Magazine - TGAA Seminar in Canberra Wrap Up

By Rob Jenkins in Shows and seminars on 2nd Aug 2009 20:25

2009 Turf Grass Association of Australia Canberra Wrap Up

The Turf Grass Association of Australia (TGAA) presented a one day seminar on the 29th July 2009 at the Hellenic Club, Canberra, Phillip, ACT. Pitchcare Oceania attended the show with a trade booth to report on all the news and action.

The day was a great success with 200 odd delegates and 20 plus trade sponsors attending the day. It was a rusty start for Pitchcare after nearly forgetting the show date and having to drive up to Canberra the night before. A long night on the road saw us get to the nation’s capital around 2am.

After a quick spell in the hotel room we were up and at the Hellenic Club setting up for the day’s proceedings.

The day kicked off with a talk from Terry Muir of E Par. Terry spoke of promoting the environmental benefits of turf. He gave a great presentation in detail of how turf reduces heat, acts as a natural sink for carbon dioxide and also replenishes soil and improves its quality. The talk was a great way to start the show off and showed just how important many of the golf courses and sports grounds are to cities and towns around Australia, not just for recreation but for a healthier environment.

One of the biggest names in the turf industry was next up- the Manager of Turf Development and Environment at the MCG Tony Ware. Tony gave an insight into cricket wicket preparation and maintenance of high levels of cricket wickets. He touched on the difficulties of preparing wickets in multi-use sporting venues which are so common place through out Australia. Tony also went into pre season renovations, grass coverage and of course pitch preparation.

Ernst Gmehling of Ground Science gave a talk on laboratory testing of cricket wicket soils; what should be done and what do the results mean? It covered how we make the right decision on which soil is more suitable than the other.

Morning tea and a quick look around the trade show followed suit. Some great booths were set up around the parameters of the room. Next to Pitchcare Oceania was our good friend John Purtell of Turfcraft Machinery Australia. John’s great booth showcased his unique range of turf equipment. John has a mechanical solution for almost any problem with products such as Sisis, Smithco, Baroness and Turf Tec all in his unique range. Selling all over Australia and the Pacific, it’s well worth having a browse over John’s great range of equipment from all around the world.

Further along where Complete Turf Renovation Services. One of their great services available all over the ACT region is their Clegg Hammer. They have the only commercial Clegg Hammer in the ACT region and can customize a testing program to your needs.

If you haven’t heard of the unique Clegg Hammer before, it’s a simple to use device consisting of two components, a flat ended cylindrical mass and a guide tube. The hammer is manually dropped from a predetermined height and the impact of the hammer causes an electronic output to a digital display. This output is based on the peak deceleration of the hammers impact with the surface in units of tens of gravities. This process is repeated three times on the same spot and the average score becomes your reading. The hammer is useful to show the difference in readings before and after renovations to showcase the difference you’re making to the surface.
 
After morning tea was the anticipated talk by Dr Percy Wong from the University of Sydney. Dr Percy talked on new and intractable diseases of Couch, Buffalo and Kikuyu. He touched on what effects the diseases have, how to diagnose them and of course how to control them. The talk mainly focused on diseases such as Summer Decline, Fairway Patch, Take all Patch, Kikuyu Yellows and White Helmo among others. Lots of these diseases are relatively new, and more of research needs to be done until we understand them fully.

Next up was Matthew Buck from Evergreen turf filling in for the sick David Nickson and absent Phillip Ford who was attending a show in Chili-the lucky bugger! Matthew spoke on the successful establishment of new Couch surfaces and the importance of early nutrition when establishing sportsturf with Couch stolons or seed.

After some more sponsor presentations it was back to the trade show and lunch.

The guys behind the impressive product Sanoplant also had a booth. Sanoway Australia has been working hard to spread the word on their great range of products such as Sanoplant and Sanowet. Sanoplant can be used in almost all soil types for all varieties of plants. Because it is particularly effective in sandy soils, Sanoplant has been used in many sports fields constructed with sand based profiles; good drainage is retained while strong, deep root establishment ensures healthy turf and a superior playing surface.

The popular Geoff Hatton was also in attendance with a booth. Sustainable Turf Renovations offer renovation solutions and also sell renovation equipment. Some of their range of machinery is revolutionary around the world; it is environmentally friendly and can save heaps of time. Products such as the Koro range and Blec have made Geoff a household name across Australia when it comes to getting a job done right.

Legend Couchgrass had a booth at the show; the king of couches is a very recognized brand with the big lion at many a trade shows across Oceania. The couch has become very popular and is used at many a world class venues such as Telstra Stadium, Eden Park, Moonah Links, Suncorp Stadium and Kooyong tennis club. Its characteristics such as low thatch, good low temperature colour and hardiness and of course low water use have made Legend one of the more popular couches in the country.

Bayer Cropscience had a great stand with plenty of information about their range of chemical solutions. Products such as their Chipco Signature have been popular in chemical sheds for a number of years. Signature is true systemic it moves up and down in all parts of the plant, from root to shoot. It’s used in the prevention and control of phytophthora rots in ornamentals and pythium in turf. Chipco Signature also has turf shield technology. Turf Shield is an advanced formulation technology developed by Bayer Environmental Science that positively affects turf physiology. It helps turf-grass to withstand heat and high light intensity.

New product The Phantom Core was available at Living Turf’s stand. The Phantom Core is a sleek looking black and silver hollow tine corer. It can aerate and harvest all in one pass. The Phantom is also quick covering one hectare per hour. It’s great for light and frequent aeration but still goes deep enough to re connect your surface and root zone. The new product first show cased in the Auckland NZ conference in June was also at the Hobart show in July. We were lucky enough to see it in action on Bellerive Oval and grab a few photos of it.

Dr Greg Moore from the University of Melbourne was on after the delicious lunch. Dr Moore spoke on managing trees and turf during climate change. He discussed what damage tree roots do to various sports turf and what different methods we can use to control it. Dr Moore also focused on the importance trees and turf play in our environment in this fragile time of climate change.



The day was wrapped up with a student presentation by Sydney University masters students Robert Neufeld from the Lakes Golf Club in Sydney and Cameron Stuart from Royal Sydney Golf Club. Robert focused on the effect of organic and inorganic soil amendments added to sandy soil via core holes of different spacing, while Cameron spoke on applying different humus products to new sand based greens to achieve a higher cation exchange capacity. The guys did a great job as well as squeezing a picture of Carl from Caddyshack up on the big screen!

All in all the Canberra TGAA did a fantastic job providing some quality speakers, in a great venue the Hellenic Club. Pitchcare Oceania was pleased to be invited and is already looking forward to next year. It was great to see the support from all aspects of the industry including gold sponsors Intech and NuTurf / Du Pont.

Everyone we talked to truly enjoyed their day and the proceedings, we apologize for not squeezing in all the talks and trade booths into our conference wrap up.

Read more articles in Shows and seminars, by Rob Jenkins or from August 2009.