By Cecilia Brown
Sod Farm of Over 45 Years Expands Business Across Tennessee In high school,
Bobby Winstead, the owner of Winstead Turf Farms, would spend his spare time growing vegetables on his father’s small farm in Lakeland, TN. He grew, harvested and sold butter beans, tomatoes, field corn and black-eyed peas at a roadside stand beside the farm. Meanwhile, his father, Robert Lee Winstead Sr., had a friend who owned a nearby nursery. The two would meet frequently for breakfast and the friend would ask Robert instead of vegetables, could his son start growing some zoysiagrasses for his nursery. So, Bobby and his dad planted 11 acres of zoysiagrass in 1978, officially beginning their sod farming adventure. In 1983, additional farms were added in Arlington. Now, with almost 1,100 acres of sod farms, Bobby has grown an operation that is known widely throughout the state of Tennessee. “We just kept expanding the types of grasses and then in the early 90s, we realized there was a demand for grasses that we didn’t have in our areas. So that’s when we first went to Texas A&M,” Bobby said. That’s when Winstead Turf Farms started growing its first two proprietary grasses: Palisades Zoysia and Royal Zoysia. Two of his newest varieties are Latitude 36® Bermudagrass and NorthBridge® Bermudagrass. “We definitely realized proprietary turfgrasses were the way for us to go. This made more sense,” he added. Winstead Turf Farms prides itself on offering the most innovative varieties. Bobby said that he likes both NorthBridge and Latitude 36 for the same reasons; the regrowth period is very quick and both are cold tolerant. “I think Latitude 36 fits golf better than Northbridge and I think Northbridge fits stadium grasses like football and soccer fields better than Latitude does. Color is great on both and tensile strength we’ve had good success with. Northbridge has always had really, really good tensile strength,” Bobby said. “We’ll be growing those two varieties for a while.” When it comes to working with 58
customers to ensure they’re getting the right grass for their situation, Bobby said if he knows what they’re looking for then the customer can leave the decision in his hands to pick the right grass for them. He said customers call and ask which grasses do best in shade, in droughts, with pets, in the cold, etc. He said they are pleased with the grass varieties grown at Winstead Turf Farms, as they handle almost all of these factors. Bobby took his expertise in the industry and served on the board of Turfgrass Producers International (TPI) from 2003-07. Then, he left for a while and came back onto the board when his children graduated high school. “I went through the secretary, treasurer, vice president, president and past president positions. I was the President of TPI in 2012 and it just opened up a tremendous number of doors and we met people from all over the country and all over the world,” he said. “I’ve been fortunate to have gotten invited to meet with international businesses and have so many different opportunities from this organization.” He said being an active member was a major time commitment, adding about a month per year to his workload. “I think anybody that gets the opportunity to do it should do it, but don’t think it’s not going to be a lot of work,” he said. He encouraged anyone interested
in joining the TPI Board to consider how much time their stage of life or business career will allow them to dedicate to the organization.
Growth Bobby said the growth of his farm happened gradually, over time. He considers himself more of a real estate investor than a ‘sod guy.’ Over the years, he focused on buying properties in the growth plane of Memphisrelated expansion for residential and commercial. The original Lakeland acres have been developed into a residential area called Winstead Farms, consisting of nice, higher-end houses. Bobby explained he normally utilizes the farmland he owns for growing turfgrass until the property value becomes enough for him to decide to develop on it. So, his business has moved several times as he’s progressively purchased land and developed more housing along the way. This trend of expansion has also happened simultaneously with the housing boom in the Memphis metro area. Winstead Turf Farms mainly grows proprietary grasses that they ship from Memphis and West Tennessee farms to Nashville. But within the past few years, Bobby purchased two new farms located closer to Nashville. The first is Hurricane Mills, a 200-acre farm with turfgrass designated specifically Golf Central • Volume 23, Issue 3
