TPI VISITS TUCKAHOE TURF FARMS


Blue skies, great soil, a beautiful expanse of over 700 acres of premium turfgrass sod—all this and more greeted TPI 2017 Summer Program and ITRC Technical Tour attendees as two buses pulled into Tuckahoe Turf Farms, Inc., in Hammonton, New Jersey, on Wednesday, July 19.


In 1980, Walter’s sons, Tom and George Betts, purchased the family farm. Also in 1980, they bought 98 acres at the current site, kept the red building and ripped out the hedge rows. Tey soon discovered sod harvested on Hammonton’s 97 percent sand soil weighed 30 pounds a roll as compared to 50 to 60 pounds a roll at the original farm. Tey were at least an hour closer to their major customers, too.


Tuckahoe’s Allen Carter welcomed the group, inviting them into the shade to enjoy fresh fruit and cold bottled water while he shared the Tuckahoe story. Elmer Betts and his son, Walter Betts, started truck farming in the mid 1930s in Atlantic County, adjacent to the Tuckahoe River. In the 1950s, they started contract growing lima beans. Te transition to sod began in 1967 when Walter found he could make more money growing grass for the fairways for the Atlantic County Country Club. By 1969, they’d switched from lima beans to sod, with 150 to 200 acres in production.


In the mid-80s, they added Turf & Farm Supplies, Inc. Tey’d been selling some of their seed and fertilizer to their lawn care operator customers but then coming up short when they needed to do their own planting. Establishing the sales outlet has allowed them to increase their buying power, maintain better control of their inventory and make adjustments when needed to adapt to changing market conditions.


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TPI Turf News September/October 2017


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