Top: George Bannerman (centre)explaining a new slicer/aerator hiscompany has available.

Above: Ed Robertson of Toro (left)and Gord Dol, Dol Turf RestorationServices (right), displaying turfproducts.

Left: Keynote speaker Dan Ferrone,former captain of the TorontoArgonauts and current President ofthe CFL Players' Association.

Opposite page: Ron Schiedel,President of the Green Horizon'sGroup, welcomes participants to theCompact Sod Farm.

10 • SEPTEMBER 1999

ing, and when tested, there was only onebreak, which they replaced. Tubing wasfilled with propylene/glycol and water toprevent freezing when the system was shutdown. (After use in January, the tempera-ture is lowered gradually.) Next, the me-dium was bridged out over the tubing toprevent damage and laser leveled. Kenthen fine graded using a sand rake. Heused a piece of Smithco equipment to dim-ple in the seed. Ken chose all KentuckyBluegrass blends sown at 6 lbs per 1,000square feet. The tubing was 8" down inthe growing medium, so no problemsarose with maintenance such asaerification.

Ken employs several ideas to reduce orchange wear. He uses movable goal postsfor kickers and puts in grid lines off thefield for the linemen. Team practices arethree hours, so he marks the fields ena-bling play to run in two different direc-tions. Further, he talks to the coach to re-duce potential communication problems.At Soldier Field, he pre-germinates seedin drums three days before a game, drainsthe drums on asphalt to let dry, and thenspreads on the field prior to the game.Players' cleats then work the seed into thesoil for good contact. After the game, heirrigates.

They also have an indoor practice field,erected at a cost of $7 million, that hasonly been used four times. Cost of theentire facility to date is $33 million. Fi-nally, Ken mentioned that Soldier Fieldwill be gutted and a new facility built. Eve-rything will go except for the historicalcolumns. The field itself will also be re-done, with completion scheduled for Sep-tember 2000. The new field will use bigrolls of sod already ordered from the sodfarm and will begrown on the growingmedium mentioned earlier. Play, theyhope, will be at either Notre Dame orNorthwestern until completion.

Ken then fielded questions from thefloor and also on the bus trip to the sodfarm, so many more tips and ideas sur-faced for the participants. It certainly wasworthwhile to bring Ken to Canada againto share his considerable knowledge!

Trip to Compact Sod FarmPrior to lunch, all suppliers were given

a chance to introduce themselves and saysomething about the products they distrib-ute. Following lunch, all delegates boarded

buses and cars to the Green HorizonsGroup of Farms Ltd., Compact Sod. RonSchiedel, President, accompanied us andanswered questions. At the farm, Ron ex-plained the company business. They growsod on 3,000 acres between Hamilton andCambridge. The Green Horizons Groupown 500 acres and the rest is leased undervarious agreements ranging from one tofive or more years.

Green Horizons is a family businesswith a winter staff of 15-20 and approxi-mately 50 seasonal employees. While theirmarket is mostly to homeowners, they alsogrow com and soybeans, sell grass seed,and blend their own fertilizers. Some oftheir sod is exported to New York andMichigan.

The basic operation employed by GreenHorizons after a crop has been taken offis to spray with Roundup, plough, disc,rough and fine pick stones, and finallyseed. They allow 24 months from seed toharvest and sell 1,000 acres a year whichtranslates into 1 million rolls.

Mowing also is critical. Grass is cutthree times a week by 10 staff members

who cut 100 acres per day. Grass is keptat a height of 2-112" except in summerwhen the cutting height is raised to 3".(Bentgrass is mowed at 3/8".) Last yearthey drilled a well down 450' in order tocounteract previous droughts and usedlarge travelling sprinklers which can wa-ter an acre at a time.

The company has 120 mowing reels,

15 large trucks, 5-6 smaller trucks forhauling sod, and all the allied farm equip-ment necessary. In 'winter, all equipmentis refurbished. Bearings are replaced, reelssharpened, and MTC certification is per-formed on the trucks. The sod harvestersare overhauled.

To end, Ron shared one of the largestjobs he was involved with-removing top-

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SPORTS TURF MANAGER • II

The Schmeiser tiller and bedder used at Compact sod farms to cultivate andfirm the land area prior to seeding.

soil that was in the way of a subdivisionfor the City of Cambridge. They used 300triaxle trucks for two months to haul 5,000metres of soil onto a 70 acre area andspread it one foot deep. He wanted to mixthe clay soil with an existing sandy loam.Quite a project!

Sponsor and ExhibitorDemonstrations- After touring several farms to see vari-

ous aspects of the sod operation, we lis-tened to and viewed demonstrations byGeorge Bannerman, Vanden Bussche Ir-rigation, Turf Care Products Canada, DolTurf Restoration Ltd., and G.C. DukeEquipment. George Bannerman demon-strated a new piece of equipment called aUni-drill, a slicer-aerator which looks verypromising. Andrew Gaydon and his staffhad an excellent working irrigation dem-onstration so delegates could see a com-plete system. He showed what can be ex-pected from different nozzle sizes and theease in which they can be interchangeddepending on your requirements and wa-ter pressure. He also explained pop-upsand how they retract so they are safe onsports fields. He had a pressure gauge onthe system and a small controller. It wasan excellent hands-on display.

Ed Robertson of Turf Care gave us arun down on three different sized Toromowing units, as well as introduced him-self as one of their newer staff members.Gord Dol had a sample on the back of histruck of his newly acquired "Sportgrass"

12 • SEPTEMBER 1999

(article in June 1999 STM). He has about60,000 yards of it in stock and mentionedit is excellent for soccer goal mouths andbare centre field areas. Maintenance is thesame as for most sports fields. Paul Turnerdemonstrated a weedkiller unit which usesboiling water. It is manufactured in NewZealand. He sprayed and indicated that thearea would be dead in 24 hours. Finallyhe showed the two latest mowers on themarket from Jacobsen with many safetyattributes and helpful diagnostic featuresto aid the mechanic. The day ended withtransportation back to the GuelphTurfgrass Institute.

Field Day EvaluationOverall impression from all evaluations

was positive. Topics participants wouldlike to see addressed at future field daysinclude: naturalization, problems and con-cerns of sports field maintenance at themunicipal level, and more information onvarious seed plants. A number of partici-pants suggested a tour of the Universityof Guelph campus including gardens,sports fields, and the arboretum. .~-

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Turfgrass