Televised sport has raised the profile of natural turf facilities. The constant images of pristine, manicured, grass surfaces seen at Wimbledon, Loch Lomond, Lord’s, and many of the country’s premiership football pitches, has heightened the expectations of sportsmen and women at all levels
...a growing business T
CANNONS
o keep pace with these expectations, and to ensure a high quality turf, a few of the
turfgrass growers came together in 1995 to form the Turfgrass Growers Association. From an initially small beginning, the TGA now have close to 40 members. It is the only professional organisation in the UK and Ireland dedicated to the advancement of quality turf production. They are, collectively, responsible for producing approximately 70 per cent of the cultivated turf grown in the British Isles.
Since its formation, the TGA has raised the standard of cultivated turf supplied to both professional and domestic customers. To maintain these standards all applications for membership are vetted by the governing council of the TGA. All members sign a declaration to produce turf to a standard that has been set by the TGA. (
www.turfgrass.co.uk/standards.shtml). The standard describes the condition the turf must be in when sold. The production of turf is now a high tech business, with companies investing thousands of pounds in machinery and resources to be more efficient. Many turf nurseries have small staffing levels and rely heavily on automated machinery such as harvesters, loaders and cultivation equipment
ONE such company is Cannons Turf, a Lincolnshire based firm that, in a few
short years, has gone from growing 2 hectares of turf to 120 hectares of turf. Cannons Turf started life as a small time local turf producer. Tim Cannon, the owner, was previously a farmer who, in 1984, diversified away from traditional agricultural farming into turf growing. However, in 1999, he realised his empire needed a shot in the arm. Tim was able to convince Will Nelstrop, a local farmer, to become his business partner and, with his backing, was able to ‘grow’ the business. Will’s farm offered a
tremendous opportunity to bring all the
operations and farming technologies together. Tim was able to utilise the skills of the existing labour force, the existing machinery, and to increase the yield and diversity of the turf crop. The farm still grows arable crops, such as sugar beet, potatoes and carrots, which are worked into the rotation calendar of the turf growing business. Two crops of
turf are harvested before the land is released back to arable crops
or left fallow. This programme of rotation helps clean the ground, upset the weed bank and reduce the incidence of chafer damage. Cannons Turf aim to ensure that the
crop is grown, maintained and harvested within a 15-month time frame. This allows the turf to establish and build up a decent root mass for optimum harvesting. Harvesting younger or older turf can have its problems - younger turf can fall apart, older turf can have a declining sward quality, with the likelihood of Poa grasses becoming evident. In addition, older turf can have a heavy root mass that is not only difficult to harvest but can prevent the turf establishing well. The ideal growing
programme is to sow in June and harvest in September of the following year. The newly sown seed can establish itself through the winter and then, in the growing season of April-September, have the benefit of good
daylight and
warm
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