Strategically Growing Working together, Randy and Mark planned to complete the two land sections, with 700 acres in the eastern block and 500 contiguous acres in the upper section. Mark bought a 130-acre farm in 2013. Tat was followed by Randy’s purchase of a 160-acre farm and Mark’s purchase of a 45 acre farm this past spring.
Mark says, “We’ve expanded by 350 to 400 acres over the last five years, with our combined land purchases. When I was growing up we sold more sod than we could grow and had to buy some from an outside source. Now we have enough farms to grow all of our sod and to put our crop rotation programs to work, too. ”
Jasperson’s alternate production crops, corn and soybeans, cover approximately 400 acres. They plant and spray but hire the harvesting done.
Te sod production high is 800 acres. When they harvest their sod in spring, if the timing is right, they’ll rotate that field into soybeans. After the crop has been harvested in the fall, they’ll plant it back into bluegrass. Fields harvested in the summer when it’s too late to produce an alternate crop, will be planted back to a blend of bluegrass sod.
Soil types vary within the two areas, with approximately 300 acres mineral soils and the remainder peat soils. Water availability is good on both sections. Ninety percent of the turfgrass area is irrigated by center pivots. Soft hose irrigation is available for the remaining areas.
Growing
Responsibilities With growth, responsibilities grow too. Mark’s role is described as owner/production manager, which Randy adds is expanding to “general operations manager.” Mark says, “I do a little of everything: keeping the cutting crew on target; keeping
Rolling one of the sod fields.
in contact with the office on the logistics of placing trucks and scheduling deliveries; and driving a truck if I need to. I do a lot of field work, planting the row crops and helping with spraying and I oversee the irrigation on the sod fields. I especially like the coordination and the big picture view and making sure everything is running well.” Ryan’s role is broadly described as technology and production. He does a bit of everything, working with Mark on production, tackling the technology from systems to computers, and working with the website. He’s also in charge of a mowing crew, working on rotation with the guys, and works with the office staff on planning routes and harvest and what to ship when. He’s working on the seed inventory and cataloging grass and row crop seed, including the varieties they have in the field.
Ryan says, “I’m mapping all the fields using a drone for aerial footage and connecting that data to the GPS tracking system. Te drone also gives me a quality-check overview of our row crops and the ability to spot potential problems with our sod.” Tere’s always something such as chasing parts or helping a group with whatever they need. And he’ll still drive a truck.
TPI Turf News September/October 2017
Current Market Currently, 70 percent of Jasperson Sod Farm sales are in Illinois, with 30 percent in Wisconsin, where they do ship as far north as the Green Bay area. Approximately five percent of their sales go to homeowners, primarily through independent garden centers or the Harmony Brands chain store programs. Ten percent of the sales are split between the sports turf and golf course markets. Te majority of their production goes to home building contractors and landscape contractors. All sod is cut to order. Most is delivered to the site designated by the purchaser.
Turfgrasses Offered Jasperson Sod Premium Bluegrass is a blend of bluegrasses selected specifically for Midwestern lawns and marketed exclusively by Jasperson Sod Farm. In addition, the company has joined in agreements with industry partners to offer their proprietary turfgrass including HGT (Healthy Grass Technology) developed by Barenbrug International and marketed through Sod Solutions, and Black Beauty, developed by and marketed through Jonathan Green & Sons, Inc. In addition, they offer Harmony Brands turfgrasses as specified within the network.
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