Sherriff Amenity recently hosted the very first myTurfClub event at Syngenta UK’s Jealott's Hill Research Centre in Bracknell.

Attendees at first ever myTurfClub

myTurfClub is a new initiative from Sherriff Amenity which has an ultimate goal of helping to improve the UK turf amenity sector stewardship of pesticide and products. The event proved an opportunity to meet other like-minded individuals, share and gain knowledge, learn best practices and ultimately enhance their education. Every delegate also gained 6 BIGGA CPD points by attending.

Following an introduction by Sherriff Amenity’s Joseph Dormer; Dan Lightfoot, UK and Ireland business manager for Syngenta, proceeded to provide an industry update and insight into fungicide planning.

Next up was Rod Burke, Syngenta’s portfolio development manager for Europe, Africa and the Middle East, who offered some tips in his presentation entitled “Pigments – a first look”.

Prior to lunch, Joseph provided a virtual tour through the online mySherriffAmenity platform. Sherriff Amenity say they have always been an advocate of education within the turf and amenity industry and many have benefited from using mySherriffAcademy which is a feature of this platform. mySherriffAcademy is suitable for learning more about the amenity business as users can participate in courses to enhance knowledge on a wide range of topics such as disease and the correct products to use.

Lunchtime offered attendees a chance to network before they embarked on a tour of Syngenta’s facilities. Jealott’s Hill is a key site in Syngenta’s global research and development network and key activities include research into discovery of new active ingredients, new formulation technologies, product safety, technical support of products and seeds research.

To conclude the event, Joe Kinder (Sherriff Amenity Technical Manager) advised on tank-mixes before Johnny Beck (Sherriff Amenity Amenity Specialist) delivered an insight into trial work as well as revealing key results.

Sam Evans, Head Greenkeeper at Fulwell Golf Club in Middlesex, was in attendance and believes that an event like this is essential to the future of the industry. “I came along today because I wanted to develop my spray-tech knowledge and have a look around the Syngenta site. There are some really exciting products coming out and it is good to know that companies like Sherriff Amenity and Syngenta are looking to the future and are passionate about developing products.

"Events like these are vital for head greenkeepers and course managers; it’s all about enhancing your knowledge and planning for disease prevention because it is so critical in our industry.”

Commenting on the successful day, event organiser Joseph Dormer said: “We put this event together specifically because there is a need to become more pro-active in our industry. We need to be able to predict what is going to happen and have a plan in place because we are slowly losing all of the fire-fighting products.

“This event is all about giving something back and to not just host an event where everyone is sat there staring at a presentation on a screen. We wanted to create an event which is all about getting the delegates to be a bit more interactive and ultimately try to ensure that everyone leaves here with something - from the assistants all the way up to the course managers.

“I’m absolutely delighted with the turn out today, considering the pressure everyone is under at the moment with the weather. Plus a lot of people are trying to get greens renovations done and get their courses up to scratch for spring.

“I’d like to say a big thank you to Syngenta for hosting the event. I’m planning on partnering up with all of our key suppliers so there will be a number of different subject matters in this myTurfClub series. I’m sure this will be the first of many great events.”