ITGAP’s Billy Skaggs addresses attendees during the ITGAP Tour 2019 in Australia.
Nick Dorney reported that the showing of staff at each of these training sessions was nothing short of amazing.
“In all we have 42 farms that operate under the AusGAP certification program and these farms are spread right across the continent. We had over 150 staff attend the training sessions which shows the level of dedication amongst the certified growers to the program,” he said.
Te foundation of any turf certification program is the process used to ensure the certified product is never more than 3 generations from the original breeder material. Every step of the propagation and production process is recorded and traceable to the original source stock. Tis close attention to detail reduces the chances of mutation or cross-pollination leading to off-type turf in certified fields.
“Once the breeder releases the plant material for propagation, a foundation field is set up in an area that is closely monitored to retain genetic purity of that particular grass” Skaggs said.
“From this foundation stock, each licensed grower is provided planting stock to propagate the first field which is then classified as a registered field. Te registered field is the only paddock from which all future expansion material can be sourced at that farm, unless of course more foundation stock is purchased.”
Te foundation farm in Australia is at Beerwah on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. Skaggs and Carraway spent time scouring the paddocks, checking the morphological uniformity and looking for any sign of contamination or off-type grasses to ensure any future expansion of the grasses would not lead to the spread of unwanted material.
“One small contaminant going through a planting machine can quickly turn into 1020 plants once spread out,” Carraway said.
TPI Turf News September/October 2019
This article was reprinted with permission from the April 2019 issue of Turf-Talk. A link to that publication is shown below:
https://lawnsolutionsaustralia.com.au/about-lawn-solutions-australia/ news-from-lsa/turf-talk-april/
All photos couresy of Turf-Talk. 53
ITGAP’s Bill Carraway (left) and Billy Skaggs (right) conduct a training session.
“Our number one purpose is to stop this from happening; a vaccination is a much better option than a treatment if you like. Killing one small plant at the initial stages of growth before it has a chance to spread saves so much pain down the line for the grower and the customer; it also ensures that particular variety remains pure and true-to-type.”
It was a big week for the American visitors, who covered a large portion of the certified fields in Australia and trained the AusGAP farm staff as they went. Te men were more than impressed with what they saw and are excited about the future of turf certification in Australia.
“With AusGAP as the only registered agent for ITGAP outside the United States, we need to be sure that all of the ITGAP standards are being maintained in our absence” Skaggs said.
“Te participation and enthusiasm shown by the AusGAP growers in Australia has been amazing and I am pleased to say that the standard of the farms over here is comparable to the best producers in the States.”
“Nick has done an excellent job getting everyone up to speed and compliant and we have the utmost confidence that the grasses here in Australia under the AusGAP program are now, and will remain, the best available in the industry.”
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