The appliance of
t has been a tough few years for sports turf businesses. Commercial pressures on golf, football and sports clubs have risen due to competition, rising material costs
build-up or rooting reduction.
2. Study how a change in maintenance affects the turf eg mowing height or increased aeration.
3. Assess the worth of a product being evaluated.
and lost revenue through inclement weather. More and more, turf managers are being forced to look at their job from a commercial angle as opposed to an agronomic one and a club’s financial decisions frequently over-ride those of turf maintenance. After all, its only grass, isn’t it?! Furthermore, a quality playing surface is still expected all year round, to stay ahead of the competition! So where does the balance lie? How do you put a value to preventing play in wet conditions or keeping the height of cut that bit longer? This is where your own research can come in extremely useful. There is a wealth of information which can be easily and quickly collected on site by a turf manager, without the need for expensive equipment.
Such information is a powerful management tool and can be used to:-
1. Monitor the health of your turf over time eg an early indication of thatch
SCIENCE I
4. Study effects of a particular event eg football match played after heavy rain, play on frozen golf greens.
5. Perhaps most importantly, give the turf manager peace of mind that through hard work, overall progress is being made and if not, where the problems may lie.
Facts and figures speak louder than words and give the turf manager a strong case to present to ‘the powers that be’ to reinforce his management decisions. Think how much more impact it has to say ‘I want to aerate more because thatch has increased by X% in the last year and therefore the green speeds have dropped over time.’ Or in a football scenario, ‘If you play 6 extra matches a year, the grass cover is likely to reduce by X%’. Positive feedback is also just as important in
gaining support and puts a value to your hard work, for instance ‘Our grass clippings removal programme has reduced worm casts by X%’. Even better if you can give your findings a financial value e.g. as worm casting has been reduced then we have used half as much chemical worm control, amounting to a saving of £X. Taking a photographic record can also add weight to your argument aspictures often speak louder than words.
So some ideas of how to go about it: 1. Regular Monitoring
This is essential to give you an idea of how turf health changes over time so you can link events to these changes. This need not be every day – for instance root growth might be measured monthly and soil analysis may only be taken once or twice a year for established soil. There are a couple of important points to follow:
Sampling Area - Choose your sampling areas carefully. Avoid biases which can affect the results such as a slope, a
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