Vice President's Letter

“Watch It Grow”

Have any of you ever been made fun of by people asking, “what do you do, just watch the grass grow?” I personally don’t know a single turf manager, especially those of us in the state of Arkansas, that sit around and watch the grass grow. In fact, most of our full-time jobs consist of making sure it doesn’t die! We all know that is often times much more difficult than it may seem. 2023 has proven to be one for the record books when it comes to simply keeping grass alive.

As winter gave way to spring, many managers in the state started realizing the severity of the winter injury on our Bermuda and Zoysia grasses on the sites they manage. Multiple golf courses across the state have had to replace acres upon acres of turfgrass. Some of the factors that impacted which areas sustained the most injury included: traffic, shade, height of cut, drought, elevation, soil composition, overall turf health going into the fall. Nearly all of us were affected to a certain extent, regardless of the factors that led to the injury.

I’m sure golf course superintendents have answered countless complaints about why the collars aren’t filling in. Lawn care operators are probably tired of getting blamed for “killing the grass.” Sports turf guys… well, I’m not real sure about them. They probably get to just watch the grass grow (unless they deal with Dave Van Horn on the daily)! It’s been brutal, and it’s certainly not sitting around and watching grass grow.

In addition to our warm season turf taking a beating, millions and millions of dollars of plant material was killed this winter too. Many of us are also dealing with the headache and expense of replacing countless plants.

On top of the agronomic challenges we’ve all faced so far in 2023, the Little Rock area was devastated by a tornado in late March. The first thing I did when I heard about the tornado was reach out to our president, Richard Covert. He sent me a video he took from his office window of the tornado and debris cloud. I can’t imagine the feelings of watching a tornado rip through your city. Those of you that were affected by that storm, I’m so sorry. I hope all those you care about were safe and that your properties are on the road to recovery.

With what has been a very challenging start to 2023, I’m hopeful that your warm season turfgrasses are starting to recover. Maybe you can actually “watch it grow” for a bit—just in time for us to start losing sleep over our cool season grasses!

Sincerely,

Josh Landreth

ATA Vice President

UPCOMING EVENTS

AUGUST 1, 2023

University of Arkansas Turfgrass Field Day

Milo J. Shult Agricultural Research and Extension Center • Fayetteville, AR

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JANUARY 25 – 26, 2024

2024 ATA Annual Conference and Trade Show

Hot Springs Convention Center • Hot Springs, AR