Sustainability - What level are you at?

Last week I was driving to a turf seminar and while stuck in road works on the world renowned M25 (looking at Caterpillar diggers) I started to wonder; How sustainable am I? Apart from thinking that the motorway (highway for you North American boys) was not very sustainable I started to think about all the good things I'm doing. Less fungicide, less herbicide, basically less pesticides all make me happy. Then I thought about the grass species I like; creeping bent grass, poa annua and ryegrass and I started to panic. Perhaps I am not sustainable. Will my world fall apart?

A well maintained creeping bent green

Removing Phosphorus from the Watershed

OSU soil chemist Chad Penn discusses why phosphorus build-up can be a problem in the water system and shows a unique device using slag from the steel industry to remove unwanted phosphorus (25% in this case) and how there are opportunities to use the collected phosphorus elsewhere.

To learn more of Penn's study Predicting Phosphorus Sorption onto Steel Slag Using a Flow-through Approach with Application to a Pilot Scale System see it here in PDF.

Cut Those Spores Away!

As we are in to the peak months for disease pressure, how do we keep our surfaces clean of those dreaded parasites? We all hear about using the right cultural practises such as aeration, dew removal and fertility reduction; Basically anything that will dry out the surface and keep it lean. But what about cutting heights? We are always told to increase them at this time of year, but could keeping them tight help in our IPM programme against disease pressure?

BASF Turfgrass Propaganda Video

Enjoy!

"Take a stand and show your turf pride! Turfgrass is one of the most widespread, beneficial and economical landscape plants in the country. It adds value to America's communities and economy. Watch, share and repost this short video about the benefits of lawns, parks, golf courses, recreational sport fields and green spaces. Live on Turfgrass!"

What Can Golf Learn From Beer?

With streams and rivers drying up because of over-usage, Rob Harmon has implemented an ingenious market mechanism to bring back the water. The idea is simple, give Senior Water Rights holders an "incentive to conserve". What's a good incentive? Money. Who has the money? Breweries. Why would a brewery want to purchase water credits? Harmon believes it helps create a positive image of their brand by demonstrating that they are conscious of their water footprint, and besides breweries need a lot of water. Kind of like golf right?

So the idea is that Water Rights Holders can legally protect their Right's from others, while getting paid to leave a portion of the water in the stream to help fish. Nice.

For instance if a golf course holds a Senior Water Right, then they can sell the water that they don't use under their entitled Rights. A great incentive to conserve! Now if a golf course is lower down on the Water Rights list they would have financial incentives to conserve because they are put in a position where they have to purchase the left over water rights within their region. An interesting concept.

One final note, in Spain a Holder can sell off their Rights but doesn't retain their Rights. This has caused the Rights to be in the hands of the buyer with the most $. In many cases this is not a farmer, a cause for concern.