.

Using soil data to find the perfect wetting agent is just one method WINSTONgolf utilizes that fits in their technology program to become one of Europe’s leading tech leaders in golf agronomy.

“In addition to overseeing a truly aesthetically outstanding course, Erwan has grasped the importance of data-driven technology with both hands – from understanding how healthy the grass is on the fairway by cutting it with Autocut’s solar-powered autonomous robots to controlling moisture flow through the green’s soil with our sensors. There are very few people in the world right now with the ability to collate data effectively and make insight-driven decisions,” says Adam Sedgwick, VP of International Sales at Soil Scout.

Using the wrong wetting agent and holding moisture in the wrong layers can change the uniformity of the playing surface, and need reactive maintenance changes.

“When a product is this expensive, it is important to get the application right and assisted by the Soil Scout data I knew I was applying it at the most effective times by using it at the correct soil moisture instead of guessing or sampling and guaranteeing a greatly improved effect,” concludes Erwan Le Cocq.

Recently backed by Husqvarna last year’s seed funding round, Soil Scout was co-founded by Finnish agrotechnology Ph.D. and 19th generation farmer Johannes Tiusanen and electronics expert M.Sc.Eng Jussi Sirkiä with a mission of giving soil experts the information they need to effectively manage their lands. Erwan Le Cocq is the head greenkeeper at WINSTONgolf, overseeing the implementation of data collection and technology installation, under the direction of course manager Jordan Tschimperle.

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New analysis unlocks soil health

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New analysis unlocks soil health: New soil testing from Eurofins Agro will help farmers and agronomists understand soil in a more detailed way than ever before. The tests have been launched in the UK and Ireland to provide chemical, physical, and biological insight, offering farmers a better way to monitor, manage and improve the health and fertility of their soil.

“Three new products are now available to UK and Irish agriculture. Fertilisation Manager®, Soil Crop Monitor® and Soil Life Monitor® offer the most comprehensive way to analyse and improve soil health,” explains Dan Robinson, Managing Director, Eurofins Agro UK.

New analysis unlocks soil health

New analysis unlocks soil health

Fertilisation Manager measures soil fertility. “This includes the chemical values of macro and micronutrients,” says Mr Robinson. “Soil pH and the overall structure of the soil is also analysed in conjunction with biological components such as fungi and bacteria,” he adds.

The microbial biomass from the sample will help farmers to understand the sensitivity of the soil to conventional farming methods such as ploughing. The number and nature of the bacteria present in a soil sample will also facilitate the accurate calculation of what nutrients need to be added to the soil to optimise plant health and growth.

Soil Crop Monitor will provide the most accurate means of testing soil during a growing season. “Unlike some tests, Soil Crop Monitor analyses both the soil and the plant. This measures the plant available nutrients and the nutrients absorbed by the crop,” says Mr Robinson.

Soil Life Monitor determines the total microbial biomass, fungi, bacteria and protozoa. It also identifies some physical characteristics such as pH and the quality of organic matter. “PLFA (phospholipid fatty acids) found in soil can be measured to provide a fingerprint of the soil content. PLFAs are degraded quickly in the soil, so the analysis gives an indication of the amount of living biomass,” says Mr Robinson. “This is the most detailed routine analysis of soil life available and has countless applications for agriculture. We are therefore excited to make all of these tests available to farmers and growers across the UK and Ireland” he adds.

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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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