Students from Hillsborough College, a campus of Sheffield College, recently paid a visit to the UK’s largest and fastest growing grass seed producer DLF Trifolium. The students are all enrolled on the Horticulture Apprenticeship Level 3 course which is designed to develop knowledge, as well as the practical and technical skills, for a career in the horticulture history.

The 8 students made the journey to DLF’s headquarters in Inkberrow and were welcomed by Derek Smith, the Amenity Sales & Marketing Manager for DLF Trifolium.  Their goal was not only to find out how turf grass species are selected and developed but how the company operates within the global, competitive grass seed market – all within the confines of the ever changing, and ever-more specialised, demands of both sports and amenity applications.

“The idea of the day was to give the students a greater awareness of the scale of the DLF breeding and production programmes, as well as an insight into the time scales involved with breeding a new cultivar” said Derek. “The training itself focused on the key characteristics of the main turf grass species looking at how they can then be incorporated into suitable mixtures before spending some time to look at the demonstration plots. For many of the students it was the first time they had seen individual species and cultivars and they seemed particularly impressed by the large differences in turf quality between the cheapest and mid value material.  A great day was had by all involved.” 

We are very pleased to confirm that DLF and Johnsons are once again official sponsors of the IOG Groundsman of the year award. We feel that the awards have done a very good job of raising the profile of modern groundsmen and women. This year we are co- sponsoring the award with Ransomes Jacobsen who are also a global product provider in the high quality turf management sector and we look forward to another successful conference and awards night.

The Football League Groundsman of the Year (League 1), Peter Ashworth, is Head Groundsman at Preston North End Football Club.  Peter attributes his success to the team effort involved to get the desired playing surface.  He believes it is not just his role as Head Groundsman, but also the choice of the best grass seed; the correct feeding regime and most of all, the people at the ground to keep everything in good condition.

To achieve this accolade the Preston pitch was given a score by the visiting Manager and Referee at each home match.  Each had to rate the pitch on a scale of 1 to 5 with the top three pitches at the end of the season being visited by Dr Stephen Baker of the STRI to judge the winner.  Halfway through the season Preston was averaging 4.75 out of 5 and finished up at 4.2 out of 5 - the average for the league was 3.47.

Peter, who attended Myerscough College where he did an HND in Turf Science, is supported by Dean Ash at the main ground with Sam Newton and Aaron Lewis at the training grounds – all join forces when needed. Although Peter has been in the role for 9 years (he had prior stints with Blackburn Rovers and Oldham Athletic) he still calls on the retired former Head Groundsman, Peter McCallion’s, incredible knowledge a few days a week! 

Peter has used Johnsons Sports Seed mixtures for pretty much his full time at Preston.  He purchases the seed from Pitchworks, and Dave Blanchard and the local area DLF specialist John Hughes call in several times a year to keep tabs on what’s happening with the pitch. “I’ve found,” says Peter, “that J Premier Pitch is a nice green colour, looks healthy, has good disease resistance, has great recovery and has been hardwearing even throughout the horrible winter weather we’ve just had.  Our maintenance regimes obviously help and we’ve only had to spray for disease once this season, which is very good for a stadium.” 

The result was a pitch that the players this past season loved. To keep it that way they generally do a renovation every year at the ground and training grounds.  This year they will fraise mow the top 10mm-12mm to get a nice clean surface and then they will put on 200ton of fresh fibre root zone. One cultivated and levelled they will then re-seed with Johnsons J Premier Pitch.  It is expected to establish within a week and Peter hopes to be on within 14 days for a first cut and a full 7 weeks before they start to play on it. 

Throughout the season they use a Verti-Drain as and when needed. 

Bristol Rovers Football Club may be on the verge of building a new stadium but the existing one has benefited greatly from the work of Head Groundsman, Eric Kingscott.  After a poor showing from the seed sown in 2012 Eric commenced a search for the best seed for his venue, and Johnsons Sports Seed J Premier Pitch and J Rescue came up trumps

Eric has been Head Groundsman at Bristol Rovers for 2 years – his first appointment as a Groundsman having worked previously in agriculture and domestic landscaping.  He is only supported by one part-time person to maintain the pitch, which is also home to Bristol City RFC.  An NVQ Level 2, completed last year, pushed him towards this career path. 

The pitch is of native soil construction with ameliorated sand and has no rootzone reinforcement or secondary drainage. The seed used for the 2012 season was slow to start; provided poor wear tolerance; had little recovery and no decent presentation, and then when winter came it didn’t like the cold weather!  

“I decided to look through the seed catalogues for an alternative” said Eric. “I was looking to find something that would fare better during cold weather, as well as having high disease tolerance and quick recovery.  It took a lot of homework but I managed to narrow it down to a Johnsons Sports Seed mixture.”   The Board asked him to speak to other Groundsman who had used the seed in the past and Reading, Aston Villa and Manchester United all recommended it.  Eric was, however, conscious of different weather conditions in the different parts of the country so was still a little reticent.  So, with the Boards’ understanding Eric sowed J Premier Pitch and J Rescue from Countrywide Amenity on a trial basis to see the true effectiveness.  He was not disappointed.

The pitch has held up well despite the wet weather this past winter.  Eric again, “It has been hard wearing and quick to recover after the games held during the bad weather. It is the ideal grass seed to use for a dual-sports pitch as we still have Rugby matches here.  Altogether the pitch has seen 53 competitive games since being sown.  It has exhibited good disease resistance with only a bit of leaf spot that has been treated by an external contractor.  That necessitated a bit of scarification and overseeding. We’ll sow J Rescue in September/October as we did last year.” 

The Club is hoping to move to a new ground within 2 years and Eric hopes to be closely involved in the preparations for the new pitch. 

The preparations for making perfect pitches for the most prestigious football tournament in the World have followed a carefully planned schedule.  With a few weeks before kick-off in Brazil the pitches were in good shape and fit for play. The pitch preparations have included overseeding with a top performing Perennial ryegrass mixture from DLF-TRIFOLIUM, parent company of the UK’s Johnson Sports Seed.

DLF-TRIFOLIUM Export Manager Jan Gottlieb, and General Manager Maximino Santiago Borsi, took a tour of some of the Brazilian stadiums and training centres in early May and are confident that the pitches will be ready for the World Cup matches in summer 2014.  On his return Jan Gottlieb said, “We have been working on this event for 3 years in close cooperation with grass specialists and the constructors responsible for the pitches.  We are in no doubt that this World Cup will present top class grass pitches.”

The 12 stadiums hosting the Word Cup in Brazil are impressive, but the heavy wear and challenging growth conditions will put a lot of pressure on the pitches. Football pitches in Brazil are generally Bermuda grass based, but due to the winter dormancy of Bermuda grass the pitches needed to be reinforced with temperate sports turfgrass to provide the perfect and uniform playing surface during the tournament 

The challenge was met by the specialist turfgrass mixture chosen for this major event having proven itself to perform exceptionally well under the special climatic conditions, as well as the intense matches expected in a World Cup tournament.  The 4turf™ cultivar in the chosen mixture has been trialled in the UK at the STRI and the final seed mixture thoroughly tested in Brazil by both international advisors & local sports grass specialists. To meet this requirement the pitches are overseeded with DLF’s top performing Perennial ryegrasses including 4turf™, a new and innovative turfgrass exclusively available from the R&D stable of DLF-TRIFOLIUM & Johnsons Sports Seed.  

4turf™ is a turf type Tetraploid Perennial Ryegrass, with a double set of chromosomes making it extra tough and suitable for hard wearing turf.  4turf™ cultivars have large seeds; they germinate faster and have a better drought tolerance than other turfgrasses.  4turf™ was made widely available in the spring of 2014 in a range of new mixtures from Johnsons Sorts Seeds for the professional market, like their J Pitch mixture.

The pitch preparation process for the stadiums hosting the tournament has been coordinated by The Local Organizing Committee (LOC).  They developed the guidelines and a detailed training programme for pitch managers.  A training seminar with more than 230 participants was carried out in mid-March to explain all the details in the final pitch preparation program.   The LOC ensured that the special grass mixture from DLF was available at all locations hosting the football matches of the World Cup.  Starting in April the pitches were repeatedly overseeded with DLF’s top performing Turf Perennial ryegrass varieties. 

The turf solution for the Brazilian stadiums is very similar to the successful products supplied by the DLF Group for the World Cup in South Africa 2010.

One adviser to the LOC has been Maristela Kuhn, agronomist and grass specialist, who has trained the pitch managers in the preparation programme.  “There are significant differences in climate and geography at the Brazilian’s World Cup locations from north to south.” said Maristela.  “Therefore the key challenge has been to define a homogeneous grass solution providing uniform and fair playing surfaces for the football teams. To secure top quality pitches from kick-off, and all the way up to the final on July 13, overseeding the pitches with a Perennial ryegrass mixture has been an important part of the strategy and preparations.”

Two Brazilian turf constructors, World Sports & Marketing and Green Leaf, renovated or rebuilt all the World Cup stadiums.  World Sports & Marketing CEO, Roberto Gomide, said as pitch preparation started, “The DLF grass seed chosen has that unique technical quality and visible features that will create the ultimate playing surface needed for the World Cup in Brazil. I feel confident that the pitches will be outstanding!” This sentiment was echoed by Green Leaf CEO Paulo Antonio Azeredo Neto by saying, “In the preparations for the World Cup we are confronted by multiple challenges for the pitches, the tropical season being one and the shady conditions another. The 4turf™ innovation and the high-end 

quality sports grass solutions from DLF provide the answers to these challenges and we are looking forward to seeing the convincing performance on the Brazilian stadiums.” 

They were not wrong because the pitch is ready for the opening match in São Paolo on June 12^th between Brazil and Croatia.  Whilst a large amount of finishing is taking place around the venue at the Arena de São Paolo in the weeks leading to the opening match, the grass pitch is ready now.  This particular pitch has no Bermuda grass and consists entirely of the Perennial ryegrass solution from DLF.

In all there are 12 stadiums hosting the 64 football matches from the 32 best national teams in the world.  There are 24 Official Training Centres (OTC) for training matches and 32 National Training Centres (NTC) base camps for national teams.  The tournament takes place from Thursday, 12 June to Sunday, 13 July 2014 across Brazil.