THE PIRATING OF LICENSED AND CERTIFIED GRASSES By Jim Novak
Producers of licensed and certified turfgrasses spend years, if not de- cades, and a great deal of investment capital, to finance the research of the products they eventually develop, test and bring to the marketplace.
Like any entrepreneurial endeavor, developing new cultivars requires con- siderable cost and plenty of trial and error along the way. When researchers do create a new cultivar that’s been time-tested, gone through numerous trials, extensive evaluations and has finally been proven to be successful; there’s the tremendous cost related to promoting and marketing the product they have developed.
The investment in time, money and other resources is substantial. The
royalties they charge for the products they bring to the market help to finance and support continuing re- search so they can strive to produce future grasses. The trait character- istics they are looking for may offer any number of benefits, including but not limited to: enhanced drought tolerance, resistance to disease, reduced irrigation needs, greater salt tolerance, insect resistance, reduced fertilizer requirements, infrequent mowing, etc.
Extensive research, test plots, on-site evaluations, wide-ranging quality control measures, on-going inspec- tions, on-site verification and a host of other procedures are often associ- ated with licensing and certification.
Becky Grubbs, a doctoral student at the University of Georgia’s (UGA)
Crop and Soil Sciences Department, put another spin on licensed and certified turfgrasses, and it’s a much more personal perspective. Regard- ing turfgrass research that results in innovative new products she com- mented, “Ultimately, a turf scientist’s work is about building relationships. In turfgrass science, we do not grow food, and we do not grow fiber. We grow human experiences and human connections. We grow the soccer fields that children play on during the weekends, we grow the football fields that we love to visit every fall, we grow the parks that we spread blankets out on to watch fireworks, we grow the yards that we stand on in our bare feet, and we grow the golf courses that someone’s grandfather plays on every Sunday. This university [UGA] has an impressive and undeniable legacy in growing these experiences.”
42
TPI TURF NEWS • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68