Texas Turfgrass Association 2nd Quarter 2022

2nd Quarter 2022

TEXAS TURFGRASS ASSOCIATION

Congratulations!

Please help us congratulate the 2022 Class of new CPTMs. Great job!

Michael A. Silva CPTM BrightView Landscapes

Michael Rejon CPTM Mansfield ISD

Jesse Allen CPTM Lewisville Parks Dept.

Keith McAnally CPTM Tri-Tex Grass

Charles Hurley CPTM GreenPro

Justin Farrar CPTM Tri-Tex Grass

Not Pictured: Daniel Miranda - City of Plano and Levy Hernandez - The Woodlands Pest Management

In this issue:

2022 Summer Conference Program Thank you to all attendees, sponsors and speakers!

See you at Margaritaville!

Keeping Texas Green SINCE 1947

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President’s Message

Greetings TTA, I am writing this just a couple of weeks before our 2022 Summer Conference at Margaritaville Resort in Conroe. If you are a member, I hope that you have made plans to attend! We have a great lineup of speakers and events this year. It will be a fun time to learn, network and just have a good time!

President Jaxon Bailey, CPTM Symmetry Sports Construction jaxon.bailey@symmetrysports.com

I would like to thank our Executive Director, Katie, who has worked extremely hard putting this conference together. I would also like to thank all of the sponsors and vendors for their continued support. TTA truly appreciates the time and resources our sponsors and vendors share with us so that TTA can continue to facilitate education and networking in the turfgrass industry.

It has been another crazy year when it comes to managing turfgrass. We have all dealt with soaring prices of fuel and materials. As well as the availability of getting the materials! I don’t know what the answer is or when it will get back to “normal”. So I will just encourage everyone to continue being creative and do the best you can with what you have.

I hope to see a lot of you at the Summer Conference, if not, I will see you at the Winter Conference in Denton December 13-14!

Jaxon Bailey, CPTM

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Table of Contents

President’s Message Jaxon Bailey CPTM

2

Executive Director Message Katie Flowers

6

Texas A&M AgriLife Field Day Registration Open

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2022 Summer Conference Program Join us at Margaritaville

2022 Winter Conference Save the Dates

10 - 15 19

Turfgrass Article

Horizon Grass Farms Thrives as Business Transitions into Third Generation

16 - 20

2022 Awards Announcement Nominate your facility!

21 - 23

2022 Newest CPTMs Congratulations to our newest CPTMs

24 - 28

THANK YOU ADVERTISERS!

Turf & Soil Diagnostics

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2022 Sponsors

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Thomas Turfgrass

25

King Ranch Turfgrass

7

Bowlin Consulting

26

Sod Solutions

9

Larson Golf Services

27

Thomas Turf Services

18

All Seasons Turfgrass

27

Tri-Tex Grass

22

Rusty Walker CFSM CPTM

28

President Jaxon Bailey, CPTM

Symmetry Sports Construction

jaxon.bailey@symmetrysports.com

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Executive Director Message

Welcome to Summer 2022!

A great big Thank you to all our Exhibitors, Sponsors, and Members for being a part of this Summer Conference. One thing you will notice this year on our name badges at the Conference is a “New Member” Ribbon. Please take the time to recognize and welcome all New Members who have decided to join TTA and become a part of this association and professional industry. There is so much knowledge and comradery in the association and I want all new members to feel welcomed immediately!

Our Awards Program will also be coming up soon– Submissions are due in September, and I would love to have all members consider submitting consideration on your fields, landscapes, or golf courses that you think are deserving of recognition. This is also due to your staff that put the work and dedication in. I know parts of Texas are struggling immensely with drought. so maintaining fields and turf right now is the biggest challenge we face. If you have staffing issues as well, it is commendable to be able to succeed with minimal talent. Please feel free to reach out to me for additional questions. Award recipients are announced at the Winter Conference in December.

Speaking of staffing issues, please remember TTA’s job board is open for all members. I try to keep all job posting available for 60 days. Email me all open positions and I will make sure the job opportunity is available on our website as soon as possible.

Lastly, do not forget about our Winter show in Denton, Texas on December 13th and 14th.

We hope to see so many of you there!

Thank you to our Board of Directors, advisors, and Sponsors for your constant work and support!

God Bless!

Your Executive Director, Katie Flowers

Registration Open October 12, 2022 Turfgrass Field Day Turfgrass faculty, staff, and students will present a field tour of topics on: Turfgrass selection & management • Irrigation management and drought recovery • Turfgrass and Ornamental Pest management • Golf Course Fairway and Sports Field Construction • New technologies and educational demonstrations • Turf Weed/Disease Control Research • Turf Fertility Research • And Much More!

CEU’s to be offered!!

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Scotts Miracle-Gro Center for Lawn and Garden Research

3100 F and B Road, College Station, TX 77845

Click here for more information and registration

Join us in Denton! Save the Date!

2022 Winter Conference

Horizon Grass Farms Thrives as Business Transitions into Third Generation Over the past 43 years, Horizon Grass Farms has grown from a 20-acre homestead into a successful turfgrass operation in Texas. Reputed for its grass quality and quantity sold in the Lonestar State, the Gavranovic family stays hard at work.

“It's just a lot of determination, willpower, and we treat every day as an important day. Time is of the essence, and we’re only here for a little bit, so we’ve got to put as much time as we can put forth,” said William Gavranovic, owner of Horizon Grass Farms. “We invest a lot of time in our turf fields, farms, and people. We're very dedicated.”

William and his father, Willie Gavranovic, consider themselves each other's right-hand men on the farm.

Willie was born in Burr, a community in eastern Wharton County, Texas, and hasn’t moved outside of a 15mile radius since. Growing up in agriculture, when Willie was in his late 20s, he decided to add turfgrass into the mix of row crops he was producing in Wharton.

Willie and his late-wife Gladys started the business together in 1978. Now, their children William, Irene, and Rachel all play a role in the company. William said Gladys did a lot for the business and supported all her children’s endeavors, with turf outshining all the others. “She helped us quite a bit. She helped us grow and be united. She had a strong belief that if you worked hard and tried hard, that success would eventually come.”

William, now 50-years-old, had spent his whole life farming and has been sod farming since he reached Junior High School when his parents started Horizon Grass Farms.

“We’ve been in the business a long time, actually,” William said. His sister Irene manages All Seasons Turf Grass, a retail business run on a turf farm in Brookshire, TX. She supplies mostly sand-based sod for golf courses and sports fields. William explained there is also Horizon Farms, another entity of their operations that produces cotton, corn, soybeans, and milo. William’s wife, Jenny, helps him daily with farm and office tasks. William’s sister Rachel is also involved, and her husband, Ryan, helps with production on the sod farms.

As Horizon Grass Farms moves into its third generation operating a turf business, William said their biggest accomplishment would be their expansion.

“We’ve been blessed. We’ve had my dad, sisters, Rachel and Irene, and now our children coming on board.

It’s nice to have a family business that’s turned into a sizable business,” he said. “We all run it together and get along. It’s nice having a family run a big business like this. We’ve always had the mentality of working together, and if there’s a rough patch, we smooth it out.”

Willie is happy that there are family members willing to carry the torch forward to keep Horizon Grass Farms in operation. Of his eight grandchildren, several are already working on the farm, and he anticipates more of them will follow suit.

“Naturally, my children started in the turfgrass industry in their earlier stages. William, my son, has pretty much always been in that industry from day one, row cropping and then working his way into turfgrass.

And both my daughters are involved in the business and working in this area too,” Willie said. “It’s great to see my children and grandchildren be involved.”

William has two daughters that graduated from Texas A&M that work at the farm. Caroline does work in the field at the farm and Haley does a lot of marketing on the sales side. He also has two sons, Garrett, a Junior in high school, and Connor, who is in sixth grade. William said he isn’t going to twist their arms to join the business, but like his father, he anticipates they both will as time goes on.

“They tend to follow in my footsteps and seem to be enjoying it so far,” he added.

Production Horizon Grass Farms has grown tremendously over the past four decades, now supplying sod to roughly 20 nurseries throughout the state.

William said they’re able to produce a large quantity of turfgrass with high-quality standards thanks to the excellent foreman and managers on their farms. “It’s a team, united effort between all the employees to maintain the quality. It’s a combination of the good cultural techniques and competition between farms that helps employees want to produce quality sod.”

Continued on page 19

Continued from page 17 His dad agrees, saying that he’d never dreamed it would grow into what it is today when he started the business. Willie shared that he’s proud of the property they acquired over time throughout different parts of the state to diversify their production areas.

Now, Horizon has 12 farm locations strategically located near major cities. Horizon’s production facilities are in Wharton, Lane City, Burr, Clay, Cameron, Brookshire, Monaville and Sealy.

“It’s not a one-man-band. It takes everyone to have good quality. One man can’t do it if you’ve got six farms in different locations,” Willie said. “If they like you and the team, they’ll put in the effort to do it the way you think it should be done. It’s all about what you put into your employees and how you treat them.

If you treat them good and treat them right, then they’ll take care of you.”

With nearly 40 employees on the turf side of the business, they are pleased that they’re able to help their local economy by not only supplying a quality product but also by offering jobs. “We’re supportive of our employees, and if there’s ever a problem, we work with them and treat them like we’d want to be treated.

We treat everyone like family.”

When it comes to dreams and goals for Horizon Grass Farms, Willie said between himself and his family, they’ve naturally exceeded many of their goals. “My goals for the future are for the family to keep running our operation and always trying to be a little better where we can if we can. Also, to do a better job and work with the turfgrass industry so it’s as good as it is or even better. We can always be better, and I think that’s a good thing for the family. I think they’ll take the ball and keep it rolling.”

With such extensive production throughout the state, Horizon Grass Farms recently started using Turf Logistics, a management software for sod farms, distributors, and installers. “It’s been very beneficial,” William said, adding that from the logistics to ordering to record-keeping, there have been benefits to using the software.

Although they just started using it, William said it has been going very smoothly so far. Even with all their locations, he noted that Turf Logistics has been accommodating and has tweaked things slightly for them.

“I think every farm will have this as time goes on. Turf Logistics streamlines everything and helps with efficiencies in all departments,” William added.

Industry Over the years, Willie said the two major changes in the turfgrass industry he’s observed are the automation of equipment and the development of innovative new products and varieties that have expanded the industry into something quite dynamic than in his early days.

When he started, Willie explained they did everything by hand, and they used to only plant a few seasons out of the year. “Now we have automatic equipment and turf is planted year-round in Texas. It’s almost a 365-day business operated day in and day out for 6-7 days a week. It’s expanded in production time,” he said.

Continued on next page

Continued from previous page Willie said since their business started, the innovation of better-enterprised products by good people has been a testament to their success as well.

Horizon Grass Farms currently grows Celebration®, Bermudagrass, and Palmetto® St. Augustine. Soon, they’ll be putting in plant stock material for Texas A&M’s newly released Cobalt™ Hybrid St. Augustinegrass.

William said Celebration has been a good grass for the organization of Texas growers called the Turfgrass Producers of Texas (TPT) and he likes its nice green, dense appearance. “Our customers like it and continue to keep demanding it. We have several customers who demand Palmetto St. Augustine over Raleigh and we continue to push that one. I like it. It is a good grass that blocks really well.”

William thinks the end-users are going to be just as excited about Cobalt as they are. “Growers tend to grow the best grass and as we work with it every day. We see it firsthand, and I think the end-users are going to be very satisfied,” he explained. “There are so many more benefits to Cobalt, such as its disease resistance, cold tolerance and just a lot of good features.”

Willie said they’re just like most other producers in that they’re here to produce products and have good service. “We think we’re going to be in it for the long haul. We’re not in it for just a little now and then. It’s a long-term objective to stay in the business and do the best we can through the good and bad. We should be here to take care of the industry's needs.”

For more information about Horizon Grass Farms, visit their website here.

Sod Solutions has helped successfully develop and release to the market over 20 different turfgrass varieties over the past 27 years including Palmetto™ and CitraBlue™ St. Augustine, EMPIRE ™ and Innovation™ Zoysia and Celebration™, Latitude 36™ and NorthBridge™ Bermudagrass. The company is based in the Charleston, SC area.

The 2022 Texas A&M Ecology and Management Short Course had another successful year with 25 attendees from the golf, sports, sod, municipal and commercial sectors of the Texas turfgrass industry. The TTA was proud to be a part of this education event that helped promote the CPTM Program! All attendees had the opportunity to join the Texas Turfgrass Association and apply for the Certified Professional Turfgrass Managers Certification (CPTM). Great work and congratulations!

CPTM Objectives: •

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Charles Hurley CPTM GreenPro

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To raise and maintain the professional standards of those employed in the turfgrass industry in Texas.

To provide effective continuing education programs for professional turfgrass managers.

To award special recognition to professional turfgrass managers who demonstrate a high level of accomplishment and skill.

To encourage professional turf managers to become active participants in the Texas Turfgrass Association.

Congratulations

Keith McAnally CPTM Tri-Tex Grass

CPTM Class of 2022!

Jesse Allen CPTM Lewisville Parks Dept.

Not Pictured: Daniel Miranda - City of Plano

Michael Rejon CPTM Mansfield ISD

CLICK HERE! For more info about the CPTM program at TexasTurf.com

Michael A. Silva CPTM BrightView Landscapes

Not Pictured: Levy Hernandez - The Woodlands Pest Management

CPTM OVERVIEW

Justin Farrar CPTM Tri-Tex Grass

The Certified Professional Turf Manager (CPTM) designation recognizes a level of achievement in professional turfgrass management in Texas beyond a Bachelor of Science degree or a long tenure in the industry.

The CPTM designation is a mark of distinction.

Professionals who acquire the CPTM designation benefit the turfgrass industry and themselves through increased self-esteem and respect, increased value and service to their employer and increased competitiveness in the job market. By acquiring the CPTM designation, the professional turf manager sets himself or herself apart from other

turf managers.

For applicants to be considered for the CPTM designation and to maintain that designation they must provide documented evidence of turf management skills, participation in continuing education programs and successful employment in the turfgrass industry.

Applicants for the CPTM designation are also required to satisfactorily complete a comprehensive written examination. An intensive 4-day training program in preparation for the examination is optional.

CPTM ADMINISTRATION The CPTM program is administered by a three-member Certification Board appointed by the President of the Texas Turfgrass Association with the approval of the Board of Directors of the Texas Turfgrass Association. Certification Board members serve a three-year term.

Vacancies are appointed by the President of TTA with approval of the Board.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION