Anaheim and holding it at the Disneyland Hotel, even helping to underwrite the costs. With Executive Director Dr. Henry Indyk based in New Jersey, Toby offered Cal-Turf’s ‘help’ setting up the program and hosting a field day he wanted at Cal-Turf’s Irvine site. And, because I had organized events in my cooperative extension days, he asked me to put it together. It raised the bar for future Conferences.”

Netting and Sod

Steve Cockerham in 1974 displays the netted sod in one of the first production fields. Photo from TPI archives

A piece of mail, delivered to Cal- Turf by mistake, sparked the idea of combining netting and sod. It was an ad for DuPont Vexar netting promoting its use under mattress ticking to keep bed springs from puncturing the mattress. Cockerham knew most turfgrasses could be lifted and

transplanted successfully before they were mature enough to be handled as sod. He says, “I wanted to find out if turf grown through netting could be harvested earlier. I shared my idea with Toby and he encouraged me to research it. I contacted DuPont and they sent material for the initial research. We harvested that first trial in four months. Toby, the manufacturing genius, built a machine to install the netting, cover it and seed—all in one operation.”

Moving On In 1975, Grether sold Cal-Turf to American Garden Products in an offer too good to refuse. Te new ownership and Cockerham were not a good fit, and he left the company. He started consulting, but soon saw there was room for another sod company in the market. He needed some backers to help finance it. “I walked into a bank and told them what I wanted to do. Tey asked to see the pro forma profit and loss statement. And I said, ‘Pro what?’ So I had to learn the basics of business finance.” Te result was Rancho Verde Turf Farms.

ASPA Leadership Roles Cockerham had been involved with ASPA for several years before becoming a member so he knew most of the sod producers and researchers that were active in the association. John Hope of Manderley Turf Farms, who would be elected ASPA President for 1979-1980, had encouraged Cockerham to serve on the board. Tough Cockerham defines his role as “the guy in the corner saying, ‘Hey, wait a minute guys,’” ASPA’s records report his leadership initiatives.

Cockerham served as program chair of ASPA’s 1981 Midwinter Conference and would be elected president for 1981-1982 that July. Te sod industry was facing multiple

TPI Turf News September/October 2016

challenges: water use issues, an energy shortage, a recession and the resulting depressed markets, a lack of agreement on sod quality, pricing all over the board—and the debate over natural grass versus “that other stuff” was heating up.

Moving On—Again While Cockerham had gotten Rancho Verde Turf Farms “off the ground and operating pretty well,” the double whammy of the 1980 credit crunch and fuel shortages hit start-up businesses especially hard. “I couldn’t get enough fuel to run my trucks,” he says. “I had a letter of credit with the bank by then, but the interest rate was around 36 percent.”

Ben Warren, co-founder of Warren’s Turf Nursery in Palos Park, IL, was a key leader in the formation of ASPA, and its first president. He had sold the company, which then decided to expand into southern California. Cockerham says, “Warren’s bought my farm, making it a branch of Warren’s Turf Nursery. I assisted the team during the transition, and then went back to consulting.”

Water Issues Hit Industry

In the early 1980s, Aurora, CO, outlawed the use of turf in lawns because of a water issue. “Tat was the first time we had that big a hit to the sod industry,” says Cockerham. “We, as sod producers and ASPA, realized water issues were not going away.”

With California’s persistent water problem, Cockerham had been researching turfgrass water use and, as researchers know, you always have to qualify, quantify and document scientific information. He says, “I met with Dr. Victor Gibeault, professor at UCR and long-time friend, to coordinate and co-chair what became a “Turfgrass Water Conservation” symposium. It featured research experts from education and industry who addressed water conservation as it relates to turfgrass selection, production and maintenance. Te University of California had agreed to publish the proceedings, if we developed it.” Cockerham encouraged ASPA to sponsor the symposium. It was offered as a pre-conference event in conjunction with the 1983 Midwinter Conference in San Antonio, TX. Gibeault provided a summary of the symposium in a Conference session. Te first edition of Turfgrass Water Conservation, co- edited by Cockerham and Gibeault, was published in 1985.

Steve Cockerham stands with pallets of sod for the home of TV’s Johnny Carson. Photo from TPI archives

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