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Industry news
UPDATE | NEWS UPDATE THE LATEST HEADLINES FROM GMA AND THE INDUSTRY
GMA NEWS GMA’s rallying call to reinstate grassroots pitches
THE GROUNDS MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION (GMA) has gained widespread national media coverage – and encouraging words of support from such sporting greats as Lawrence Dallaglio and Will Greenwood – for its rallying call for more volunteers, increased investment and more resources to improve access to community sport as the Covid-19 lockdown eases. Its ‘Back to Play’ white paper issued last month highlighted how: • With the right care and investment, 1.4 million more children could play football and rugby each week on existing grass pitches in England post lockdown – and four million more matches could be played on existing football pitches each year; • Hal f a million more children could play cricket each season; and • Pl anned strategic investment in sports grounds will enhance people’s physical and mental health as well as provide huge benefits both socially and economically.
The data – gathered through national Playing Pitch Strategies, the GMA-led Grounds and Natural Turf Investment Programme (GaNTIP) data and a national survey of over 4,000 people – not only gained invaluable national media coverage in outlets such as The Times, The Telegraph, The Guardian and the Independent, but the resulting social media support from the sporting world also included comments by TV presenter Gabby Logan.
‘Back to Play’ also highlighted the impact if nothing is done. Over the next decade, one in five football and rugby players, and half of cricket players, will be left unable to play weekly or seasonally. This equates to over half a million players a week, and 170,000 players during a cricket season.
Geoff Webb, CEO at GMA, said: “Playing and watching sport has been sorely missed. Now is the time to ensure pitches are playable when games resume. We know that if we act now, we can turn the tide and even improve access to local grass pitches. But, without immediate long-term investment and care, the huge benefits of sport for mental and physical health, community cohesion and the economy, will be lost to millions every year.”
He added: “We’re urging people to get involved and contact their local teams right now. The whole nation – Government, sports bodies and members of the public who love sport – must help kick start sport as we are freed from restrictions.”
Jason Booth, GMA’s director of technical and learning, commented: “We have around 56,891 rugby union and league, football and cricket grass pitches in England today. That’s one pitch for every 984 people. While pitch improvement programmes such as GaNTIP are making huge strides, more needs to be done to support grassroots sports and increase playability. With the right approach, we can reduce cancellations, increase year-round participation, engage new participants and promote active lifestyles.
“We also recently launched Level 1 online courses to help upskill even more volunteers. Priced at just £25, the courses have been really successful so far – we’ve seen grounds staff use it as a refresher, as well as a learning tool for those with little or no experience. It’s a good little boost to help people on their volunteering journey.”
Visit www.thegma.org.uk/backtoplaywhitepaper to read the full ‘Back to Play’ report. Visit www.thegma.org.uk/learning for details of Level 1 online courses.
COVID-19 Football and cricket players resume training
THE GOVERNMENT has published guidelines for the safe return to training for contact sports, but only when each sport’s governing body deems it safe to do so.
Premier League and English football league teams had already returned to some training in mid-May, but the new guidance suggests two or three athletes could train together, moving to groups of four to 12 and eventually full team training. The move is phase two of a three-phase plan ending with resumed play behind closed doors, expected in June or July.
England’s men’s cricket team has also started making a phased return to training with a proposed resumption of play in England and Wales on July 1.
Meanwhile, there is also hope on the horizon for grassroots sport. The Government supports the return of grassroots football “as soon as we safely can”, according to health secretary Matt Hancock, speaking at the Government’s daily briefing on May 21.
Golf courses and tennis courts in England have been permitted to re-open while Scotland was expected to follow suit shortly afterwards.
Professor Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, added at the Government briefing: “I definitely hope that football will be available – possibly with some degree of change of how it’s played; there may have to be some ways we think it through – in advance of a vaccine.”
Footballers are beginning to resume training
PEOPLE Symbio appoints new business development manager
TURF HEALTH COMPANY Symbio has appointed Jeremy Hughes as its new international business development manager, taking over from Martin Ward, as it expands its international business. Jeremy will provide product support and training to the company’s growing number of distributorships as well as direct support to a number of golf resorts and football clubs throughout Europe. Jeremy has been with Surrey-based Symbio for five years as technical sales manager for the Midlands, north-west England and west Wales.
www.symbio.co.uk
NEWS IN BRIEF
1971 Toro Greensmaster back in service
Dan Ashelby, winner of Toro Student Greenkeeper of the Year 2018, has had a unique opportunity to use a vintage Toro Greensmaster pedestrian mower, and says it “cuts like a dream”. The 1971 machine was bought by his dad, Mark from Mark Ashelby Grounds, on eBay as a collectible – but the pair couldn’t resist giving it an outing. Dan says: “It’s been great to use one of the very first Toro machines to arrive in the UK, well before I eventually did!”
New president of the Institution of Agricultural Engineers Paul Hemingway, who spent 29 years in various roles at JCB before retiring in 2018, has become the new President of the Institution of Agricultural Engineers (IAgrE). IAgrE CEO Ed Hansom said: “I wish Paul the very best of luck for his two-year tenure. He has some great ideas, grounded in practical experience, which will definitely move the Institution forward.”
GMA mental wellbeing webinar
The GMA Live: Back to Play webinar on June 16, commencing 19.30, explores mental health strategies and considerations to help those working across the grounds sector adapt to ‘new’ working environments. Speakers include Helen Waddington, head of case work at Perennial, and Karl Standley, Wembley Stadium’s grounds manager (see pages 10-11). To sign up for the webinar, visit thegma.org.uk/news.
GROUNDWOW GroundWOW Special FX
Launched in October 2019, GroundWOW was developed to make printing on ground as easy as printing on paper. GroundWOW SPECIAL FX can print any logo, any colour, any size, on any surface. Deployable in under 10 minutes, it features autonomous vehicle technology, artificial intelligence and an end-to-end print management and ad-space platform, delivering accurate ground-print images.
Tony Rhoades, GroundWOW founder, chairman and CEO explains: “GroundWOW customers will be the first in the world to have the power of full colour autonomous AI printing at their disposal for sports sponsorship and advertising applications, delivering compelling executions, unlocking revenue and activating dormant or underutilised ground real estate.”
In December 2019, world-leading horse racing organisation, The Jockey Club, engaged GroundWOW to bring its
technology to The Festival presented by Magners, at the Cheltenham racecourse. The commission was for a large scale (25m x 20m) Magners Irish Cider logo in the middle of the historical racecourse.
Talking about the impact of the current coronavirus pandemic, Tony says: “Sponsorship is the lifeblood of organisations at every level in sport and from day one, pre-pandemic, our messaging around cost-efficiency and
the ability to generate revenue with technology already resonated. Toplevel businesses in sport were already focused on making money and saving money, and the need to recover quickly from the pandemic might just sharpen that focus a bit more. We only foresee enhanced prospects for automation and technology in accelerating sport’s return to normal.”
www.groundwow.com
ICL SierraformGT CalMag
SYNGENTA Greencast GDD Calculator
ICL has launched SierraformGT CalMag, a new homogenous slowrelease fertiliser supplying calcium, magnesium and trace elements for turf growth. It should be applied to fine turf or stadia pitches through late spring, summer or early autumn. The nitrogen content is mostly slow release (MU) based to create a sustained release and steady, even growth. The new analysis also contains the mineral polyhalite to supply potassium, calcium and magnesium when soil testing indicates that these are required. The added SeaMax (soluble seaweed concentrate) in the mix aims to bring benefits from plant rooting and stress tolerance.
The new Syngenta Greencast Growing Degree Day calculator is free to use for all registered Greencast members and will give turf managers an accurate tool for timing the use of Primo Maxx II growth regulator and other actions.
The GDD Calculator will automatically generate a predictive email notification when a user-defined Growing Degree Day (GDD) target is approaching, giving the user time to assess local conditions and decide what actions to take. Syngenta technical manager Glenn Kirby said: “We know that GDD can be a useful guide to many turf management actions.
“However, from my own and other greenkeepers’ experience, the challenge in a busy working schedule is finding the time to regularly record the temperature information and the reliability of that weather data source.
“The GDD Calculator does that all autonomously, and provides easy to interpret information in time to use for everyday decision making.”
SOIL SCOUT Soil Scout wireless sensors
Using Soil Scout underground wireless sensors to measure soil moisture, salinity and temperature in multiple spots – as well as detect infield soil quality variations – and monitor this data in real time on a simple dashboard, sports turf managers can optimise the maintenance of each part of a pitch and save time and money.
Indeed, by analysing such soil quality parameters, users can move from merely scheduling irrigation sprinklers to only water where needed, or to reduce or increase watering, in turn controlling the soil’s wellbeing and optimising turf growth. Optimised irrigation will create energy savings (less ‘pumping’ time) and, of course, less water costs.
In addition, Soil Scout enables users to correlate growth potential with the soil data and therefore predict the plants’ requirements for nutrients, and disease incidence can be reduced through accurate predictions of peak disease activity. The result can also be more effective preventative applications of fungicides and bio-stimulants – again more cost savings. And more accurate aeration and topdressing regimes, as well as the reduced use of fertilisers, mowing and aeration, can be established.
The resulting data – available from different areas of a pitch and available in real-time via Cloudbased technology – allows users to apply different maintenance plans for separate areas and to improve pitch maintenance efficiency levels, reduce labour costs and save time. Also, this evidence-based approach provides a data trail that can be used to justify the applications of costly resources, therefore demonstrating sustainability.
The maintenance-free sensors (with batteries that last for more than 10 years of continuous operation) are easy and quick to install; users can start with a small number of sensors then add more as required.
NEWS IN BRIEF
Woods Equipment New rake and box scraper
Woods Equipment has added box scrapers and landscape rakes to its expanding range. The rakes – which offer working widths of 1.3m to 2.4m, for tractors of 25-45hp – feature a boxtype structural tine beam that holds the spring-loaded steel tines 1in apart. Adjustable angles and the 360-degree pivot control the flow of material to left, right or centre while gauge wheels allow depth control.
The reinforced steel A-frame with reversible cutting edge (and replaceable) scarifiers enable the new box scrapers to handle the toughest spreading and grading jobs. BSM models have a 6.35mm plate welded inside the end plates for extreme conditions and extra durability. Scraper widths from 137cm to 213cm are available.
www.simon-richard.co.uk
Syngenta
Acelepryn reauthorised for use
The Emergency Authorisation for the use of insecticide Acelepryn, for the control of chafer grubs, has been re-approved for the 2020 season. Its use is permitted on affected greens, tees, fairways and horse race courses until August 30. An Emergency Authorisation has also been submitted for the treatment of leatherjacket infestations, which would allow application up to the end of October. www.syngenta.co.uk
ICL LockStar label update
ICL has announced an update to the UK label of its residual herbicide, LockStar. The label update includes extended use of the product meaning that LockStar can now be applied all-year round instead of the previous limited window between February and June. Previously, LockStar could only be used on natural surfaces not intended to bear vegetation. However, the new label update grants the use of the product on amenity vegetation (around). This will allow for the herbicide to be applied in a wider range of situations and be used in areas such as around the base of unsusceptible shrubs, trees, plants and other amenity areas.
