Month: July 2023

All Turf Solutions have had a passion for improved soil health since the start of our turf production operation. Our production facility at Rathdowney QLD is fairly new with our first paddocks planted just prior to Cyclone Debbie washing them away in 2017. We moved a considerable amount of soil around and attempted to salvage the topsoil where economically viable but even then, we found the disturbance of the topsoil layer resulted in poor soil health. Certainly, more could have been done in the early days with setting up the paddocks, but the money just wasn’t there.

After a couple of years of turf production, we started to see disease pressure in some of our paddocks that had areas of next to no topsoil in the profile. A downward spiral of reliance on fungicides was beginning to appear and at that point, we reached out to BioHub Solutions for assistance with strategies to improve our soil health. A year down the track with applications of carbon, worm juice, seaweed, and inoculations with biology developed by Griffith University we reduced our reliance on fungicides. With applications of fresh chicken litter, this was our only source of dry organic material.

We were accumulating turf scraps, so we had some of the ingredients already on the farm to produce compost. Compost based on turf scraps alone wasn’t going to work due to the high soil content. This must be balanced out with the addition of green waste or straw and also the addition of animal manure to achieve a favourable carbon-nitrogen ratio.

The Composting Process

Composting is a method of speeding up the decomposition of organic materials. The ingredients are made into a heap or in our situation windrows (elongated mounds) to facilitate the composting process. Heat given off by microorganisms inside the heap is trapped there by the insulation provided by the outer few centimetres of the windrow. Inside temperature rises and so does the rate of decomposition. Composting is most rapid when the heap is made with the right ingredients and turned frequently.

Key Requirements

If provided with the right conditions, microorganisms will do the work.

• Plenty of organic matter for energy
• Enough nutrient elements, especially nitrogen
• Oxygen – those microorganisms that are best at decomposing plant materials need plenty of oxygen
• Moisture – not too much and not too little
• A source of cations, especially calcium to stabilise the compost

Decomposer microorganisms

The main microorganism species responsible for decomposing organic material are bacteria, fungi and actinomycetes (branching bacteria).

Organic materials and nutrients

Any organic material that is of plant or animal origin can be composted, with several factors that will dictate the quality of the product produced.

• The size of the material will determine the length of time for break down.
• An adequate level of nutrients C: N ratio minimum of 5:1 is a large factor for composting.
• A moisture level of 55% to 65%
• Oxygen – At least 50% of the heap should be air for maximising oxygen for the microbes.
• Calcium level – added as gypsum or lime depending on the pH

Depending on air temperatures and the size of the heap, finished compost should be available in 6-12 months.

Manure from grain-fed animals (eg poultry) will supply phosphorus used at around 7kg per cubic meter. Poultry manure and litter will also supply nitrogen though it should be tested as nitrogen content can vary widely.

Turned compost heaps should be no more than 1.5-2.5m high and 2-3m wide. Larger quantities should be in the form of windrows. 

Volume change

Of the carbon in each bite from the materials from microbes, about 60% is converted to CO2, about 33% is made into microbial cells, and the rest is discarded as soil wastes. When these microbes are used by others as food about 60% of their carbon is converted to CO2, and so on. The heap gets smaller. Loss of carbon means that the concentrations of other elements in the remaining material increase meaning a richer source of elements.

Temperature and pasteurisation

The temperature inside composting heaps can range from 45 deg C to 75 deg C, decomposition is most rapid in a range of 45-50 deg C. Eventually the amount of undecomposed material decreases, so microbial numbers and the temperature of the heap fall.

The moist, hot, oxygenated conditions in an active compost heap are just right for killing plant and animal pathogens and parasites. At 65 deg C most plant parasitic bacteria, viruses and insects are eliminated.

Our first batch consisted of approximately 60% turf scraps, 30% Green waste (scarifying material from a paddock we needed to renovate) and the rest included chicken litter and Ag lime.

Subsequent batches have included the addition of gypsum and or calcium silicate. We further inoculated the rows with “BioForce, MicroLife Rapid Compost”. The opportunity to have waste from a paddock stripped with a Field Topmaker was ideal as this increased the nitrogen ration required to help activate the rows. Once turned and water added the rows heated up within a day and maintained at 70 degrees for a little over a week. We turned the rows daily adding more water as needed. I think the soil component of the rows shortens the time the rows will remain at temperature. While the textbooks indicate an aerated composting process should be around four weeks to ensure good compost production and weed seed control, we haven’t found any weed seed germination and no turf grass survival or germination. We have a couple of resilient turf grass strains that have their own rows to minimise any contamination possibilities.

We had our first batch tested by Southern Cross University in Lismore and were suitably surprised by the results.

See below the results from our compost and nutrient calculator based on 5 tonnes per hectare;

This is our third year of compost production, and we are still perfecting our procedures and learning from our mistakes. In our second year, we had some failures primarily due to not having the nitrogen ratio high enough to keep the temperatures high enough for any longer than 3 days. This resulted in rebuilding the rows and starting them off again. The addition of fresh grass clipping has given us our best results to date.

Due to the size of our operation, we prefer to get everything in place to carry out our turning once per year as this allows time to accumulate waste and materials and set aside the time to run the turner. Moving forward we would like to grow a green manure crop we can harvest and add to the rows at the time of turning. This would lift the nitrogen ratio required to compost the turf scraps.

The compost produced can then be used throughout the following year for amending soils now with the inclusion of our trace elements, lime, gypsum etc. We have been regularly checking stockpiles for weed germination and apart from a few broadleaf weeds, we have seen no evidence of grasses germinating.

City of Busselton, WA

As Dunsborough’s sports clubs continue to thrive and achieve new heights, the demand for space has intensified due to the existing infrastructure being stretched to its maximum capacity. The growth in population has also contributed to the expansion of the Dunsborough Junior Soccer Club, which has experienced a significant increase in participation since its last season.

Efforts are currently underway to create a new Sports Precinct that caters to the needs of the growing Dunsborough community.

The site for the new Sporting Precinct is Lot 40 Dunsborough Lakes Drive, Dunsborough Lakes, which was previously owned by the Water Corporation. The design of the facility has been planned with potential future expansion in mind, and it will be conveniently accessible from the future school situated at the corner of Dunsborough Lakes Drive and Diamante Boulevard.

The exciting Dunsborough Lakes Sporting Precinct was driven by the increase in population, change in demographics, and strong growth in sports such as AFL, soccer, cricket, netball, and basketball, which has put immense strain on the existing seven hectare Dunsborough Oval Precinct.

The council set out on an ambitious plan to deliver the project, which would include:

• Four hectares of playing fields (designed for soccer and cricket)
• Four multi-purpose hard courts
• Cricket facilities (turf wicket table, synthetic wicket, and three-bay cricket nets)
• Carpark and associated landscaping
• Lighting (oval, court, and carpark)
• Site fencing
• Pavilion

The City of Busselton secured funding from multiple sources, including the state and federal government, and from its reserve funding. Like all projects during COVID, there has been an increase in costs, especially in the building industry, which has stalled the pavilion until the project can be delivered to its original design and specification.

The oval component included:

• Clearing of necessary native vegetation only
• Removal of 4000m3 of undesirable site soil
• Sub-surface drainage system
• Screening and import of a local sand source, which met USGA specifications (24000m3)
• Irrigation system
• Incorporation of a quality compost material
• Stolonising with TifTuf at 16:1
• Turf wicket construction
• Synthetic cricket wicket and three bay cricket nets
• Fully enclosed roo proof fencing

Dunsborough has a real problem with the lack of an adequate supply of groundwater in the Leederville Aquifer. At the same time, a federally funded project to deliver Stage 1 of the Dunsborough Non-Potable Network was underway. This project included the drilling of a 400m bore into the Sue Coal Aquifer, monitoring bores, a pump station, and a 3.5km pipeline to the new oval site. This project was critical to the delivery of the oval project, especially with the chosen method of establishment.

Grass selection was critical to the successful delivery of the project and the long-term water challenges currently faced and what is expected in the years to come, especially in Dunsborough.

The City had been in discussions with John Clayton from Down South Turf, who has been growing TifTuf Hybrid Bermuda (Couch) on his farm locally. John had provided the grass to trial in several city locations, including the new un-irrigated Busselton entry statement, in which it performed extremely well.

“I had seen TifTuf in action at Campbelltown Stadium in NSW and had no concerns with how it would perform in the Southwest of WA. To be honest, it doesn’t get that cold here!” Parks and Environment Coordinator Brad Reynolds said.

The project was not without its challenges, which had seen delays in a few components of the project, resulting in the grass being installed in late April and early May 2022 (originally planned for early January 2022). Although there weren’t any concerns with the survival of the stolons, it did delay the grass establishment with the cooler weather setting in.

Strong winds played havoc with the surface levels, with alkaline sands blowing from the adjacent housing development, which was hard to contain.

September 2022 provided a chance to get the project back on track. Nutrition and weed control were key. Regular analytical testing guided the program, which included:

• Carbon-based microbial amendments to increase the CEC
• Lime
• Kieserite Magnesium
• Oxamax 18-10-9
• Regular applications of Black Urea
• Liquid fertilizer applications
• Hand weeding!

Due to the relative virgin sands, minimal weed content was seen because of imported soil. Wind-blown weeds such as Fleabane and Stinkwart were a problem due to un-maintained surrounding properties and a small amount of Arum Lilly contamination. Manual removal and some spot spraying was seen as the best course of action.

Once a coverage of around 50% was achieved, City Staff worked hard on regular mowing and removal of sand build-up in the canopy. In December, stolons had run in some areas 30-40cm into bare areas. Deep aeration, rolling, then topdressing with 400m3 of a C-wise Sportsblend70, which made a huge impact on coverage and had seen them reach 90% coverage by December 2022.

December had also seen the construction of a three-wicket table, synthetic wicket, cricket nets and permanent oval fencing to meet funding deadlines.

The turf wicket table construction included a sub-base, formwork, 60m3 of imported and laser levelled Culburra clay and washed couch. It is anticipated after extensive renovations and maintenance wicket production will start in early January 2024.

With temporary toilets and change rooms to be available soon, it is likely locals will get their first taste of the facility with Winter Sports training and general public use to take place in May 2023.

“I am looking forward to the next spring and summer when we will be able to put TifTuf to the test, especially with its drought tolerance. We can then start to maximise the benefits of water savings and reliance on the scarce groundwater source.” City of Busselton Parks & Environment Coordinator Bradley Reynolds said.

Supplied and Installed by Turfco Australia

Boongaree Nature Play Park in Berry has been given a major upgrade with the installation of Sir Grange Zoysia natural turf by local turf provider Turfco around the recently built pump track. The project was initiated after Turfco organised a council farm visit, where Shoalhaven Council Co-Ordinator of Parks and Ovals, Richard McGuinness, learned about Sir Grange Zoysia. The turf is a low-maintenance, environmentally sustainable natural turf surface that is perfect for difficult or expensive areas to maintain.

Kikuyu was initially installed around the pump track in December 2022, but it quickly became apparent that it would be hazardous to mow and some of the banks were too steep even for a whipper snipper. Kikuyu also grows quickly, requiring frequent and expensive maintenance. Richard discussed Sir Grange with his colleagues, and Turfco was subsequently consulted in regard to making arrangements for the installation of the new turf.

The cost of the turf was about 1/30th the cost of soft fall, which would have been an alternative option. A black pump track would have become very hot in the summer, but the natural grass surround provided by Sir Grange will help to keep users cooler. Sir Grange also provides a safe and soft landing zone if users were to ride off the side of the pump track.

Sir Grange Zoysia looks fantastic unmown and will save the council money and time in maintenance and upkeep. It requires zero fertiliser and will only need to be whipper snipped around the edges from time to time if required. Turf is also a great stabiliser and natural coolant, making it the perfect choice for a pump track where safety is paramount.

Once the go-ahead was given, Turfco removed 1,000m2 of the existing failed Kikuyu with an excavator with a tilt bucket, ensuring that existing gradients were left intact. Refuse was removed from the site, and 38 tonnes of free-draining turf underlay were brought in to assist new turf growth. A total of 1,275m2 of Sir Grange Zoysia was supplied and installed, with the turf being pegged down on the embankment for stabilisation on steep sections.

Installation took place over several days. The Sir Grange started to establish within just three weeks of being installed, and the main aim for the council is to reduce the high maintenance required by Kikuyu by switching to Sir Grange, which will be left almost totally unmown.

The Boongaree Nature Play Park pump track is now safer and more attractive thanks to the installation of Sir Grange Zoysia natural turf. The turf provides a low-maintenance, environmentally sustainable solution that is perfect for this application. With Sir Grange in place, council workers will be able to spend less time on maintenance and more time ensuring that the pump track is safe and enjoyable for the community.

When record flood waters inundated large parts of Victoria and southern NSW in late 2022, the focus in the immediate aftermath was on the thousands of homes, properties and businesses which were destroyed, and the mammoth task of rebuilding.

And rightly so. These floods were like nothing before seen in history – whole townships were underwater, homes were unliveable, families were displaced, businesses were closed indefinitely, and the recovery seemed insurmountable.

But as the months have passed, and communities continue to rebuild, our attention is slowly turning to other less obvious casualties of the natural disaster, such as our iconic public open space areas, sporting fields, and caravan parks.

How were they impacted, how have they recovered, and what lessons can we learn?

Coolabah Turf, located at Echuca, near some of the hardest hit communities, recently set out to seek some answers, investigating the impacts of floodwater on turf varieties in holiday parks, sporting ovals and open green spaces.

And what they found may go some way towards shaping how we attempt to flood-proof these spaces in the future.

Coolabah Turf Farm Manager David Geltch described the 2022 floods as an extreme event, and one which they expected would annihilate all turf varieties, given the extended periods of time in which they were submerged in deep flood water.

However, Mr Geltch said the surprising outcome was that some Lawn Solutions Australia turf varieties withstood up to six weeks underwater, and miraculously, recovered.

Echuca Case Studies

Campaspe Shire Council Turf Specialist, Ben Lloyd said he was impressed with and blown away by the resilience of TifTuf and its rate of recovery in two separate public space areas in Echuca which were submerged by flood waters for more than six weeks.

‘’We were absolutely amazed at how the TifTuf bounced back in the Echuca Kiosk/Riverboat Dock and Victoria Park Boat Ramp areas after the flood waters eventually subsided,’’ he said.

“Our parks team expected the turf to be totally obliterated given the length of time it was oxygen deprived and without sunlight, and we fully expected to have had to replace the surface.

“But within weeks of flood waters subsiding, we could see a tinge of green popping its head up through the film of silt that post-flood had covered the entire area.”

Mr Lloyd said his team’s resources were extremely stretched post-flood and they did not perform any sort of maintenance on the affected areas at the Echuca Kiosk/Riverboat Dock and Victoria Park Boat Ramp to assist in the turf’s recovery.

“The areas which have fully recovered are in a full sun environment, and the few areas which are still recovering are slower because of shade cast from the bridge structure, but we are confident it is happening,” he said.

An additional factor, not previously experienced in Mr Lloyd’s 13-plus years in the role at the council, was the destructive emergence of mites causing visible damage to the recovering turf area.

He said he had applied fortnightly applications of Thumper to treat the mites over a 12-week period.

“The softer stolen was definitely an invitation for the mites to burrow in and attack new growth,” he said.

“The flood waters and poor drainage in the area provided a prime swampy and moist environment for them to thrive.’’

Moama Case Studies 

In Echuca’s twin town, Moama, on the NSW side of the Murray River, the community’s two most iconic public open space assets were heavily impacted by floodwater that took weeks to peak and then lingered for many months.

At Moama Beach, on the banks of the Murray, the turf (Eureka Premium VG Kikuyu) was underwater from the end of August until the beginning of December, with water levels reaching approximately 9m in depth. The damage to trees, infrastructure and amenities was significant, and the area sustained full turf loss, requiring complete replacement.

At Kerrabee Soundshell, Moama’s main public reserve for festivals, events and markets, almost half of the green space was underwater from October until early December, reaching a depth of approximately 1.5m. Assets and amenities were flooded with contaminated water and the turf (kikuyu) and landscape loss were significant.

Of the inundated area (approx. 1000m2), 90% of turf was lost, and there was only partial recovery of the remaining 10%, three to four weeks after the water receded.

Murray River Council, Manager Parks & Biosecurity Luke Keogh said with certainty both sites would flood again.

“What we’ve learnt is that the assets and infrastructure chosen for these sites need to be sustainable,” Mr Keogh said.

“Furniture needs to be removed pre-flood, and the landscaping should be minimal.

“The turf will need replacing depending on the flood event time, however good soil for the turf areas will reduce the post-event cost to restore.”

Mr Keogh said one thing was for sure, how unequivocally valued these two open space areas were by ratepayers in the community.

“The community is celebrating the reinstatement and usability of their local beach and park,” he said.

“Which as a council, reinforces for us that we are investing in the right areas of public infrastructure.”

Caravan Park Case Study – Moama

Moama Waters Holiday Park is home to acres upon acres of Eureka Premium VG Kikuyu turf supplied by Coolabah Turf and was chosen for its hardiness, dense growth, and fast recovery rate.

When the park was swamped with floodwater in October, it was impossible to know how the turf would hold up. Water inundated the entire park, onsite restaurant and surrounding roads over a 12-day period and remained on some areas of the turf for a further two weeks following the peak. The floodwater at the grass area near the restaurant (at the river’s edge) was worst affected, along with many caravan and cabin sites.

Park owner Rod Perry said the turf had recovered surprisingly well given the extreme circumstances of the event which closed the park for 7 weeks.

“When the water subsided, we raked the impacted areas with a grass rake which helped air it out and also removed the build-up of silt,” Mr Perry said.

“This helped the grass recover and we did have some sunny weather that also helped. The less inundated areas recovered a lot quicker. We were mowing that grass within a week and the more heavily impacted areas were within a couple of weeks.

“The grass seemed to cope well given what we had just experienced. Being able to mow and give the grounds the attention they needed as soon as were able to help to have the sites ready when we were able to re-open on December 5. We received comments from guests that you wouldn’t have even known we had had a flood!”

Rochester Case Studies

About 45km south of Echuca, the township of Rochester suffered the worst of the state’s catastrophic flooding event, with up to 1000 properties inundated.

Brett Wileman, proprietor at Temptation Living and Landscapes was one of many Rochester residents affected when his nursery and sand and soil yard were punished by the flood waters which ripped through his retail shop front at a height of 1.2m.

Brett and his wife Sally, who also run a landscape and turf maintenance business, said he had been amazed at the incredible rates of recovery of turf groundcover in the flood-affected area.

‘’Most of the turf we mow and maintain in and around industrial factory sites, schools and nature strips is kikuyu and it is all looking amazing,” Mr Wileman said.

“It was incredible how turf surfaces recovered and repaired post-flood. To be honest, despite how destructive the flood waters were in our towns with regard to damage done to homes, fences and other buildings and infrastructure, we haven’t actually seen too much carnage with regard to lawns.

‘’Mind you, it is worth noting, flood waters which impacted the Rochester township literally came, wiped us out, and disappeared within about 3-4 days. So while we were more severely affected by the flood event than other areas, the water didn’t hang around for as long.”

Mr Wilman said an unexpected bi-product of the flood event was stones that the waters transported onto Rochester’s main sports field, which required manual removal by hand.

He said the local committee of management who maintain the sporting facility recently direct-drilled the kikuyu turf oval with ryegrass seed and have it looking an absolute treat.

The Findings

Historically, the degree of flood damage to turf is determined by three major factors, said Coolabah Turf’s David Geltch.

“Length of time inundated, depth of flood waters, and as we saw a major trend in the 2022 flood event was the toxicity of the water quality,’’ he said.

“This water was black like we’ve not seen before, and toxic to the extreme that you could see where it had stripped galvanising off steel posts in its wake.”

Mr Geltch said a clear observation from the case studies was that the ability of the turf to handle floodwaters varied significantly.

“The thing that we’ve predominantly seen through this extreme experience is that where the turf has been in shallower water, for up to six weeks, it’s tended to have survived.

“But where it’s been in that deeper floodwater, and for greater lengths of time, that’s where it’s failed and hasn’t recovered.”

Mr Geltch said the less expected observation was that TifTuf had stood out as a star performer.

‘’I’d love to say it was no surprise to us that the TifTuf survived, but actually we didn’t expect anything to endure those conditions,’’ he said.

‘’What was surprising, was learning that the areas in Echuca had recovered to the extent that they had without intervention. In fact, the turf in those spaces has continued to thrive against further odds battling the applications of Thumper to treat the mites.”

Mr Geltch said to help expedite the growth recovery of damaged turf, Coolabah Turf would usually perform some level of maintenance including aerating, scarifying, and possibly top dressing of the area.

Celebrating 50 Years of Jimboomba Turf

Some 50 years ago, a born and bred grazing family from Longreach decided life was pushing them for a sea change. The family had been working on the land since 1914, after generations of fighting against the droughts and enduring the harsh Western Queensland landscape, the idea of a property with a never-ending water supply seemed almost too good to be true. It sounded so good, in fact, they would pack up their lives and all that they knew to brave a new industry, a new way of life and a new direction. This brave and bold choice today sees them as a leader in the turf industry and pioneers of methods and techniques that have changed how we grow, understand and use turf grass.

Lynn Davidson, in his mid-twenties and manager of the family’s sheep and cattle station at the time of the big move, shares his story of this fascinating journey and the lessons he has learned along the way.

Lynn Davidson – Managing Director, Jimboomba Turf

I’d been running the station since I was 19, it was a lot to take on as a young man. 10,000 sheep and 1,000 head of cattle kept me busy.  However, I had met a great lady named Carolyn, but she was not just any woman, she was an excellent stockwoman, a great horsewoman, a great cook & was tough as nails in the bush. She later became my wife, and we were ready for the steep learning curve that Western Qld had to offer.

Along the way, our family circumstances changed, and rural commodities were changing, which prompted a change in life. My dad saw an ad in the paper for a Turf Farm and suggested we consider it; the rest is history. We were captivated by the turf farm’s constant water source, courtesy of the river that ran along it.

We sold our western holdings and came here with zero knowledge of grass, possibly less than zero, as we didn’t have much ‘lawn’ around the homestead on the station. The lifestyle change was hard, being in a much smaller, more intense environment was a challenge, we were used to big open spaces with not many trees, and to this day, Carolyn and I still miss the bush.

The turf farm was already established, and we took over with the existing team still embedded to help the transition. This really helped ease the pressure. Over the next couple of years, my family worked together to learn the ropes and became ready to take on everything, that said, we kept many of the original team members on, in fact, the original mechanic only retired in 2022!

What did the journey of growth look like?

Learning to understand markets was a significant and foreign change – in sheep and cattle, you took the market rate, turf was a very different game. Marketing was then and is to this day our biggest challenge and everchanging part of the business.

Back then, the marketing strategy was to have as many full-page ads in the Yellow Pages as possible – things were pretty simple then and are very different now.

Apart from that, we didn’t have a great deal of strategy. In the mid-’80s, the golf course boom happened, we were fortunate enough at that time to have enough credibility to get a lot of that work, but this meant we didn’t focus enough on our domestic consumers. When the golf course boom ended, we needed to work on our consumer market and build back that relationship, which took a lot of work and effort.

The big lesson there was to ensure you can keep the bread and butter going simultaneously if you take on larger projects. To this day, we pass on some projects if we know they cannot run in parallel with core demand.

Later came the golf course boom in Asia, which served us well as many of the same people we worked with locally in Australia were building the Asian golf courses. They respected our capabilities, so it was just a matter of putting the grass on the planes. To start with, this was not a simple procedure, dealing with customs, airlines, etc., but as time passed, we established relationships with all the parties in the supply chain, and it became a relatively simple procedure. To this day, there are golf courses in Vietnam, Indonesia, China, Singapore and UAE that have Jimboomba turf grass.

Over the years since we have had some exciting things happen that have helped us grow, new grasses have been significant on that journey. Sir Walter gave us a unique solution to help people with shady areas. Before this, turf was a bit one size fits all, now we are heading to an era where we have grasses that can be matched to different and unique needs. We were very active in the market, had good land and had a lot of drive to succeed, so these were factors that were complimented by these new grasses.

The products available to us now, such as TifTuf Hybrid Bermuda, Sir Grange Zoysia and the new Zoysia Australis, are prescription-grade products for unique situations. Through excellent education, the consumer quickly becomes aware of these fit-for-purpose characteristics.

We have also tried new things, from commercial and international supply to landscaping & revegetation contracting, but we have evolved into a primarily consumer-focused business over recent years. Concurrently the forming of Lawn Solutions Australia (LSA) has helped support us in our choice to be a premium turf supplier, supplying only premium quality grasses.

Lessons Learned Over the Years

Turf Farming is several businesses rolled into one, marketing, farming, logistics and administration. Unfortunately, these skills rarely all come in one head, so skill diversification is an essential part of the game.

It is critical to have these four pillars functioning at a high level. We were fortunate to have my sister Cherie administering the Finance & Administration function for many years before her passing in May 2020.  She was a huge pillar of support in keeping things running smoothly.

Forecasting in this industry is complex, there are so many variable factors impacting the business each year, weather, for example, is a tough one, and when you add to this managing CAPEX and depreciation on a never-ending list of new machinery, complexity arises.

Trends and Advancements in the Turf Industry

There have not been big trends so much. Significant advancements have come in the form of machinery. Like everyone else, we used to hand harvest, these clunky hand-held things we pushed around, then tractor harvesters and pallets, that we could load the grass onto came. Eventually, auto harvesters, which were average to start with, but now they are an excellent product.

Looking forward, the next significant evolution will be in mowing, auto electric mowers, which are GPS programmed, will have a substantial impact on the mowing function cost, especially fuel burn. There will be a labour save here, but the management cost of these assets will determine the significance of that. They’re still a little way off, but they will happen soon enough.

What stands out as your significant milestones as a business?

Sir Walter was significant, it was a massive thing for us, and as history will tell, so it was for a considerable portion of the industry. Being a grower of Sir Walter also has had a significant knock-on effect, it has connected growers across the country. This has resulted in great friendships being created, but also a tremendous amount of knowledge sharing.

During our first ten years in the industry, there were no industry associations or social contact with other growers, which is light years away from where the industry is today. This is probably hard for those young in the industry now to comprehend.

Also, having wonderful staff knowledge to begin to understand which products work best for the QLD landscape, this understanding has meant we have been able to intentionally plant and nurture a range of the best grasses for the local area.

What have been your prominent successes or failures?

One of the big ones was probably ‘Stay Turf’; it’s a concept we created where we grew the grass on a jute matting, and it could be used in drains (like on the sides of a road for erosion control) to stop dirt and debris washing down, it was a fantastic product. It was scientifically tested and proven to work nearly as well as hard armour, concrete etc., but unfortunately, once we created the product and created the market, cheaper alternatives came along, which were half as good and half the price. StayTurf even won an award on the ABC TV Inventors program.

As time went on in the Erosion control space, we added some Hydromulching trucks to the mix. At that point, we were very active in the commercial area, and this equipment closed the loop for many of the requirements of civil projects.

The civil space was becoming crowded, so the Hydromulching assets were redeployed out to the Surat Basin, to work in the Coal Seam Gas industry. This was rewarding work, revegetating massive dam batters and hundreds of disturbed creek crossings where the gas pipelines went.

We followed the pipeline construction crews from Dalby up to Injune, some 500 kilometres of offroad work. However, nearly overnight, the price of oil and gas collapsed, and all the gas exploration work stopped.

Who has been influential in growing your business?

It’s a funny one, when we took on this business, we knew nothing about growing turf. We knew a bit about cattle and sheep but nothing about turf. The significant skill I took from the west was asking the ‘old blokes’ for advice.

If I had a vexing issue, I would ask one of the older men or women what they thought, they always had advice built from experience, which is the good advice. I took this tradition with me to the turf world. The only trouble was there weren’t any old blokes around.

Along the line, I met Bill Cassimaty from Strathayr in Melbourne, Bill was always inspirational to speak to, a wonderful industry stalwart.

I met up with Bill at a conference in the US once, and he introduced me to a bunch of the American ‘old blokes’. It might not seem like much in today’s world of near-instant information, but in those days, the spoken word, and relationships with the folk of vastly superior knowledge and experience were gold. I cherish the conversations with those folk over the years. The holistic industry advice and wisdom they gave me helped shape how we worked and grew the business.

What makes Jimboomba Turf different?

I think we are different because of how we approach the market. We only take to market the top-end products. We aren’t in the lower price point game; we only sell and grow the best premium and highest quality products. Lower price point turf is what some people need, and that’s ok, but we are not the people to buy that from.

LSA support these quality products and helps us educate the consumers on why they should choose a premium product, and which is most likely suitable for their circumstances.

Advice for others looking to run a family business

Recognise different and individual skills. My sister, Cherie, and I worked well like that. I never questioned her administration, and she never questioned if I needed a new machine, we knew what each other did best and supported that.

The landscape is littered with failed family businesses, and from my observation, the different skills within the family may not have been exploited to their potential.

The Next Five Years

Strengthening our premium products in the market, maintaining our premium position, and helping educate the market on why to choose premium lawns. I’ll move away from the business and work on some diversified projects, within our other business interests. Renee (my eldest daughter who now primarily oversees things) and her partner will continue to care for and grow the business. They’re both very creative and have lots of exciting ideas and plans for novel product offerings etc.

If you could give every turf customer one piece of advice for their new lawn, what would it be?

Water your turf, the second it comes, lay it, and water, water, water. It happens too often, people get it, then don’t lay it for a few days, then don’t really water it and wonder why it dies off.

“Just water your new lawn, and you’ll be set for success!”

However, I guess every turf farmer in the country would also give the same advice on this one.