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Sixty people attended IMSTMA's first field day ever. Participates come from as far away as Rexburg Idaho and Evanston Wyoming, making the event a tremendous success. Several of our Commercial Member Companies brought their products for a mini Trade Show. The Programmed went as follows, the newly elected president David Schlotthauer welcomed every one to the Field Day, then Roy Petermen, BYU Grounds Director, spoke to the group. Roy talked about BYU's new project of converting BYUs outdoor sprinkler systems to use secondary water by rerouting water from a canal that runs through the BYU campus, giving BYU a huge savings to their water bill. The project is roughly half way to completion and has another year left to go. |
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Dr. Frank Williams, BYU Professor of Horticulture, Retired spoke to us on Synthetic Turf the benefits and the hazards of using synthetic turf in Sport Fields. The first hazard that Dr. Williams discussed is the summer time tempatures of the Synthetic surface itself. (See “Synthetic Surface Heat Studies” presented at the 2004 STMA National Conference by Dr. Williams and Gilbert Pulley) Dr. Williams related a story of a synthetic field in St. George where the staff would water down the field during the day to bring down the tempatures. The water turned to steam and increased the humidity on the field to the point where some of the kids using the field actually fainted. Dr. Williams also pointed out the hazards of the infill material getting in the eyes and being swallowed by the athletes. Dr. Williams did point out that under the proper conditions and circumstances Synthetic Fields do have there place as a sports surface. In conditions where there is so much play on a field that it is virtually impossible to keep a natural turf cover that a synthetic field would be appropriate, but you need to take the heat issue into consideration when scheduling play on the field such as scheduling play in the morning or late afternoon when the daytime tempatures are lower than during the hottest part of the day. Dr. Williams can be contacted at: cfwfourty@gmail.com |
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Jay Warnick, World Class Surfaces was our next speaker. Jay's topic was "Super Fields. . . Not So Super Budget" Jay first spoken on the importance of chapter members volunteering at the chapter level. It is essential to have members participate in the various committees to bring new leadership into the chapter. Without this particiapation the chapter will eventually struggle as the old leaders get5 burned out and there is no new leadership to step up and take over. I apologize for not having a synopsis of the rest of Jay's presentation. I was called away on an errand and didn't get to hear the rest of Jay's presentation. Jay can be contacted at jay@mail.worldclasspaints.com |
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Gilbert Pulley, BYU Grounds Horticulturist was our concluding speaker. Gilbert's topic was "The Difference and Similarities of Maintaining Sand Based Root Zones and Native Soil Root Zones" The first point that Gilbert made is for the Sports Turf Manager to be Proactive. Anticiapte the needs of your field and plan your work to that end. If you wait until your turf start to show stress, from say compaction for example, to treat the turf you will play catch up for the rest of the season. Some myths that Gilbert disspelled, a sand based fields need more water then native soil fields. Gilbert showed that the grass plant needs X amount of water to survive regardless what the grass plant is rooted in. On a native soil field you water deep and infrequent, on a sand based field where the water moves through the soil profile nearly twice as fast as through native soil, therefore you would water a little more often but less water at each watering. Gilbert can be contacted at gep7651@msn.com |
