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Top
Dressing and Materials
Handling Equipment
Dressed
for the occasion
Ty-Crop
MH-400
Sand top dressing
forms an important part of the course management regime pursued by golf
course superintendent, Ken Siems, at the world-famous Loch Lomond Golf
Club.
In striving to produce consistently high turf standards across the course,
Ken has established a regular top dressing routine aimed at improving
the whole growing environment, encouraging the better turf grasses such
as perennial ryegrass and creeping bent at the expense of unsightly and
invasive annual meadow grass (poa annua).
The machine entrusted with the task of top dressing the fairways and semi-rough
is a Ty-Crop MH-400 materials handler fitted with a twin spinner option.
This is capable of spreading between 4.5m and 12m
(15 - 40ft) wide, depending on the type of material and the speed of the
spinners.
Ideally, each month during the playing season from April to the end of
October, Ken’s greenkeeping team will attempt to apply up to 2mm
of medium coarse sand to all the fairways and semi-rough. However, this
has not always proved possible.
When the course closes for the winter, more aggressive treatments are
made, with a maximum of 5mm of pure sand being spread two or three times
from November to March.
“Sand can play havoc with the mowers so we apply little but often
when the grass is actively growing,” explained Ken. “The aim
is to get 100mm of sand onto all the playing surfaces over the next six
years, building up the optimum soil conditions for the unrestricted movement
of water, air and nutrients, encouraging the growth of healthy, vigorous
and desirable turf grasses.
“The MH-400 is well made, spreads accurately and has a number of
other capabilities which extend its seasonal use around the course.”
In addition to wide area spreading, the 3.05 cu m (4 cu yd) capacity machine
makes a superb, high-dump tipping trailer which can carry and offload
loose, bulky materials straight onto the ground or into a vehicle, top
dresser or fertiliser spreader.
With the addition of a directable two-way rear cross conveyor, the MH-400
makes light work of refilling bunkers, building tees or greens or applying
mulches or bark to pathways and borders.
“I like the machine,” concluded Ken. “It does a good job
and I have every confidence in the support provided by Turfmech and local
dealer, Nairn Brown.”
A Ty-Crop
TD460 large-area top dresser is proving the ideal machine for the rapid
and accurate application of sand and sand/rubber mixes onto natural and
synthetic sports pitches being constructed by Scottish firm, Lanrec.
Based in Motherwell, the company specialises in hard and soft landscaping
projects as well as the construction of sports grounds across Scotland
and in other parts of the United Kingdom.
Landscape manager, Dave Gibson, explained that Lanrec was being asked
to carry out an increasing number of important pitch construction contracts.
These range from natural rootzone and sand-ameliorated pitches to sand
and rubber-infilled synthetic surfaces. In all cases, the job needs to
be completed fast and that is where the Ty-Crop TD460 scores.
The first time Dave Gibson saw the top dresser was in December 1999 at
a turfgrass conference in Columbus, Ohio, USA. On his return he contacted
UK distributor, Turfmech, and was shown a video of the machine in action.
He particularly liked the build quality and delivery system, capable of
spreading accurately large quantities of top dressings onto natural and
synthetic surfaces.
Delivered in July 2000, the Ty-Crop TD460 impressed from day one. “The
rotating brush produces a very uniform layer which is ideal for synthetic
surfaces and for turf,” commented Dave. “Top dressing is a job
which is best done in dry conditions, so the machine’s large capacity
and 6ft spread width are important when needing to get on and off fast
to beat the weather.”