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.”

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TPI TURF NEWS • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016