The search is on to recognise the UK’s most professional sprayer operators in the sports turf, amenity and landscape management industries. The Amenity Sprayer Operator of the Year (ASOOTY) Awards highlight best practice and experience in the challenging role of ensuring accurate application on all amenity surfaces.
The Amenity Forum competition, supported by ICL and Syngenta, seeks to share guidance and advice that will raise the standards of spray application across the amenity industry.
The Awards’ finalists will be announced at the Amenity Forum Conference on 10 October, with the overall winner presented at the prestigious BIGGA Awards ceremony at BTME in January 2025.
All ASOOTY applicants will also be entered into a competition to win one of five Syngenta Sprayer Calibration & Application Kits. BASIS CPD points for participating in the awards have been applied for.
Along with assessing operators’ skills of spray application and use of products, the ASOOTY judging panel also now incorporate the importance of an integrated pest management (IPM) approach to any issues involving turf and landscape maintenance.
Announcing the opening of the ASOOTY 2024 Awards, Amenity Forum Chairman, Ian Graham, announced: “This competition seeks to highlight the remarkable talent that exists within our sector, and I encourage as many spray operators as possible to engage with the process.
“Our industry has many highly skilled spray operators working within it, using a diverse range of products accurately applied through a huge range of complex application equipment. The environments in which these applications take place can also be varied and are often challenging.”
Amenity businesses and sports turf managers are urged to actively encourage their sprayer operators to enter the awards this year. “Past winners have ably demonstrated the professional approach to meeting these challenges, and I very much look forward to meeting the finalists at the Amenity Forum Conference.”
Syngenta Technical Manager, Sean Loakes, highlighted: “The skills of sprayer operators to make efficient, effective and above all safe applications is essential for the future sustainability of the amenity and turf care industry.
“The ASOOTY awards are a welcome way to recognise and reward the leading individuals and to learn from their experience,” he says.
“For the best possible results, today’s professional sprayer operators must also fully understand the wider aspects of why an application is being made, and what other integrated options they can also employ for better long-term management of potential problems.”
Last year’s winner, Dan Waring, professional spray technician at JCB Golf and Country Club in Uttoxeter, encourages all sprayer operators to get involved and enter the ASOOTY Awards.
A keen advocate of the Awards, Dan would urge all sprayer operators to take every opportunity to gain more knowledge on the products being used and the latest application technology. “That will enable people to be more confident in what they are doing, and give the spray tech’s role the credit it deserves,” he says.
ICL Landscape & Industrial Business Manager, Lewis Blois, added: “We are delighted to support such an important cross-sector industry initiative, with a continued commitment to raise standards and improve results.
“Importantly it provides a unique and vitally important resource for all involved in spray application across the amenity sector,” he points out.
This year the entry process aims to test sprayer operators’ broader knowledge of issues and solutions faced across the amenity sector through an initial on-line question form, including questions to assess an individual’s experience and approach to dealing with challenges.
“We’re looking to find operators that can make those important proactive decisions with every application.”
Entries to the ASOOTY Awards 2024 closes on Friday 13 September. The on-line entry form is available at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CTF76GD
