Following all the Christmas festivities we are now on our next journey, the start of a new year and new decade that will no doubt bring a lot of challenges, opportunities and changes in the way we manage our amenity land assets in the coming years.

There will be exciting times ahead. Managing and maintaining an ever-changing living landscape has always been a challenge. The sheer diversity of it all is immense. Not only do we have to cope with the expectations of the end users, but constantly be ahead of the weather fronts and developing technologies.

Not having a crystal ball makes it difficult to predict what the future holds for our industry and those who work in it. However now, after the recent election results, Brexit will be well and truly done - and it will be interesting to see how that pans out for many of our manufacturers and suppliers in the coming years. Hopefully it will give confidence and see some increased investment being made, thus promoting some much-needed growth in our economy.

I personally would like to see our local authorities prosper with the availability of enhanced funds to reverse the decline of many parks and open spaces and see many more parks being awarded Green Flag status. Last year we had over 1700 parks awarded Green Flag in the UK.

Technology and innovation are moving at a great pace. Robotic mowers and battery powered equipment are becoming more wildly used in both the domestic and professional sectors.

The use of hybrid powered machinery will continue to grow, while larger petrol and diesel-powered vehicles will come under increased scrutiny.

The following three videos depict how quickly companies and businesses have to change and adapt to meet customers’ expectations and needs. During Saltex 2019 I managed to catch up with several industry personnel and manufacturers representatives and got them to reflect on the needs of the industry.

My first interview was with Gary and Sharon from Mansfield Sand who spoke about the challenges of suppling a range of top dressing and sand products to the sports turf industry. 

The second was with Rupert Price from Price Turfcare who was proud of how well the new Ventrac 4500Y tractor unit was selling and becoming very popular with a lot of estate and golf course managers who need a versatile machine that can do a lot of different tasks when used with a range of attachments. 

I also caught up with Matthew Hadley from Catalyst Computer Systems who spoke about the ever-changing demand for business software solutions to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of companies. 

All three demonstrate how quickly our industry is capable to adapt to change and future challenges.

To view all of my interviews which I conducted at SALTEX, as well as to watch our archive of clips, please visit the TurfPro YouTube channel. Whilst there why not subscribe to be kept up to date with all our forthcoming video content.

There is no getting away from it, the smartphone and computer technologies are only going to increase and become a larger part of our industry in the coming years. We are already seeing the development of drones and robotics taking off at a rapid rate. Battery powered mowers are now at the forefront of many mower manufacturers minds. Both Dennis and Allett for example have now gone into full production of the next generation of battery powered pedestrian mowers.

STIHL, Husqvarna and Echo have been developing an ever-increasing range of battery powered products for both the professional and domestic markets. My recent trip to STIHL’s Tirol factory in Austria highlighted the investment and R&D going into the next generation of battery powered products.

I personally find it mind blowing to see the total range of machinery and hand-held tools we now have at our disposal, compared to 30 years ago. All are aimed at increasing efficiency, quality of work, and safety of the operator.

Looking ahead I would like to briefly address what I believe will be one of the major concerns for our industry in the coming years - how we are going to attract and retain the next generation into coming and working in our industry? This was a topic that was talked about at length at the recent Service Dealer Conference 2019.

I, like most who attended the conference, was totally enthralled by a talk by Dr Eliza Filby who spoke about the challenges of attracting and retaining people into the workplace. 

I would like to see our industry formally come together collectively to promote the values and opportunities that are available for this next generation and find a way of selling and portraying the values of working in this sector. There needs to be a national strategy that funds the opportunity for the industry to be promoted in every school and college / university.

However, having seen this year’s IOG recommended salary scales for 2020, of which they state the following -

Grounds manager
£36,676-£56,817

Head groundsperson
£31,280-£42,932

Deputy head groundsperson/sole charge
£25,591-£32,662

Groundsperson (skilled)
£23,932-£30,530

Groundsperson
£19,174-£24,460

Junior groundsperson
£16,303 (Age 17)

Junior groundsperson (aged 16)
£13,538.

 - I do believe getting companies to honour and deliver these pay scales will again be a challenge.

We are essentially the curators and managers who maintain a bio living environment for the benefit of everybody who lives on this planet. We therefore need to have in place a strategy and structure to replace the wide ranging, talented people who have spent their lives dedicated to looking after a valuable living resource.

I hope that we as an industry can rise to the challenge and can recruit the next generation to take on this most important mantel.

Finally, I would like to thank everybody who has contributed and helped me produce the many articles that we featured in TurfPro throughout 2019. I like to wish you all a very prosperous new year and look forward to meeting you all again at the BTME event in Harrogate in a couple of week’s time.