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And the winners are…

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And the winners are…: The three winners of the Amenity Forum Sprayer Operator of the Year Awards, sponsored by ICL and Syngenta, have been announced.

The Amenity Forum Sprayer Operator of the Year Awards (ASOOTY) recognises and rewards top sprayer operators across the amenity industry. It aims to improve standards, by identifying the best practice of individuals to enhance results – and share their experiences across the industry.

And the winners are…

And the winners are…

ASOOTY is sponsored by ICL and Syngenta and managed by Amenity Forum, in association with BASIS.

From a record number of high-calibre entrants this year, the competition has now been whittled down to three great finalists – Darren McLaughlan, Course Manager at Trump Turnberry Golf Club; Keith Scruton, Course Manager at Darwen Golf Club; and Kiel Barrett, Head Groundsman at Leeds United FC.

Darren is now into his 26th year in the industry and followed in his uncle’s footsteps who was a greenkeeper. Commenting on his award, Darren said: “I’ve been spraying for as long as I can remember, and I look at this award first and foremost as personal development. This is a huge part in the way I like to manage myself and my team. If you are standing still, then you are going backwards so to have this award; and even to be nominated for me is progression.”

A summer job at a local golf club ignited Keith’s passion for greenkeeping and he has since been in the industry for 32 years. “The benefit of having this award is that it will act as an accreditation of good practice and that’s something I’ve tried to achieve with spraying over the years,” he said. “Hopefully this award shows that even a small club can implement good practice and do the right things without having as many resources as the bigger clubs.”

Kiel learned his trade at Headingley Carnegie stadium, home of Leeds Rhinos, before being appointed as the Head Groundsman of Leeds United FC in 2012. He has been at the club ever since and has worked wonders with the Elland Road pitch.

The overall winner will be announced at the BTME Welcome Celebration which will be taking place om 24th January 2023.

Please contact ICL on 01473 237100 or visit www.icl-sf.co.uk or www.icl-sf.ie if you are in Ireland.

For more news and insightful views, you can follow ICL on Twitter @ICL_Turf

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Sustainable seed formulations the focus for BTME

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Sustainable seed formulations the focus for BTME: Sustainable management of fine turf and sports turf surfaces doesn’t have to mean a compromise in visual merit or performance.

Demonstrating exactly that at BTME 2023 will be DLF, who return with a raft of new mixture formulations in their Johnsons Sports Seed range – incorporating new cultivars that promise to improve play quality and be kinder to the environment, and budgets, thanks to reduced reliance on chemical inputs.

Sustainable seed formulations the focus for BTME

Sustainable seed formulations the focus for BTME

With the ever-changing climatic pressures and growing demands of players and governing bodies, DLF are utilising research conducted across their global breeding centres to create mixtures with enhanced sustainability, that combat some of the biggest challenges faced today and those in the future. New for 2023 will be J Intense 50, a new renovation mixture for golf tees, pathways and high wear areas. This mix promises improved drought tolerance, disease resistance and rapid establishment thanks to the inclusion of DLF’s 4turf® perennial ryegrass.

One of Johnsons leading golf mixtures – J All Bent – has also been reformulated for 2023. With Browntop Bent (Agrostis Tenuis) demonstrating better wear tolerance under close mown conditions and a much lower need for water and fertiliser than Poa annua or Creeping Bent, J All Bent now incorporates Cleek alongside Arrowtown and Manor to make a three-cultivar blend. As a top performer in STRI close mown trials, Cleek will help to create a mixture with maximum shoot density, excellent playing quality and the highest level of fusarium tolerance.

Cleek is just one of several new cultivars chosen for inclusion across the portfolio in 2023. Orienette Chewings Fescue, Seroa Slender Creeping Red Fescue and Crystal Hard Fescue are amongst the others, and all are included in the 2023 J Premier Fairway formulation. These new cultivars will deliver the ultimate fairway sward in terms of density, visual merit and sustainable management, with the increase of hard and sheeps fescue improving tolerance of disease, drought and salt.

Along with changes to the sports turf mixtures across the Johnsons Sports Seed, MM Seed and Masterline ranges, information will also be available on the recently extended Colour Boost and UK native Pro Flora wild flower seed collections, which are ideal for increasing biodiversity and creating eye-catching focal points around the golf course.

The DLF technical team would also like to hear from you on what issues are impacting your management programmes in order to shape future educational and training events. Those who stop by stand 130 over the three days and share their thoughts can also pick up a free Johnsons snood and be entered into a draw for a chance to win a ‘Greens Tester’ – the perfect tool for monitoring speed, trueness and greens performance.

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Pellenc stands out above the rest

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Pellenc stands out above the rest: Tony Chalkley, General Manager of D. Horne Services, has explained why he chose Pellenc above other brands of battery-powered equipment.

“For anyone that is considering changing to electric equipment I would certainly recommend Pellenc,” said Tony. “The products have been 100% in every single way.”

  1. Horne Services, based in Girvan on the Ayrshire coast, offers a comprehensive range of external grounds maintenance and management services to a diverse client base which includes sports facilities, housing associations, educational establishments, and the corporate and private sector.
Pellenc stands out above the rest

Pellenc stands out above the rest

As the company continues to grow in both stature and reputation, Tony believes that it is essential to keep looking to the future and that is where battery-powered technology comes in.

“Over the past six months we’ve been looking for alternatives to our machinery which was using fossil fuels,” said Tony. “It is important to us as a company to be able to promote zero emissions, and there are so many other benefits to using electric equipment.

“We contacted our local Pellenc dealer, which is Agrovista Amenity, and they very kindly setup a demo. We then went away and researched other battery-powered products on the market, but we were so impressed by the demonstration that we felt the Pellenc equipment would be best for us.”

Over recent years, Pellenc has gained market recognition by offering a unique range of ‘zero emission’ battery-powered tools, thanks to the development of Lithium-ion ultra-high-performance batteries.

The extensive Pellenc product range features an impressive portfolio – from chainsaws, pole saws and hedge cutters to grass strimmers, brushcutters, blowers and mowers and Tony claims that the benefits are huge.

“It is important when you are doing grounds maintenance that you look after the customer as best you can,” he said. “We work very close to offices and main buildings, and it is essential to be able to cut grass, strim, and maintain the areas as best we can without disturbing the client. The Pellenc equipment enables us to do this because it is so quiet.

“Another reason for moving over to the Pellenc equipment is because fuel prices are escalating and going through the roof. As a small company we needed to diversify and look for other opportunities to be able to do the job and do it more economically. The savings that we are making compared to fossil fuels, is a significant amount.”

Tony’s Pellenc fleet features Rasion mowers, Helion hedge-cutters, Excelion strimmers and Airion blowers – and he can’t imagine ever switching back to petrol-based machinery.

Pellenc stands out above the rest

Pellenc stands out above the rest

“These Pellenc tools easily go on for hours on end with a full battery life,” he said. “You don’t get the vibrations, they are lightweight and easy to use, and we’ve never had any issues whatsoever. The difference between this equipment and petrol-based machinery is night and day.”

Pellenc offers an industry leading four-year commercial warranty for all batteries and a three-year warranty for all tools.

Pellenc is distributed exclusively in the UK by Etesia UK.

For further information, please contact Etesia UK on 01295 680120 or visit www.pellencuk.com

You can watch an interview with Tony by clicking – https://youtu.be/r7cwT8hhais

You can also follow Pellenc on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @PellencUK for much more news, reviews and insightful views.

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Consistency key for the open at St Andrews

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Consistency key for the open at St Andrews: St Andrews trusted Toro maintenance equipment to maintain ‘the home of golf’ for the 150th Open. And ahead of and throughout the week-long tournament in July 2022 distributor Reesink Turfcare was called upon to provide set-up procedure training to ensure consistency in after-cut appearance.  

Reesink provided five days of Cutting Technology training before the tournament as well as specialist technical staff on site throughout the tournament to support the team using a fleet of battery-powered mowers and riding greens mowers.

Consistency key for the open at St Andrews

Consistency key for the open at St Andrews

After-cut appearance training was vital to ensuring the perfect finish across the different courses as Stephen Terreblanche, technical trainer at Reesink Turfcare, explains: “The training was to prepare the team for the Open competition. But more than that, it was to achieve consistency in set-up procedures across all the different courses at St Andrews.

“To get the course ready and keep up with maintenance while the tournament was taking place multiple machines were being operated by different members of the turf professional team at the same time on a single green, and the cut delivered by each machine had to be perfect and consistent across all the machines in the fleet.

“To achieve this the machines had to be set up the same way to avoid different after-cut appearance issues, which would be easily visible if machines with different set-up adjustments were operated side-by-side.”

It was by all accounts a successful investment as the machines proved on the world stage how a golf course can use battery power and riding greens mowers to sustainably achieve ideal playing conditions to test the best golfers in the sport.

Reesink’s range of training courses are designed to be delivered on the customers’ premises and give the team the training it needs to ensure they can operate the chosen machinery safely and efficiently in an environment they are familiar with for the best possible results. (Disclaimer: This isn’t specific to world tournaments!)

For further information on the courses available and to book, visit https://www.reesinkturfcare.co.uk/resources/training-courses

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Superior service seals the deal

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Superior service seals the deal: The combination of an Arborist 130 and SAFE-Trak 19-28 from GreenMech are proving the perfect pair for Heartwood Tree Care, providing Owner Gavin Coles the versatility he needs on his fleet to undertake both small domestic work and larger-scale commercial projects.

Gavin made the switch to GreenMech earlier this year following reliability and support issues with another manufacturer, both of which are now a thing of the past with his GreenMech pair delivering quality performance, backed-up with first class dealer support.

Superior service seals the deal

Superior service seals the deal

Gavin and his team of two undertake tree-works for customers and a number of large estates across Kent and the South East. “Each job poses different challenges, but the main one is normally access – whether we’ve got to work on small, tight driveways or get equipment across uneven or soft ground” explains Gavin, who established Heartwood Tree Care 17 years ago. “Because of this, we like having road-tow and tracked chipper options available to us, but after reliability problems and some lacklustre customer support I lost all confidence in our previous brand.”

“I hadn’t used GreenMech chippers before but got in touch with our local dealer GA Groundcare Ltd who invited me along to their depot, where I was instantly impressed by the quality and design of the machines. You can tell they’ve really thought about how we operate, and this was also clear in the demonstration I had so I went ahead and purchased the two units to run side-by-side.”

The GreenMech Arborist 130 is powered by a 23hp petrol engine and features a generous in-feed hopper and no-stress feed system to process bushy brash or timber of up to 6” with ease. Gavin adds, “The large infeed is brilliant at pulling in awkward shapes and as a road-tow unit, is super portable for jobs in residential areas or those further away where you don’t want to take a trailer.” Complementing his Arborist 130 is a GA Groundcare refurbished 19-28 SAFE-Trak, featuring a 7.5” chipping capacity and GreenMech’s patented SAFE-Trak system which, with impressive ground clearance of 550mm, allows for safe traversing of uneven ground of embankments of up to 35o.

“This SAFE-Trak is proving to be a ‘go anywhere’ machine, which saves us so much time and labour by being able to take the chipper exactly where we want to use it. The flywheel drive belt tensioning system and engine bay layout is also better and more accessible on these two GreenMech chippers compared to previous models I’ve used.”

Together with the impressive performance, Gavin has also been delighted with the service received throughout the purchasing process from GreenMech and Ashley Stevens at GA Groundcare. “From the first phone call it was evident Ashley really knew his stuff, there were no questions he couldn’t answer!” He concludes, “In this profession, issues are always bound to crop up but ultimately it’s about how quickly these can be resolved and with GreenMech I know I’m in safe hands.”

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