T H E A R KA N S A S T U R F G RA S S A S S O C I AT I O N M AG AZ I N E • S U M M E R 2021
Education Spotlight on
A S H D OW N T U R F G RA S S
B E T T E R P LA N N I N G and E X E C U T I O N T H RO U G H W E AT H E R A P P A D O PT I O N
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T H E A R K A N S A S T U R F G RA S S A S S O C I AT I O N M AG A Z I N E CO N T E N T S • S U M M E R 2021
10
8
6
FEATURES
8 Cover Story —
Education Spotlight on Ashdown Turfgrass
DEPARTMENTS 10
Feature Article —
Better Planning and Execution Through Weather App Adoption
4 President’s Message 5 Index of Advertisers 5 University of Arkansas Turf Team
6 News from ATA
For turf news & updates, follow T W I T T E R . C O M / T H E T U R F Z O N E Find this issue, Podcasts, Events and More: T H E T U R F Z O N E . C O M Summer 2021
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ARKANSAS TU R FGRASS
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3
P R E S I D E N T ’S M E S S AG E
Arkansas Turfgrass Association P.O. Box 185 • Bryant, AR 72089 Tel: 501-860-0187
New Beginnings
Richard Covert ATA President
E
ven when the world shuts down and businesses, employees and customers change their habits, the grass keeps growing. As we’ve emerged from the fog of 2020, the spring and summer of 2021 have proven that Mother Nature carries on and it has been our privilege as turfgrass managers to continue to put in the hours and hard work needed to keep up. I hope you’ve all been able to keep up as the busy season has begun, and that we all remain grateful for the continued ability to do the work that supports so many individuals and organizations across the state. Despite the challenges the last year has presented, ATA is still working hard to create community and education opportunities for our members. That’s why we are thrilled to announce that we’ll be back with a live, in-person conference and trade show on January 27th – 28th, 2022. Save the date and watch for more details at arkansasturf.net. Another exciting development from ATA is the hiring of our new Executive Director, Shelby Hanson. Shelby’s agribusiness background is a great fit for our organization and we are excited about the direction and support she will provide to the board and members. As always, stay safe and let us know how we can serve you!
Richard Covert ATA President
Published by: Leading Edge Communications, LLC 206 Bridge Street, Suite 200 Franklin, TN 37064 Tel: 615-790-3718 Email: info@leadingedge communications.com ATA OFFICERS Richard Covert, President Baptist Health Systems Richard.covert@baptist-health.org Kyle Sanders, Immediate Past President Sanders Ground Essentials 501-315-9395 kylesanders@sandersground.com Jeff Haskins, Treasurer Paragould Country Club 870-780-5883 Ja1116@earthlink.net Shelby Hanson Executive Director sgouche@uark.edu Pat Berger, Director Emeritus University of Arkansas • 479-575-6887 pberger@uark.edu Charlie Bowen, Director Emeritus Arkansas Hydroseed • 501-315-7333 charliebowen@yahoo.com Seth Dunlap Arkansas State Plant Board seth.dunlap@agriculture.arkansas.gov 501-225-1598 Mark Brown Nabholz • 501-749-7459 rmbrown2@ualr.edu Rodney Fisher Life Member, Founding Member Agra Turf, Inc. • 501-268-7036 agrarod@yahoo.com Ron Fisher Agra Turf, Inc. • 501-268-7036 agraron@yahoo.com Steve Ibbotson Conway Parks & Rec. • 501-328-4173 Steve.ibbotson@cityofconway.org Josh Landreth Ace of Blades • 479-530-7001 aceofblades@cox.net Mark Mowrey, Director Emeritus Oaklawn • 501-538-1600 bntgrns@yahoo.com
The statements and opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Arkansas Turfgrass Association, its staff, or its board of directors, Arkansas Turfgrass, or its editors. Likewise, the appearance of advertisers, or their identification as Arkansas Turfgrass Association members, does not constitute an endorsement of the products or services featured in this, past or subsequent issues of this quarterly publication. Copyright © 2021 by the Arkansas Turfgrass Association. Arkansas Turfgrass is published quarterly. Subscriptions are complimentary to members of the Arkansas Turfgrass Association. Third-class postage is paid at Jefferson City, MO. Printed in the U.S.A. We are not responsible for unsolicited freelance manuscripts and photographs. Contact the managing editor for contribution information. 4 • A R K A N S A S T U R F G R A S S • Summer 2021
Guy Oyler Jerry Pate Turf & Irrigation goyler@jerrypate.com • 501-317-5980 Rodger Pevehouse Life Member Michael Rush Rush Lawn Care • 501-279-8980 mrush@rushlawn.com Ricky Self Cypress Creek r.self@yahoo.com • 501-605-8000
U N I V E R S I TY O F A R KAN S AS T UR F TEA M Mike Richardson, Ph.D. Professor 479-575-2860 mricha@uark.edu John Boyd, Ph.D. Visiting Assistant Professor Cooperative Extension Service Little Rock 501-671-2224 Jwb019@uark.edu John H. McCalla Jr. Program Technician III 479-575-5033 jmccall@uark.edu Eric DeBoer Program Technician / Ph.D. Student ejdeboer@uark.edu Rhiannon de la Rosa – M.S. Student Daniel O’Brien – Ph.D. Student Thomas Walton – M.S. Student
INDEX OF ADVERT ISERS Agra Turf, Inc........................................ 13 www.agrainc.com
Modern Turf, Inc.. . ....................................7 www.modernturf.com
Beam Clay............................................. 13 www.BEAMCLAY.com
Progressive Turf Equipment Inc.. . ............7 www.progressiveturfequip.com
ChemTrade Turf, LLC........Inside Front Cover chemtradeturf.com
R.W. Distributors...................... Back Cover www.Exmark.com
Dave’s Sale and Service........................ 15 www.turfeagle.com
Smith Seed Services. . ............................ 13 www.smithseed.com
Jackson Sand......................................... 15 www.jacksonsand.com
The Sod Store.. .........................................5 sodpartners.com
Kesmac.................................................. 11 www.brouwerkesmac.com
Syngenta Turf.. ...................................... 13 www.syngentaprofessionalproducts.com
Leading Edge Communications.. ........... 15 www.LeadingEdgeCommunications.com
To discuss advertising opportunities, contact Leading Edge Communications:
615 - 790 - 3718 O R 888 - 707- 7141 sales@leadingedgecommunications.com
Summer 2021
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ARKANSAS TU R FGRASS
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5
N E W S F RO M ATA
WELCOME NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
SHELBY HANSON
H
ello, I’m Shelby Hanson, the new Arkansas Turfgrass Association Executive Director! I grew up in Northwest Arkansas, and I have a BS in Agribusiness Marketing and Management. I currently am working on a MS in Operations Management. I work full-time for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, as a departmental fiscal manager. I currently am with the departments of Horticulture and AgriEcon/AgBusiness. Some of my favorite hobbies are hiking, bicycling, reading, and hanging out with my family. I also play with the Arkansas Winds in my spare time. I’m super excited to be joining the ATA as Executive Director and look forward to meeting many of you at our 2022 annual meeting! •
CONGRATULATIONS
Dr.
D R. K A R C H E R
Doug Karcher, who has served as Turfgrass Specialist, Professor and Assistant Head in the Department of Horticulture at University of Arkansas, has accepted the professor and Chair in the Department of Horticulture and Crop Science position at The Ohio State University. Dr. Karcher’s experience and leadership have been a great benefit not only to the University, but ATA and all turfgrass professionals in Arkansas. His presence will surely be missed across the state, but Arkansas Turfgrass offers its sincere appreciation for his contributions to the association. In Dr. Karcher’s absence, until his position is filled, Daniel O’Brien, a doctoral student at UofA will serve as our liaison with the University. In collaboration with Shelby Hanson, our new Executive Director, and the ATA Board of Directors, Daniel will keep our educational connections growing. Stay tuned for updates regarding research at the University! •
6 • A R K A N S A S T U R F G R A S S • Summer 2021
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COV E R S TO RY
EDUCATION SPOTLIGHT on
ASHDOWN
TURFGRASS with DIRECTOR CHUCK CROSS
A
shdown High School’s Turf Management Program may have just finished its inaugural year, but it is poised to bring many up and coming workers into the turfgrass industry. Chuck Cross, the founder and director of the program, shared some reflections on year one and goals for the years to come. How was the Turf Management program started? It started with me looking at turfgrass programs through social media. I’d been doing it on my own, with the help of the baseball team and assistant coaches in the last seven years, and I ran upon South Forsythe, Georgia’s Twitter page. I screenshot it and sent it to our superintendent, and said, “We should think about doing this next year at Ashdown,” and he said, “Let’s just start it right now.” The superintendent, the athletic director, the curriculum director, the principals have been great, the counselors, because they had to change schedules. We started the class as soon as we came back from Christmas break, in January 2021. Did you have a lot of student interest? Did they know about turf management as a career path? I think probably two or three of my baseball players have gone on to do small lawn businesses, and then we have BWI, in Texarkana, and we have a couple guys that work over there, and then we have a bunch of golf courses around. When I started telling P.E. kids, baseball and football players that I was going to have a class, I had a lot of interest. I had to downsize it for the first year, but I think next year it’s going to be fairly big. Where does all the information come from as you’re learning and building the program and the kids are learning it too? I’ve been a part of baseball for probably 20+ years and the support with baseball, the group of baseball coaches are awesome. But it doesn’t compare to the turfgrass community. I just started
8 • A R K A N S A S T U R F G R A S S • Summer 2021
the Twitter account and I got with Mike Richardson on how we’re going to start this thing and he kind of mentored me, just through email. He has been great. The turfgrass community is unreal. I can’t compare it to anybody because nobody is out to get you, they’re all out to help you. And Mike has been great, Karen has been great. And then the superintendent at Texarkana Country Club, Kenny Sawyer, if I need anything I call him, and Brad Essary at Turface, he’s been really good. What have your students learned and worked on this school year?
We started in the fall with overseeding the football field with perennial ryegrass. After that, just working on the baseball and softball field – edging, weed eating, fertilizer, pesticides (which I do that on my own, and they watch), renovating the mound, renovating the mound for softball. Pretty much everything when it comes to sports turf management. I did take the kids one day to the Conference USA tournament, it was at Texarkana Country Club and they really enjoyed that. I’ve given them all the opportunity to run the fairway mower and the one person who wanted to run it was a ninth grade girl. I had senior boys, junior boys, and the kid that ran the big fairway mower on all the athletic fields was a ninth grade girl, Kylie. It was great. I’m still learning too.
What are your goals for the future of the program? Going forward, I think I’m going to have two classes next year, I’m hoping to have Turf 1 and Turf 2. It took us a while to teach the kids how to work the blower, the weed eater, the mower, and then real mowers you have to do a ton of maintenance on, so that took a lot of time up. To have two different classes where the underclassmen, we can teach them how to work the equipment and the next year they go into the other one and we’re just ready to roll — paint fields and there’s not a lot of teaching maintenance and safety and all that in the next class. Also, I’ve had three other schools get in contact with me to see how they can get started, and that would be a goal of mine and maybe Mike’s, Karen’s and all the people in turfgrass. How can working turf professionals support this program and how can they help you guys with whatever path you may take in the future? We could use everything you’re not using. I have about 13 kids right now, have one large fairway mower, one weed eater, two blowers. So any equipment that they’re not using, even if it’s just slightly broken, because we have a really good maintenance guy
here at Ashdown, we could use it if it’s not valuable to them. Also, anytime they want to Zoom and teach the kids, because those guys know way more. I’m just spreading the word. The big companies could help out a lot, and I know they have – even things like the guys at Davis Seed Company did with getting us tee shirts for the kids. Have there been any other surprises along the lines with who your students are and what they do? Yes, the majority of our students are baseball players, they’ve been guys that have helped me over the years, so that’s where I drew interest. When I started asking kids, do you want to be in turf management, we started getting girls, we started getting different ethnicities, and our class is very diverse. No knock on the guys, but the girls work really, extremely hard. You give them a task and they complete it pretty quickly and they do a great job. There’s a ton more kids at Ashdown that want to be in it and I’m hoping that we can get them in it next year so that we can just give them opportunities for good jobs. •
For the full interview, check out our podcast with Chuck on THETURFZONE.COM
Summer 2021
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ARKANSAS TU R FGRASS
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F E AT U R E
BETTER PLANNING AND EXECUTION THROUGH WEATHER APP ADOPTION By Brad Jakubowski, Instructor in Agronomy, Center for Turfgrass Science
K
eeping an eye on the weather is something professional turfgrass managers have ingrained into our systems. Can I mow today? We check our phones for the most recent forecast. Should I spray today? We monitor dewpoints, humidity and temperatures. Will I pull the tarp prior to today’s game? We study the weather radar. There is a tremendous amount of weather information out there and nearly all of us have some form of a weather app on our phones or a link to our favorite weather website to help us make day-to-day management decisions. Let’s take a journey, to see what is out there and what information will help us make the best weather-based decisions possible.
Which app is the best? Honestly, there is no one best app so it is important to find an app or a number of apps that provide you the most reliable and quickly available information.
Basic Information that is important to have available with the least number of clicks would be: • High and Low Temperatures (including overnight lows) • Dewpoint • Relative Humidity • Short-Term Weather Forecasts
Intermediate Information includes: • Radar (Base and Composite Reflectivity) • Satellite Imagery • Severe Weather (especially lightning). FIGURE
1
Advanced Information would be: • Echo Tops • Vertically Integrated Liquid • Digital Storm Accumulation • Forecast Discussion
Basic Information When looking for basic information, it is best to have most or all important data on the first screen or within one or two clicks from the first screen. That is often a good way to judge how well your app will benefit you over time. As an example, The National Weather Service includes much of the basic data (Figure 1). At a glance, you can get a good idea of what is happening now and what will happen in the immediate future. High and low temperatures provide a quick mental image of how the day (and night) may influence your maintenance plans, while winds, dewpoint and relative humidity provide a quick insight on irrigation requirements, disease potential, and infield skin management requirements. It is beneficial to see both relative humidity and dewpoint together. Viewing only either limits your view of the big picture. For example, a relative humidity of 65% with dewpoints over 70 degrees indicate that less time may be spent watering the infield skin and instead used to scout for diseases. The same relative humidity with dewpoints under 40 may indicate a majority of the day should be dedicated to watering the skin and irrigating.
10 • A R K A N S A S T U R F G R A S S • Summer 2021 • This article was originally published in Pennsylvania Turfgrass Magazine, Summer 2021.
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F E AT U R E • continued Intermediate Information When making game-time decisions such as tarp pulls or field evacuations due to severe weather, radar becomes an important tool. There are numerous good weather radar apps available. Many are free, some require an annual fee of $US 10 to 50. Many of the fee-based apps offer expanded functionality, precision and overall quality of information. Regardless of cost, radar app selection should prioritize the type of reflectivity the radar images are based upon. There are two types, Base Reflectivity and Composite Reflectivity. Each time a radar transmitter spins, it sends out a microwave ‘sweep’ at different elevations to get a complete picture of all atmosphere elevations. A Base Reflectivity image represents only a single sweep of the radar transmitter. This means that near the transmitter the radar ‘sees’ low in the storms and as distance increases the beam rises and can overshoot the core of heavier precipitation. Many High-Resolution (Hi-Res) radar images feature only Base Reflectivity sweeps. Composite Reflectivity stitches together all elevation scans, in order, to create an image that represents a more complete picture of an incoming storm. These are often lower-resolution images and may be more pixelated. Figures 2 and 3 are of the same storm with the former being a Base Reflectivity image and the latter a Composite Reflectivity image. Figure 4 shows the different reflectivity options you may have within a radar app, and again illustrates not all radar imagery is the same. So, when trying to make critical game-time decisions, a radar image using Base Reflectivity may grossly underestimate the significance of an incoming storm. When selecting a radar app, be sure investigate the types of radar images it provides and be prepared to spend a few dollars for radar that will prove worthwhile in the future.
Satellite Imagery There are numerous Satellite Imagery options as well. They provide visible cloud cover, infrared (the most common that we see), moisture content, and all-in-one maps that include a combination of radar, infrared, and weather station models to tell a complete weather story. Satellite images can give you a broader perspective of how the weather is behaving on a wider, more continental scale. The images and loops illustrate air flow, cloud and moisture movement and overall dynamics of frontal systems. These large-scale images and video loops can help in longerterm planning. They can aid in project preparation and be used as a tool to help protect fields when communicating with administrators that may be considering additional unexpected events during non-use days. It is useful to compare these images with regular weather maps to get a good working knowledge of fronts and changing weather systems.
12 • A R K A N S A S T U R F G R A S S • Summer 2021
BASE REFLECTIVITY FIGURE
2
COMPOSITE REFLECTIVITY FIGURE
3
FIGURE
4
YOU NEVER STOP INNOVATING. NEITHER DO WE. CON D I T I ON. P E R F OR M. R ECOV E R.
For more information, contact: Shawn Emmack - Mid & West TN | 404-353-1291 | shawn.emmack@syngenta.com Larry Feller - East TN | 843-693-2187 | larry.feller@syngenta.com Jason Whitecliffe - Hamilton Cty | 678-687-8871 | jason.whitecliffe@syngenta.com @SyngentaTurf
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All photos are either the property of Syngenta or are used with permission. ©2021 Syngenta. Important: Always read and follow label instructions. Some products may not be registered for sale or use in all states or counties. Please check with your state or local extension service to ensure registration status. Action™, Adigor®, Appear®, Daconil®, Manuscript®, Posterity® and the Syngenta logo are trademarks of a Syngenta Group Company. Secure® is a trademark of Ishihara Sangyo Kaisha, LTD. All other trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners.
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Cell: 501 230-7303 Business: 501 268-7036 Ext: 107 Fax: 501 268-0606
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F E AT U R E • continued Severe Weather Lightning is the most critical facet of severe weather for sport turf managers. In 2019, one in five people struck by lightning were engaged in an outdoor sporting activity. Having an app that can provide you lightning information instantly or within a click on your phone is important. The lightning information from the WeatherBug app for Figure 5 only required a short scroll down and a single click. An old AM radio is also good to have on-hand as a back up lightning detector. Significant increase in crackles and static transmitted across AM radio bands are dependable indicators of lightning activity in the area. Old School!
Advanced Information As we work towards becoming more proficient with understanding weather and being able to make better weather-based decisions, we find more advanced tools to help us. Echo Tops or Cloud Height is another function to help us assess the intensity of an oncoming storm. An Echo Top measures the overall height of a storm, which is an indicator of the strength of storm updrafts. Stronger updrafts make convective wind gusts and large hail more likely. When several storms are on radar, the Echo Tops tool can point out the more severe storms and the direction they are travelling (Figure 6). This can be valuable information to report to the front office when asked about making a call on a game or whether the conditions will be safe to conduct a last-minute tarp pull. Another tool to assess the strength of a storm is Vertically Integrated Liquid (VIL). The VIL index measures how much water is being transported vertically throughout a storm cloud and is another indicator of a storm’s updraft strength. Taller updrafts tend to have higher values of VIL and are more likely to produce hail. One more tool that can be used to help determine the total accumulation of a precipitation event is Digital Storm Accumulation. By allowing you to assess discrete accumulations over short periods of time, this tool may help you determine whether or not to pull a field cover for a particular rain event, saving time and energy that could be used elsewhere and avoid unnecessary delays. This tool may also aid in determining the potential of a flash flood event in your area.
Summary Technological advancements afford us incredibly convenient tools and information apps that support worker and clientele safety while improving our maintenance, irrigation, pest management, and playability decision-making. Take advantage of this opportunity by investigating these different apps and functions. Poll your colleagues, service providers, and blogs/forums to best experiment and discover what works best for you and your facility. •
14 • A R K A N S A S T U R F G R A S S • Summer 2021
FIGURE
5
FIGURE
6
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