England has long been famous for its beautiful lawns, the rather inclement weather providing ideal growing conditions for grass, and it would seem that English turf is in demand all over the world.
Lincolnshire based turf growers County Turf are continually increasing their supply into Europe and have recently delivered their top quality turf to new destinations in France and the Ukraine!
When they were approached to supply 7000m2 of their County Greens USGA turf for a Golf Club in the Ukraine, they knew that this would be one of their greatest challenges to date. The new grade of instant play turf had to travel almost 2000 miles to reach its destination and the longer the journey, the greater the risk of the turf deteriorating in transit.
Delivering into Europe is nothing new to the Scunthorpe based firm who have supplied their top quality turf for major stadiums as far a field as Sweden and Poland, but this was to be the furthest the Lincolnshire firm had travelled and it became a major operation of planning and communication. Managing Director Andy Fraser said, ‘We had to overcome language barriers with hauliers over the transhipping, but had to be done as it was vital that the refrigerated lorries maintained the correct temperature to ensure the turf arrived in top condition’.
The 2000 mile journey took a total of 7 days and the turf travelled through 5 different countries; by ferry from Immingham to Rotterdam, on to Belgium, Germany, Austria and Slovakia, before finally reaching the Ukraine. Andy Fraser flew out to inspect the quality of the first loads and thankfully tests of the fridge temperatures, monitors and the pre-harvest specially formulated fungicide program all proved correct and the turf arrived in excellent condition, leaving the customer very happy with his ‘English grass!’
County Greens USGA is an instant play specification of turf, suitable for golf, bowling greens and luxury lawns, it is mown to 8mm and sand dressed to give it a very dense firm sward which produces the perfect putting surface.
County Turf is a family business who are passionate about growing the very best quality turf for customers. They are members of the TGA and sponsors of the STRI Golf Environment awards.
Some of their famous customers include England’s new Olympic Stadium, the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Carnegie Links Golf Course at Skibo Castle, Ullevi Stadium Gothenburg, Parken Stadium Copenhagen, Castle Stuart Golf Course, Croke Park Dublin and the Winners’ Enclosure at Goodwood racecourse.
CountyTurfwww.countyturf.co.uk