Author: Sarah

Around 30 years ago I was a junior playing golf at Cairns GC. Along the left side of the 16^th hole in the rough was a roped-off area with a couple of signs that mentioned ‘Primo’ which was sprayed in strips between untreated areas. The difference was amazing and as an apprentice greenkeeper I couldn’t believe you could apply a product to rapidly growing turf and it slows the growth – in FNQ of all places. Usually, if you stand in one spot long enough up there the turf tries to mate with your shoelaces given its growth habit.

Primo®250EC was eventually registered in 1995, followed by Primo® Maxx in 2002 and now by the next generation Primo Maxx® II in 2022.

Primo HG Turf Growth Regulator (500ml) is now here! – approved for Home and Garden use with a 500ml twin chamber pack size.

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When we consider almost 30 years of use in turf situations, and the learnings we are still making today, has the introduction of PGR’s such as Primo Maxx® II been the turf industry’s greatest achievement?

If I think back to the plots at Cairns GC, it was the reduction in vertical growth that really stood out initially. And that’s the first impression that turf managers have when using a PGR like Primo Maxx® II. Inside the plant, a biosynthesis pathway is converting photosynthate (energy produced in part by photosynthesis) into the growth hormone gibberellic acid (GA) – required by plant cells to elongate. When a plant cell elongates, the leaf grows longer. Primo Maxx® II is targeting the final stage of conversion of this pathway, when GA₂₀ converts to the plant available form GA₁. By inhibiting this conversion at the final step, vertical growth is minimised.

But what happens when vertical growth is minimised?  Does everything just stop?  As time went on, the more we learned about the associated benefits of PGR applications. One learning was a reduction in internode length, a tightening of the sward and an improvement in colour.

Imagine a football field that has solar panels placed across the surface and in between each panel is a space to move between each row.  The total energy output of the panels would be consistent day to day in full sun but would vary in shade.  This is consistent with a turf surface without any PGR applied to it. Now imagine that same field where the space between each panel is removed and the panels are side by side.  More panels could fit and as a result, more energy is produced.  This is consistent with a turf surface with PGR applied to it. The tightening of internode length means more leaf blades per given area. More leaf blades in a given area means more chlorophyll and an associated improvement in colour. More leaf blades and more chlorophyll means more energy is harnessed through photosynthesis.

As vertical growth is minimized, the energy produced is transferred to other parts of the plant.  When excess energy is produced by the plant it stores it in the roots and as a result, root mass is increased. This is one of the major growth responses of turf in full sun compared to shade. In shaded environments, turf stands usually can’t produce the required energy as photosynthesis is reduced. As such, the plant draws on stored energy in the roots and the result is a shortening and thinning of the roots in shaded locations. Shaded locations are where light rates of PGR’s are effective. The increase in chlorophyll content means the plant is able to harness more available light, convert to sugars and help drive enzyme processes.

Root Enhancement with Primo Maxx® II

As root growth and mass increases when PGR’s are applied, nutrient uptake is enhanced – further supporting overall plant health. The roots are able to access improved levels of moisture within the profile and when coupled with less transpiration due to less vertical growth, a reduction in water requirement through irrigation is realized. It was one of the main plant performance outcomes I noticed as a Superintendent by being able to move from around 3 times per week irrigating fairways to 2 times or less in summer. When you consider not just the less water applied, but also less power to run pumps, less strain on the irrigation system – there is a case for considerable savings in water alone particularly as we enter the next El Nino phase.

Primo Maxx® II Plant Health Benefits

More research work has been undertaken as to how to time applications of PGR’s to continue and enhance the plant health benefits through repeat applications. This is known as Growing Degree Days (GDD) with GDD a measure of heat accumulation.  Research has shown the optimal value for warm-season turf types treated with Primo Maxx® II to be around 200GDD.  Calculators, such as the free version on the www.syngentaturf.com.au website, monitor your minimum and maximum temperatures and then apply a base temperature value to the average – either 10C for warm season grass or 0C for cool season grass, as the temperature above these values initiates growth in each respective group.

By working within a 200GDD value, the plant stays with the suppression phase enabling it to enjoy the health benefits and for you to enjoy less cutting. If however you move beyond the suppression phase and the PGR wears off, then the plant enters the rebound phase where the flush of energy being transferred to other parts of the plant like the roots, is directed back into leaf cell elongation. The result is a significant amount of top growth and an increase in mowing activity again. This can lead to scalping and incursion of weeds and pathogens in these areas as the turf is weakened or if subjected to a sports field situation, a loss of surface durability and performance.

Suppression v Rebound Phase

Now is the time to apply to your turf to realise the health benefits and cost savings that are real.  From a PGR programme using Primo Maxx® II, you will:

• Mow less: meaning less labour; less fuel; less R&M.
• Water less: meaning less labour if manual; less power to run pumps; less R&M on the system; and less water if you are paying per unit.
• Have a healthier plant: with enhanced uptake of nutrients; higher relative water content of the leaf improving heat stress management; and higher chlorophyll content for improved health in low light situations.
• Have less overall stress.

The more we have learnt about PGR’s the more benefits are realized and we will continue to learn more as time goes on. So, are PGR’s such as Primo Maxx® II the turf industry’s greatest achievement?  For adaptability and benefits across a wide range of turf types in a wide range of growing conditions under a wide range of end usage – I firmly believe they are.

For more information on Primo®250EC and Primo Maxx® II visit www.syngentaturf.com.au.

From the golf course to Marvel Stadium, to Papua New Guinea and now the most prestigious sports field in Queensland, Matthew Oliver, the current Suncorp Stadium Grounds Manager has had an incredible turf journey.

We recently caught up with Matthew, to discuss his turf career so far and talk all things turf.

Q: Where did it all start for you when it comes to working in the turf industry?

 I started off as an 18 year old cricketer playing in the UK. In my spare time, I was helping the local groundsman there, preparing the wickets, and by the end of the season I was actually looking after the first-team pitches. Which was, I guess, my first foray into sports turf. When I came back to Melbourne after the summer of playing cricket in England, I was looking at an apprenticeship in wicket curating, but unfortunately there wasn’t anything out there. So I ended up going down the golf course route and spent four years doing an apprenticeship on a golf course in Southeast Melbourne at the Sandhurst Club. I then made my first move to a stadium with Marvel Stadium offering me a role as a qualified turf manager straight out of my apprenticeship. So that was pretty much my first move into sports fields.

Q: How did your career in sports turf management develop from there?

My development and experience grew as I was working my way up through different roles. Marvel Stadium was obviously huge in terms of exposure. Exposure to a huge number of events of varying types, and different sports codes, all with specific requirements for each. I was still learning my craft and going from a golf course which there are some similarities, but everything’s just magnified in terms of the exposure, the expectation, and the pressure.

Q: Where did you go from Marvel? Where was your career path to where you end up today?

I spent five years in my first stint at Marvel and then decided to look sideways to get some more managerial experience. I went to Melbourne Grammar School where I worked under a man by the name of John Shannon, an industry legend in Victoria. I spent two years underneath him as the Assistant Grounds Manager at Melbourne Grammar. Essentially there I was the Head Curator of the wickets, looking after the first team sports fields and just really broadened my skill set not only for cricket wickets, but also people management skills and that side of things. After I had spent two years at Melbourne Grammar, an opportunity from left field came up, which was in Papua New Guinea for a fly-in, fly-out role project managing the new national football stadium of Papua New Guinea in Port Moresby. I spent the best part of twelve months in that role before the contract with the company I was working for expired and unfortunately wasn’t extended. I then returned to Melbourne where I helped project manage the reconstruction of Icon Park, Carlton Football Club’s training ground. I spent two years there at Carlton before my wife pressured me, I guess, into looking at moving somewhere warmer. A role came up at the Queensland Sport and Athletic Centre in Brisbane where I worked for four years before I accepted the incredible opportunity to over as Grounds Manager at Suncorp Stadium.

Q: How is Suncorp Stadium managed and what is a normal week like for you and your team?

Obviously, 2023 has been a huge year for us here. It’s been an unprecedented year of events. By the end of 2023, we’ll have hosted 65 events on the field, which is huge for here, or huge in any stadium, really, and that’s across the three sporting codes, rugby league, soccer and rugby union, plus concerts and everything else in between. All the training sessions that we host, captains run and the like. I guess a normal week here is generally a changeover from one event to another. Last Sunday, we had four games of soccer and then we washed out those lines, removed the goals that night and then prepared for an NRL preliminary final. A recovery spray on the Monday clean-up, mow Monday, then a recovery spray, then a training session on Tuesday for the Broncos, and then another spray in midweek to start preparing for the weekend and really dialling in our mowing patterns. We aerated the worn areas for the touchline sidelines areas of the field. I guess as we get closer to the end of the week, we’re starting to dry the field out, so no water for 48 hours prior to the fixture.

That Friday we had a captain’s run for the Warriors, Saturday we mowed and line-marked and did all those presentation jobs for the preliminary final between the Broncos and the Warriors.

Q: What teams train out of Suncorp Stadium?

There are four main tenants. You’ve got the Brisbane Broncos and the Dolphins, who play in the NRL. The Broncos play all their home games here and the Dolphins play the vast majority. They’ll play eight home games here out of their allotted home fixtures. We’ve got the Queensland Reds, who play seven home games here in the Super Rugby Competition. We’ll also host a handful of their women’s fixtures as well. And the Brisbane Roar have recently moved back to the stadium full-time. We’ll host twelve out of their thirteen home matches from October 27th. It’s a very busy place here!

Q: What other events are featured at the Stadium?

Up until last year, we were only approved to host six concerts in a calendar year. Now we can host up to twelve. Our concert season generally runs from October through to March. What’s different about that this year is we’ve got the Roar here for soccer, so we’re going to have to be on our toes to replace the turf at the drop of a hat and have a real tight turnaround prior to the Roar having a fixture for the A-League. We’re going to do between 6000-8000 square metres of turf, four different replacements over the summer. Then, obviously, we hit the ground running in February for the Super Rugby competition with the soccer competition still running, and the NRL starting in the first weekend of March. All three codes operate concurrently. March and April are going to be more difficult again.

Q: The Women’s World Cup hosted games at the Stadium this year, what was involved in the preparation for this and fulfilling FIFA requirements?

It was a huge tournament and I’d go as far as saying that the Australia v France Quarter Final was my career highlight to date. An unbelievable event to be a part of a full stadium, essentially all supporting one team. Obviously the dramatic penalty shootout at the end was incredible. We hosted eight matches, which was the most of any Australian stadium during the tournament, which was pretty cool, but I guess we take a step back. One of the requirements for FIFA was we needed to have a hybrid playing surface for the tournament, so it meant that we had to adopt one of their methods. Either a carpet-based system or a stitched surface. We opted for the SISGrass stitched surface and that was installed in late May prior to the State of Origin game. This certainly held us in good stead for those matches. The Women’s World Cup, we had a stable playing surface that stood the test of time and performed really well. But some of the things we needed to do were daily testing. We were testing for hardness, traction, shear strength and moisture on almost a daily basis throughout the tournament, making sure we’re meeting those parameters. Hand mowing the field with pedestrian walk behind mowers was a specific requirement, and obviously line marking to the specific standards that they want. Making sure that there’s no mistakes and the dimensions are 100% correct. The goal line technology can tell you if the lines are out, so we have to make sure we were millimetre perfect.

Q: From your personal point of view, you’ve got to deliver or produce a first-class stadium which is a lot of pressure. How do you handle it personally? Your achievements, stress levels, how do you handle it all?

I guess you try not to dwell on things when things aren’t going your way. Certainly at the start of the season, on a brand new playing surface in March and April, we were under the pump. We had a fair bit of media criticism come our way. That was just because we were hosting those three codes on a field that was very immature. It hadn’t really had a chance to knit in and bed down. The ryegrass was quite reluctant to establish given the heavy traffic load. I guess from my perspective, it’s trying not to dwell on it too much. Things are never as bad as what they may seem. You try and think of all the positives, that you’re in this position for a reason and you draw on your strengths to get you out of those situations. I think I look back now and I go, well, those hard yards are pretty tough at the time, but we’re not going to sit there on the weekend and look at the NRL preliminary Final that we had and the surface that we were able to produce, which I’d say, is as good as anywhere.

Q: What part of managing turf do you really enjoy the most?

I get a real kick out of seeing professional athletes at the top of their game, playing on my surface, and we often don’t get a lot of feedback from players and clubs when things are going well. It’s generally only when things aren’t going so well. But to be fair, we’ve had a lot of really positive feedback, particularly from the NRL clubs at the back end of this year and through the Women’s World Cup. That’s not just for myself, but my team that has been incredibly dedicated and put their best foot forward for the stadium for this year. I’m really proud of everyone’s efforts there.

Q: What do you still want to achieve in your career? Where would you like to be?

If I was being completely honest, I think when I was younger before children, I would often see myself looking after a world-class Premier League stadium in England or in Europe somewhere. I guess now I am a family man, I am really grateful for where I am right now. As a younger person, it’s hard not to keep looking at that next opportunity, but I’m just really happy being here where I am, and I’ve got a lot of things I want to achieve at Suncorp. I don’t really have any ambition to up and leave anytime soon. It’s a great place to work. It’s the pinnacle of stadiums in this part of the world and I am very lucky to work here and hopefully, I’ll be here for a lot longer yet.

Q: What’s the best piece of advice you have for anyone looking into the sports turf industry or looking to grow their careers in turf?

Always ask questions of people. A lot of young people come through our trade, if that is the right word, but can be quite timid and don’t want to impose on someone. Try to ask questions of your sales reps, introduce yourself, and get friendly, there are no dumb questions. Your sales reps are really well connected, ask your peers, your colleagues at other venues or golf courses or whatever your facility is, what are they doing in certain situations and what products to use in these situations. You can broaden your skill set that way and don’t be scared to keep an updated CV. Our industry can be quite tight to get into certain roles, sometimes you must bide your time or move sideways. But don’t be afraid to put yourself out there.

Caine James, Operations Manager – Recreation Works

Infrastructure & Works | Maitland City Council

My interest in the turf industry, particularly golf course maintenance was something I had a passion for from the age of around 10 years old. This is the age I started attending a golf clinic on Sunday mornings at Belmont Golf Club in the Lake Macquarie area south of Newcastle. I remember playing 9 holes on a Sunday morning and thinking how good it would be to be a greenkeeper. When an opportunity came in year 10 whilst attending Swansea High School to complete 2 weeks of work experience, I wasn’t going anywhere other than Belmont Golf Club to work on the golf course. This experience convinced me that this was the career I wanted.

I received a phone call from the Superintendent in December 1992 to ask if I was interested in a six-week casual position to join the green staff for the preparation of the Lake Macquarie Amateur Open, which at the time was the biggest amateur tournament in the Southern Hemisphere. Six weeks turned into two years full-time at Belmont Golf Club, which gave me a great start to my career working with an awesome crew.

Council Apprenticeship

I was looking for an opportunity to complete an apprenticeship as I wanted to become a qualified turf tradesperson, which Belmont Golf Club couldn’t offer at the time. I was lucky enough to apply and successfully gain an apprenticeship with Newcastle City Council (City of Newcastle) in 1994. Newcastle Council owned and maintained an 11-hole public golf course (Beresfield Golf Course) as well as maintaining regional and district-level sports facilities.

My time during my apprenticeship was spent mostly working on the council’s golf course, which consisted of Bent/Poa Greens, a blend of Kikuyu/Couch/Carpet Grass fairways and Kikuyu tees.

There was a staff of 3 consisting of a Superintendent, a groundsman, and an Apprentice (me). When I arrived, greens were being cut with Scott Bonnar petrol walk-behind mowers, tees were cut with an old Jacobsen Tri king and fairways were cut with an old set of gang mowers. It was a great opportunity to work in this environment as I was exposed to everything from spraying greens to machinery maintenance and course set-up for weekends from day one. During the 3 years I worked on the Council golf course we upgraded machinery to introduce a John Deere fairway mower, Toro surrounds mower and a Toro greens mower. These changes in machinery improved the surfaces immediately. Then we started applying fertiliser on fairways, constructing new tee boxes, reshaping fairways, and extending irrigation. All this work was completed by our team of 3 which gave me great exposure to all aspects of turf maintenance early in my career.

During my apprenticeship I had the opportunity to spend 6 months working at Newcastle Councils No.1 and No.2 Sportsgrounds, this gave me exposure to turf wicket preparation, maintenance, and renovation. This experience gave me an insight into turf maintenance from another perspective, especially cricket wicket preparation. This goes against everything you learn about growing healthy turf – grow grass in clay, water it, roll it with moisture in it to compact it, then dry it out, now roll it some more, mow it and it’s ready! Cricket wicket preparation made me open my mind to the turf industry and I realised there is so much to learn in this industry, and I knew I wanted to make a successful career of it.

Once I completed my apprenticeship, I was employed full-time at Newcastle Council as a Senior field worker at Newcastle No.1 Sportsground, working alongside Supervisor Peter Terry, who is still currently in this position. During my 6 years working at this facility, we prepared surfaces for first-class cricket matches including Sheffield Shield matches, ING One Day Matches and a One Day International Women’s Match Australia v England. I was also lucky enough to prepare the No.2 Sportsground Wicket for the Australia U/19s National Championships in 2008/09, this turned out to be a great tournament with the likes of Shaun Marsh, Cameron White, and Sean Tait to name a few going on to first-class careers. We also hosted numerous AFL Pre-season matches featuring the Swans against numerous AFL opponents.

I also had the opportunity to play a significant role in rebuilding the wicket square during the 2000 season. This project was delivered by our team, including the planning, construction and grow in, with the result being a quality first-class wicket.

2007 I was offered the opportunity to move into an office-based role as a Recreation Project Officer at Newcastle Council. Whilst in this position I designed and managed the installation of numerous irrigation projects, the reconstruction of turf wicket squares and the delivery of several playground and floodlight projects.

Nuturf Australia

In 2008 I was offered an opportunity to become a Territory Manager at Nuturf Australia, supplying products, services and agronomic advice to the turf industry. My territory was the Central Coast, Hunter Region, Mid North Coast and New England servicing Councils, Golf Clubs, Turf farms and any other turf facility along my travels. This was my dream job as I got to talk turf all day every day. During my time at Nuturf, I received the best education you could possibly ask for, we had great people in the business who shared the same passion for the turf industry as I have. Nuturf was acquired by C.K.Lifesciences who also owned Amgrow, this provided me with the opportunity to move into the wholesale market managing the sales, custom fertiliser development and distribution of specialty products into the turf market in NSW, Victoria and Queensland.

I worked in the wholesale business for 3 years before moving back into the retail market with Nuturf. I spent over 14 years in the Nuturf/Amgrow business before moving to TurfCare Australia for an 8-month period as Business Manager.

Maitland City Council

In January 2019 I moved back into Local Government to take up the position of Operations Manager Recreation at Maitland City Council where I remain today. This is a very diverse role as I manage a department of 60+ staff with 4 direct reports and 13 Team Leaders, each with a crew of 3-4 staff who maintain trees, gardens, parks, playgrounds, landscape construction, open space, roadside mowing, weeds & Biosecurity. I have a very supportive management team above me who value my knowledge and experience which allows me to provide the resources required to achieve continual improvement in all areas of the Recreation space in Maitland LGA.

“We are lucky to have such a leader in the turf industry at Maitland City Council. When Caine joined us nearly 5 years ago, I believed (noting I am an engineer with absolutely no turf background) we had the makings of a good sports turf management crew, however, Caine has implemented significant change, training, and polish to all of our staff working in this area to ensure we have a great turf management team. This has resulted in not only significant improvements and outcomes at our regional facilities, but the improved work practices of our teams are making a huge difference to all our sports turf facilities across the LGA.” Ashley Kavanagh, Works Manager Maitland City Council.

I also have 2 specialised Turf Management Crews who maintain our sports turf surfaces. A team of 4 are full-time at Maitland Regional Sports Complex and a team of 6 who maintain over 60 hectares of sports grounds, of which 30 hectares are irrigated.

The Regional Sports complex consists of the Regional Sportsground, a 1.6 hectare multi-use facility with a grandstand capacity of 1100 which was rebuilt in 2017. The ground is currently the training base for the Newcastle Jets Men’s A-League team and the Maitland Pickers Rugby League Club. The surface was initially turfed with Grand Prix Couch in 2017, with sand slit drainage, sand grooving and irrigation installed.

In 2020 an IAAF standard synthetic athletics track with all supporting athletics infrastructure was constructed on the old outer fields. I was asked to provide input into the development of the specification for the construction of the 8,000m2 infield. The profile is 300mm deep local dune sand amended with organics. Irrigation and drainage were installed during construction and the surface has a 1% fall from the centre in an East/West direction. The grass type selected was TifTuf Hybrid Bermuda. The decision was made to use this grass after reviewing the data from several trials, it’s also the only turf variety with the Smart Approved Water Mark.

Turf producer Musturf completed the project for us supplying and installing the turf which was of exceptional quality. The establishment period was amazing with root development greater than 50mm in a 4 week period.

The surface has performed extremely well over the past 3 seasons. We have shaved the surface twice to soil surface using a topmaker, with full coverage back again within 4 weeks. Topdressing happens 2 weeks after the topmaker and the surface is cut at 12-15mm.

Due to the performance of the TifTuf on the athletics infield, I made the decision to change the turf variety of the Regional Sportsground from Grand Prix to TifTuf. We were having issues with the lateral growth of Grand Prix couch which was impacting the recovery from wear and transitioning from the ryegrass oversowing program back to the couch. With the support from my Manager Ashley Kavanagh who backed my reasoning for the change in turf species, “Caine’s technical knowledge and ability to demonstrate the reasoning for Council to invest in changing the grass variety that had only been down for 5 years over to TifTuf was a decision that was well worth the investment. The positive feedback from user groups, our community and most importantly our staff who maintain the facility is amazing. The results are speaking for themselves”. In October 2022 we sprayed out the surface and then removed 70mm from the surface of the Sportsground.

TifTuf vegetive material was supplied, which was spread and grooved rolled and then solid rolled into the surface. 12 weeks later we had a 100% cover of TifTuf Hybrid Bermuda which looked fantastic. We have oversowed ryegrass into the surface this season and the surface has been rated as one of the best surfaces played on by a number of visiting A League clubs as well as the Newcastle Jets. Adam Nial (Team Leader of the Turf Maintenance crew) is very happy with the amount of TifTuf he is seeing below the rye and in recovering divots.

The feedback from the users of both surfaces has been amazing, with the quality of the surfaces always a topic of conversation amongst them. We have several sports ground projects coming up in the next couple of years and the decision is to replicate the specification of the Athletics infield into these new fields including surfacing with TifTuf.

I feel blessed to have had the career I’ve had, and I feel privileged that Maitland City Council have given me an opportunity to bring my passion, knowledge, and experience to take their existing fields to the next level and develop new standards in the development of new fields.

Nestled between the bustling streets of Brisbane and the cruisy coastal towns of the Sunshine Coast lies the Go Turf farm.

With a sprawling 130 hectares of top-quality turf in the Glasshouse Mountains region, Go Turf is the largest turf farm on the Sunshine Coast. They proudly supply high-quality drought-tolerant turf to Queensland-based developers, builders, landscapers, and homeowners. The Beerburrum-based farm is owned and operated by the Heilig Family, with four generations of farming expertise under their belts; this is a family endeavour.

From mums and dads to large commercial projects and everyone in between, each turf order that comes their way will see the turf being harvested and delivered on the same day. It’s an early start for the Go Turf team as they harvest and deliver their premium turf in a tight timeframe across Brisbane, Sunshine Coast, Logan, the Gold Coast, the Fraser Coast, Ipswich, and Toowoomba.

While high-quality turf is their bread and butter now, if you visited the Go Turf farm over 15 years ago, you would have found sugar cane and small crops growing there instead. Over the years, spearheaded by Anthony Heilig, the family has come to specialise solely in producing turf and coined the saying, “Great things happen on grass.”

The team knows that great family moments happen on grass, and they love helping Queensland families find the best turf variety for their yards. Priding themselves on their exceptional customer service, the team work hard to help people pick the perfect turf for their outdoor space, prepare, deliver and install it on-site, and love to provide expert advice on keeping the grass thriving. All in the hopes that everyone can continue to make those special memories with the ones they love.

Having such a large farm allows the team to grow all of the turf themselves, meaning they don’t have to source it from anywhere else and can keep a close eye on it and attend to it all year round. Customers can have peace of mind knowing that their grass has come straight from the Go Turf farm to their yard and nowhere in between.

Meeting their quality assurance and closely overseeing every order from paddock to yard may sound challenging when managing hundreds of acres of turf, running two offices, preparing yards, and delivering and installing turf across a substantial pocket of southeast Queensland. However, thanks to the business undergoing a digital transformation, the team have accurate information and real-time updates at their fingertips with their fully digital order management system.

From the office to the operations teams, all turf orders, including the delivery and installation requirements, can be placed, invoiced, paid, harvested, scheduled, delivered, fulfilled, and signed off online through the GoTurf platform. Whether on the Go Turf web app or iPad and iPhone applications, the business operations offer the team a 360 view of the business at any time from one spot. From harvesting quantities to delivery routes, the team can easily verify order information and stay updated with real-time updates from one place. While there’s no denying hard work is involved, it’s all carried out with a smile, a strong sense of pride and gratitude and the unified belief that there’s nowhere else they’d rather be than 434 Mekins Rd.

While using technology to improve their workflow and processes has been a game-changer, the team understands the importance of consultations and conversations when ordering turf. The Beerburrum farm doors have always been open, with Karlie and Denieka on hand to help with any questions or orders that come through the door, over the phone or online.

Nevertheless, this year marked the opening of their new Brendale office to provide a local service to North Brisbane, where turf is front and centre. The family is hopeful this will give more people a way to see, touch, and learn all about turf whilst benefiting from direct consultation with the preparation team to get the right advice and product. Turf is the store hero, and the team looks forward to sharing their knowledge of grass near and far to help Brisbane and beyond transform their green spaces.

Despite expanding down the coast, you’ll still find the same familiar faces on the Beerburrum farm. With the backdrop of the Glasshouse Mountains, the endless sunshine the region promises, and their genuine love for the outdoors, it’s safe to say the Go Turf farm is a great place to be. A visit to 434 Mekins Road will leave you with no doubt that this close-knit team is passionate about what they do and all things grass.

Simon Hutton, Managing Director of Tillers Turf

With extensive experience in the Sports Turf Industry, Simon Hutton dubbed the ‘UK Turf Master’ now has over 2,500 acres of sports turf in production. Simon’s operation supplies most of the turf and pitches for almost all the top stadiums and sports across the UK. Tillers Turf also owns several golf courses and has a strong focus on improving turf products for the industry. Simon’s turf farm and his approach to turf farming is one of the best you will ever see.

We recently caught up with Simon during his recent visit to Australia as a guest speaker for the Lawn Solutions Australia Global Turf Conference.

Simon Hutton – Born in Lincolnshire UK, in 1978

My father was PGA Head Professional Golfer at Sleaford Golf Club, Lincolnshire. His dream was always to build and run his own golf course. In 1986 a small pocket for land came up for sale, 8 miles up the road, in a small village called Carlton Scroop.  It comprised a farmyard, with 17 acres of pasture land attached.  We gang-mowed the field with a Massey Ferguson 135 and a set of Ransomes Gang Mowers. We mowed out 6 Greens with a Ransomes Certes, cut some holes, bought some cups, pins and flags, made some tee markers by filling coke cans with concrete and a 6-inch nail, added a couple of coats of paint and we were away.  The system Dad implemented was an honesty box at the entrance and the fee was £1 for a full day’s golf… After a successful 9 months, Dad was able to leave his Head Pro’s job and dedicate all his time to Carlton Scroop, teaching daily and carrying out course maintenance and development, while converting the stone barn in the farmyard to be the family home.

In 1990, Dad and Mum bought an additional 20 acres adjoining the existing 17 acres and that summer we constructed 9 greens, tees, and fairways. This was the start of Sudbrook Moor Golf Club as we know it today. During this construction period at age 11, I helped Dad with the earthworks, ploughing, cultivation, seeding and the ‘grow-in.’ In the summer of 1992, we opened a new layout of the course, renamed Sudbrook Moor.

My contracting started in 1993, aged 13, mowing lawns and selling firewood. At age 15 I grew my first field of turf, on one acre – approximately 4,000m2. My friends were doing a paper round 6 mornings a week for £4, while I was harvesting a pallet of turf with a Ryan Turf Cutter on a Saturday morning for £50.

I left school in 1995, already with loads of construction, turf care and turf production experience. A member of our golf club approached me, he wanted me to spray his greens at the local RAF base where he volunteered as a greenkeeper. I quoted him £350, won the job and that’s where the outside contracting began. A year later when I was 17, our local Sisis Rep, Jason Briggs, recommended me to Grimsby Town Football Club. It was a very wet winter and they needed 20 tonnes of sand spreading on the pitch. With our lightweight 16hp Massey Ferguson compact tractor and Sisis Powerspread, we carried out the work and everything went well. I charged £400, realising at this point that, there was probably some mileage in contracting, compared with only earning £55 per week working on the golf course at home.

I printed some flyers and mailed them out to every golf course in Lincolnshire. Within 3 weeks I had about a 10% response, which was really incredible. I then quickly invested in a Wiedenmann Terra Spike and an Ifor Williams trailer and expanded the turf production up to 10 acres – 40,000m2.

The contracting was steadily growing through Lincolnshire while expanding further afield.   In 1998 we were asked to hollow core and collect the outfield at Lords Cricket Ground, St John’s Wood, London. In 1999-2003 we were involved in the re-turfing of Manchester United, Old Trafford. Things were now starting to happen. In 2002 the Head Groundsman of Manchester United, Keith Porter, said to me, “If you buy a Koro Field Topmaker you can Fraize Mow all 18 pitches at Carrington Training Grounds.” I bought a Koro, and a 120hp Massey Ferguson, and had made two dump trailers by that time. In May 2003 we carried out these works on the 18 pitches. 20 years on, in 2023, we are still working for Manchester United, carrying out 100% of their end-of-season renovations and construction projects. This year, at Lords, 25 years on, after multiple projects, we are continuing to successfully carry out all their end-of-season renovations and, this Autumn, we are to reconstruct the Nursery Ground.

In 2005 we created Lakeland Specialist Earthworks, with Wayne Freeman, a well-respected golf course shaper. We started with one 14-tonne excavator and a dumper. With gradual growth, we now have a huge fleet of heavy plant and Lakeland compliments Tillers all over the UK. Lakeland is involved in all the UK contracting projects and also in our own home location infrastructure works.

In 2007 Fineturf Machinery Limited was born. We were finding that on our travels there were offers of good quality second-hand equipment for sale. In turn, we also had equipment to sell to our existing and new clients. A huge growth within this business came when the Ministry of Defence changed its Grounds Maintenance Contractor and we bought, refurbished and sold over 650 machines. In the golf world, John Deere was becoming very successful in some big fleet deals and we followed them around and bought most of the ex-service Toro Equipment from golf clubs at The Belfry, Woburn, Gleneagles, Wentworth and many more. This equipment was then refurbished and sent out globally. To this day, we call it “Second Life Equipment”, run by Tom Moor. Globally we are still prominent in the Second Life market for golf and landscape equipment.

In 2011, I bought Tillers Turf, which was a well-established 300-acre turf production site. It had a great reputation, supplying heavily into the Golf and Landscape market. In the last 12 years we have grown that business, and we are now in production of 26 different turf products and 6 mainstream Wildflower Turf Products. This equates to production of 2,200 acres – 10,000,000 m2. Heading up the turf production is Alan Whiteley, celebrating this summer 25 years’ service at Tillers. Alan is supported by our Golf and Technical Manager, Richard Owens, along with a well-oiled and dedicated Golf, Football, Landscape Production and Harvest Teams.

In the last 5 years at Tillers, we have developed HTPro our Hybrid Turf System. We were originally approached by Tottenham Football Club, close to the end of their new stadium construction project, enquiring about producing a Hybrid Turf Pitch for them. With a lot of research and hard work, we established a pitch in one of our fields. We grew it during the spring/ early summer, harvested it and transported it to the stadium at the end of July 2018. The hard work and dedication of the Specialist Football Team at Tillers had paid off, the pitch was a success. Over the past 4 years, this system has been laid in the Stadia at Swansea, Leeds, MK Dons, Principality and Oxford. Annually, we now produce for Tottenham, Liverpool, London Stadium and 3 per year for Wembley Stadium.

Fineturf, over 20 years, has constructed every UK Cricket Test Wicket and every UK Lawn Tennis Association grass court, including 29 grass courts for AELTC (Wimbledon). All these projects have been managed by Contracts Manager, Jim Coleman, and his Team. In Golf we have carried out successful construction and specialist maintenance projects at 100’s of Golf Courses.  Recently we constructed the new 18th green at The Belfry, four times venue of The Ryder Cup. Also, the Titleist Performance Centre at the world-famous Woburn Golf Club and tee reconstruction at Royal St George’s Golf Club (prior to the 2022 British Open), to name just a few. Football pitch construction and maintenance have also been a huge part of the growth of the business, carrying out multiple projects up and down the UK for numerous clients, large and small. Horse Racing contracts have been a lot of fun over the last 29 years, with multiple drainage, levelling and track reconstruction projects, for the likes of Sandown, Epsom, Cheltenham, Doncaster, Newmarket, Haydock, Nottingham, Market Rasen, Huntingdon, Warwick, Uttoxeter, Southwell, Hereford, Chepstow, Great Yarmouth and Leicester Racecourses.

The future is exciting across the group of companies. I am well supported by Co-directors Becky Watson and Wayne Billing. At Tillers, we are custom-growing turf for some new Golf Projects in the UK, including the new Trump Course in Aberdeen, Scotland. HTPro will continue to be developed and expand and we will persist in the innovation of new turf systems, complementing our existing range, for a wide range of clients. At Fineturf, we have much to look forward to – the AELTC Wimbledon is just going through planning permission to redevelop the old Wimbledon Park Golf Club into 29 new construction grass courts. This will include one Show Court and a Community Park, and this project duration is estimated to be 9 years.

Manchester United are also in the planning stages, to either move or redevelop its existing training ground, to produce approximately 34 new world-class pitches, over the next 7 years.

We have so much to look forward to and plenty of existing projects to keep us busy…….

The Australian Lawn Fanatics (AUSLF) Facebook Group teams up with Gotcha4Life

By Lenny Lawler, AUSLF

The Australian Lawn Fanatics Group began in February 2015 as the Southeast Queensland Lawn Fanatics, after a simple conversation between 2 blokes after renovating a lawn. The concept was to get a small network of like-minded people together to help each other out with the physical job of lawn renovations. That small group took a year to grow to 100, and then as the boundaries of SEQ blurred we took the leap and became the Qld Lawn Fanatics. The popularity of the fanatics group and lawns on social media saw a rapid increase in membership numbers and blurred the boundaries again, so in 2017 we expanded to become the Australia-wide group that we are today. We’ve always tried to keep the fanatics true to its original concept of being an independent source of information, a community that helps each other and somewhere you can spend some time ogling incredible lawns.

But with any online environment, unfortunately, there can be negativity and we have experienced individuals who engage in sending harmful messages and generally abusing the community we have created. We’ve learned over time that it’s not healthy to keep this negativity to ourselves, so we discuss it openly in our private chat group. It’s where we go to vent about things, lawn-related or not and there’s always someone to listen and have a chat with, we have each other’s backs with everything in life. Recently we discussed what good things we could do to make a difference with using our social media platform which now has almost 100,000 members. I put forward the suggestion of partnering with Gotchya4Life and it was a unanimous decision. For those who haven’t seen what Gotchya4life do, their goal is ‘Fostering Good Mental Health for a Better Tomorrow.’

In an increasingly fast-paced and demanding world, good mental health is a precious asset that often goes unnoticed until it’s compromised. Organisations like Gotcha4Life have emerged as beacons of hope, tirelessly working to promote mental wellness and resilience. It’s a grim reality that in Australia 7 men and 2 women who woke up this morning will take their own lives today, that’s every day and that’s a statistic that really shocked us as we researched how we could help. The goal is zero.

One of the most crucial aspects of Gotcha4Life’s mission is destigmatising mental health issues. Historically, discussing mental health problems has been surrounded by shame and secrecy. However, organisations like Gotcha4Life are breaking down these barriers by encouraging open conversations about mental well-being. This shift is essential because it encourages individuals to seek help when needed, reducing the likelihood of mental health issues worsening over time. Another cornerstone of Gotcha4Life’s work is building a sense of community and connection. We saw this in the Fanatics group, particularly during COVID-19 and the lockdowns most people endured. Our group was a place where people would go to try and mentally escape from the drudgery of being in lockdown.

Education plays a vital role in mental health awareness and Gotcha4Life is dedicated to spreading knowledge. The organisation collaborates with schools, workplaces, and communities to educate people about the importance of mental health and equip them with tools to support themselves and others. By doing so, Gotcha4Life empowers individuals to recognise early signs of mental health issues and take proactive steps to address them.

The link between good mental health and physical health is undeniable, but I also strongly believe that getting outside, getting dirt on your hands, and connecting with the earth has enormous benefits. Gotcha4Life recognises this connection and advocates for holistic well-being. Physical activities and a healthy lifestyle are promoted as integral components of maintaining good mental health. Through various programs, Gotcha4Life encourages individuals to adopt healthier habits that benefit both body and mind.

Where do the Fanatics and the turf community at large fit into this? We’ve started a campaign to raise awareness and funds for Gotchya4life to hold workshops that take away the stigma and let you examine your mental fitness. We reached out to our friends in the industry and Lawn Solutions Australia was the first to jump in and donate $1000, that’s what a mental fitness workshop costs to run. The challenge is to match that generous donation or host a workshop, so that’s what we’re hoping to achieve. To fund as many workshops as we can.

Over the last 8 years, we’ve been lucky enough to experience some amazing things. From being a groundsman for a day at the Rugby League State of Origin to attendance at events like the Lawn Solutions Australia Conference and Awards Night. We’ve met some fantastic people and made some lifelong friends and contacts that have allowed us to help a huge number of people. We’ve partnered with some very generous companies to give away everything from a new lawn to countless mowers, snippers, blowers and even a few irrigation systems along the way.

After answering thousands of “What weed is this” or “How do I do this” questions over the 8 years since starting the fanatics back in February 2015, this partnership with Gotchya4life is the thing I’m most proud of.

Those 9 Australians who wake up every morning deciding that today is their last day are just too many, the goal is zero, zero suicides. Please check out the Australian Lawn Fanatics Group on Facebook for more information on how you can become involved or visit the Gotchya4life website to donate today.