grass buyers in North Texas, and to Farmer Brothers in Central Texas. Adding the Hyster forklift, also in the 1960s, helped speed up the loading and unloading.”
Gerry Brouwer brought one of the first prototype automatic harvesters to the Bay City area in 1970. “Te machine worked well in the sandy soils of Canada, but not on our black gumbo,” says Arthur. “Gerry kept tweaking it, working with FJ and other growers, and by 1971 had it working for harvesting clay slabs. Around that time, Woodrow Wilson brought the Princeton harvester into our area which had a bit more down pressure.”
Branching Out Arthur excelled in football and track in high school, while working on the sod farm part-time through the school year and full-time in the summers. He was a walk-on in Gene Stallings football program during his freshman year at Texas A&M, but after finishing two-a-day practices at 130 pounds, down from 160, decided he needed a new sport. He transferred to the University of Texas at Austin, made the UT wrestling team and, feeling he had a solid agronomic background, focused on the other skill set he’d need to succeed in the turfgrass industry. He graduated in 1971 with a Business Honors Program Degree and a Bachelor of Business Administration Degree. He’d worked full-time on the sod farm during the summers and his parents helped fund his undergraduate studies. Bryan majored in turfgrass management, earning his degree from Texas A&M.
Arthur Milberger and Sue Krenek married in the summer of 1972. When he entered St. Mary’s Law School in San Antonio that fall, financing a law degree was his responsibility. His entrepreneurial spirit took flight, beginning what would become a life-long pattern of innovative enterprise, with Sue as his business partner as well as his spouse. He started a new business, Milberger Landscaping, to work his way through law school. While at St. Mary’s, Sue earned her degree and began teaching, helping their cash flow. She also kept Arthur organized with the business.
He says, “I’d sleep four hours at night, put in eight hours in classes and the law school library, and concentrate on landscaping, planting trees, shrubs and laying sod, from noon until it was too dark to work. Since nearly all the other law students needed some income, too, I had over 20 of them working for me at $2.00 an hour. Now, I couldn’t hire any of them for less than $1,000 an hour.”
He earned his Juris Doctorate degree in 1974; was licensed to practice law by the Supreme Court of Texas in 1975; and has maintained active status in the Texas State Bar since then. Milberger Landscaping continues as well. He added the retail garden center, which has become a thriving and well-known shoppers’ favorite, and expanded beyond residential landscaping into commercial landscaping, irrigation and interior/exterior maintenance. Milberger’s
TPI Turf News January/February 2017
The family gathered at the home farm for this 2013 Easter photo. Left to right: Shane and Regay Hildreth with Audrey and James; Clint and Whitney Laird with Wyatt; Sue and Arthur Milberger; Lesley and Shaun Shoaf with Cole and Eric. (Reid Laird not yet born)
Landscaping & Nursery, Inc. now employs 250 people full- time plus 99 H2B seasonal workers about nine months of the year. “It’s been my bread and butter,” says Arthur. “I’ve founded, bought and sold lots of companies over the years, but I’ve kept it as the base. No matter what the business, grass has always been involved. I hired Butch Jouffray in 1980. Butch brought landscape experience to the table, and he’s now my partner in Milberger’s in San Antonio. It’s all about the relationships—you make good choices in people and build from there.”
Meanwhile, back on the sod farm, FJ was making inroads as well. On September 11, 1970, application for certification of a 419 Tifway bermudagrass field was submitted to the Texas Plant Board for approval under the Texas Certification program. On June 8, 1971, a special committee composed of Dr. Richard Duble, Al Novasad, and Harry Forbes accepted this first certified field under the Texas Certified Seed Program. Arthur says, “Tat field has been in continuous certification since 1971, making it the oldest field of certified grass in history. Fields of 328 Tifgreen and Tifdwarf also were certified that day.”
Arthur reports FJ was always great about sharing information with other growers and they shared it with him. In 1972, FJ, along with Teodore Mund, Charles Davis, Leonard Wittig, JR Miller, Morris Brown, JR May, Irving Boerger and RM Cole, founded the Texas Sod Producers. FJ became the first President. A few other states were forming associations, too. Tese founders also pulled from their ASPA experience. “Te ASAP educators were instrumental in that process, especially Dr. Henry Indyk of Rutgers, as the industry was growing faster up north,” says Arthur. “Te educators were the most likely to travel around from state to state, speaking at conferences
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