News & Specials

A keen group of 28 turf managers, both golf course and sportsfield representatives left on the early bus to Oregon before sun up hoping to miss major border traffic. But alas, a Korean choir beat us to the front of the border line and so the 1.5 hour wait allowed all of us to get well acquainted on the bus.

Lunch awaited us at the world Nike World  headquarters in Beaverton Oregon, just south of Portland. The 175 acre site is a fully planned landscaped area including a salmon stream, 6 acre pond, Japanese garden, sand sports fields along with a myriad of other buildings and points of interest. The “campus” employs 5,000 workers from running shoe sole designers and manufacturers to marketing and research and development.

The day ended at the research farm of the DLF International Seeds, the largest cool season seed company in the world. Turf breeder Steve Reid was able to not only explain the turf grass breeding process but also demonstrate the end result in his test plots. It was easy to see the density and colour differences when compared to the other well know varieties. “This stop alone has already made my whole trip worthwhile” commented Paul Robertson, Victoria Golf Club Superintendant. There was significant interest in the winter active and creeping abilities of varieties, such as Elka 3 Perennial Ryegrass. After a welcomed BBQ, the hotel bed was the place of rest for most.

Thursday morning, after an early breakfast the group had an incredible visit to a third generation farmer in the Albany area. We saw a warehouse with about 12 million pound seed inventory, with an annual through put of about 80 million pounds. Pro Seeds, the sponsor of the Glasser farm visit, introduced us to the tour guide Dennis Glasser and his son Ryan. These farmers grow 5000 acres of seed and also operate as a seed cleaning, blending and bagging facility. The group was impressed with the energy that Dennis and Ryan put into keeping their grass seed and farm free of undesirable weeds.  Participants on the tour were so convinced of the Glasser farm quality that at least two of the group wanted to make sure that all their seed came from this farm in the future. Many Oregon seed farms are very progressive ensuring that Premier Pacific Seeds Ltd. customers obtain the  cleanest seed possible.

The next stop on this excursion was Safeco field in Seattle. We were very fortunate to be able to have access to many areas such as the bull pen and dugouts and other back rooms of the Stadium. The Mariners/ Angels baseball game provided with an exciting finish to this extremely worthwhile excursion.