of Meyer Zoysia experiencing significant damage last winter will provide the opportunity for Innovation to be used as a replacement in many areas. In addition to cold hardiness, Innovation has excellent runner growth, making it a great production grass. Innovation also shows resistance to billbugs.
New Online Technologies are Emerging with Success - Selling turfgrass online has many challenges but based on the success it has proven to show in other industries, ecommerce will be a major part of turf sales and profits. Other industries have had major shifts in companies that displaced standard industries that dominated markets for decades. Companies like Amazon, Uber, Airbnb, Apple, and eBay are just a few of many examples of businesses that dominate their industries and have displaced traditional brick and mortar sales with online sales.
We all know turf has unique challenges with perishability, transportation, and weather that can turn a good day into a frustrating experience without proper strategy and planning. New technologies are making an exciting and productive impact on the way grass is grown and sold. Technology is taking hold and changing how farms operate, and Turf Logistics is a technology changing how turf farmers conduct business. Turf Logistics is cost effective, safe, and dependable. No other software available is dedicated for the turf industry while being upgraded and supported to improve the user experience. Over 50 growers are now successfully using the system. Turf Logistics is a complete operational software offering business to business interaction as well as direct sales from farms to customers. It is exciting to see Turf Logistics positively change office dynamics and the arrangements of office space utilization. Te white board is going the way of typewriters as businesses consolidate operations to screens and large monitors. It has been observed that once a farm masters the software, the pivot to significant online sales in a natural fit.
Many next generation producers and young people are entering the turfgrass workforce both inside and outside the office. Tey tend to be more tech savvy than the previous generation, making for an interesting transition. While the experience of the past is crucial to a successful turf farm, young people bring new and exciting ideas to the table. From production to sales, turf farming is rapidly moving into the digital space following other industries. Te way farms communicate with each other, customers, and other businesses is changing fast with higher tech-high touch interaction. An example is online sales, which may be initiated online followed up with a call to finalize the deal. Historically, many industries started online sales in this manner to eventually move the transition to all digital.
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Future - Where is your business today, and where will it be in the future? What are you doing to adapt to the changing dynamics of not only the turf industry, but successful business in general? How will you reach customers who shop and make purchases in a very different manner than just a few years ago?
Turf Merchants Inc. (TMI) Provided by Nancy Aerni
March brought mild weather to Oregon, which allowed production farmers to get the first shots of spring fertilizer on their production fields in the Willamette Valley. First year production fields of perennial ryegrass look to be in good shape. However, the dry Fall really hurt most of the two-year and older stands of perennial ryegrass, with some of those stands being removed. Te same scenario applies to tall fescue. Some of the older stands of tall fescue will be removed; the younger stands look to be very healthy.
April brought record rain to western Oregon, and record snow to the mountains of eastern Oregon. Te combination of snow and rain culminated in record flooding on both sides of Oregon! Te good news is that the water has now receded, and most of the ground has dried out enough for the farmers to resume fertilizing and spraying the fields. Our extended forecast is for mild temperatures and dry conditions which will allow for good growing conditions.
May has brought the anticipated mild conditions with a few mixed showers. Much will be determined in the next few weeks from the time of this writing as we rely on mother nature to cooperate, for additional quality control measures in the field situation, seed head maturity and filling of the seed heads.
We have seen tall fescue consumption steadily rising over the past few years and will be starting the 2019 fall season with virtually zero carryover, being totally reliant on new crop material to bring to the marketplace. Great news is that Kentucky bluegrass fields look to be outstanding in both quality and anticipated average to good yield.
With new taxation laws recently passed on gross sales dollars by the Oregon Legislature, pricing of most everything from Oregon will indeed be higher priced than this previous year.
TPI Turf News July/August 2019
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