HAPPENINGS DLF Strengthens Product Knowledge and Breeding Programs
In an April 8, 2025, press release, DLF’s North American business unit announced the establishment of dedicated Product Knowledge Centers in Philomath, Oregon, and Port Hope, Ontario, effective July 1, 2025. Tese centers will enhance DLF’s product education, field trials, and technical support capabilities, ensuring stronger collaboration
between product management, marketing, and sales. Tis allows the company to better serve its customers while maintaining a strong presence in key regions.
“Tere are many great activities happening in Philomath and Port Hope today, and we want those activities to continue,” said DLF NA Executive Vice President Neil Douglas. “Our vision for these centers is to prominently feature everything the DLF portfolio has to offer, from bentgrass to alfalfa to new innovations in seed enhancement. Tese locations are important to demonstrate the value of our product innovation, training customers and staff, and for collaborating with key industry partners.”
Te Willamette Valley, being close to many of DLF’s key U.S. grower partners, is an area the company plans to continue investing in. Te Philomath and Port Hope Product Knowledge Centers will remain the host sites for DLF’s Seed Camps and ongoing customer education activities, and DLF’s new seed enhancement and operations facility in Albany, Oregon, serves as the U.S. headquarters.
As part of this move, and to advance DLF’s strategic efforts to strengthen its breeding programs and ensure long-term operational excellence, it will consolidate two independent research stations in the Pacific Northwest - Philomath, Oregon, and Touchet, Washington - into a single, robust, multi-species breeding station located in Touchet. Te company sees this as a vital step toward ensuring the continued success of its breeding and product management programs.
“Unifying our programs will enhance collaboration, knowledge- sharing, and trial quality across DLF’s forage and turf species,” said DLF Executive Vice President & Chief Scientific Officer Derek Bartlem. “A single, well-staffed station will strengthen our R&D activities and ensure we continue to deliver new high-quality forage and turf products, while at the same time provide long-term career growth opportunities for our employees.”
TPI Turf News July/August 2025
Currently, both breeding stations operate independently, with a focus on different species and at minimum critical mass. By consolidating its Pacific Northwest breeding operations in Touchet, the company believes it can create a stronger, more resilient breeding station that better supports its research and development goals – all while keeping its full research and development staff. Tis unified breeding location complements DLF’s additional Midwest breeding station in West Salem, Wisconsin.
About DLF:DLF is a global seed company owned by Danish seed farmers with more than 2,100 employees in 22 countries worldwide. It is a global market leader in forage and turf seed supplying seeds to more than 100 countries. DLF has a complete supply chain within forage and turf seed, sugar and fodder beet seed, seed potatoes and multiplication of vegetable seed. For more information on DLF’s North American business visit
www.us.dlf. com or
www.ca.dlf.com.
TPI Trustee Elect Doug Lechlider Featured in an Ag Publication Doug Leclider, his family, and farm were featured in a recent article. Te May 27, 2025, article appeared on the Farm Progress website and was written by American Agriculturist Editor, Chris Torres. Lechlider has been elected to the TPI Board of Trustees, and his term begins in 2026.
Te article starts out with “Te grass is always greener at Doug Lechlider’s sod farm in Gaithersburg, Md. But it has to be: Growing sod is his business.” It goes on to talk about his growing up on the family farm. His path to the sod business. He started out with 40 acres and has grown to now nearly 300 acres. It covers many of the details of his sod business.
Doug and his wife, Robin, married in 1994 and have two sons and a daughter. Older son Matthew now works on the farm. Son Kevin is a mechanic, and daughter Sara works for Newsom Seed. Te article goes on to talk about Doug’s ag and community involvement and the many awards he has received for his service. Among the many areas he serves mentioned in the article included Turfgrass Producers of Maryland; Turfgrass Producers International, Maryland Agriculture Council, fundraising committee for Te Lawn Institute; life member of Laytonsville Volunteer Fire Department; board of directors of Montgomery County Ag Center; and head teller of First Baptist Church of Damascus. Several quotes from his friends were also included.
Te complete article can be found at:
https://www.farmprogress.com/ names-in-the-news/0526t2-3712-slideshow
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