grounds crews showed me, an American [an outsider]. I could under- stand skepticism but there was absolutely none. What generous and ge- nius individuals that make up these groups. I hope we in America are the same for all our colleagues, large and small, home and abroad. None of us can succeed without learning and respect. And respect and professionalism is what I saw exhibited the most today. Off to bed in Belgium.
gium to Reusel, in the southern region of the Netherlands near Ger- many, for a demonstration day with Imants, which manufacturers unique and high quality turf care equipment, along with specialty agricultural equipment, and was founded in Reusel over 125 years ago.
May 9 Wednesday was another tremendous day as we traveled from Bel-
Hats off to Hans de Kort of Imants for assembling a wonderful demo day that was attended by nearly 50 groundsmen from the sur- rounding areas in the Netherlands. Thank you to Simon Gumbrill of Campey Turf Care and Hans for allowing me to attend. The demo/field day was unique by US standards, as the attendees got the see the machines in action doing an actual renovation on a youth soccer pitch in the park behind the factory. The demonstration illustrated the European "renovation" process which involves stripping a slight layer off the top of the pitch and re-growing the pitch from seed and rejuvenation from the crown of the existing grass plants.
(MUCH more on this eye opening process to come.) Machines demon- strated included the Koro by Imants Field Topmaker to strip the top layer off, the Koro by Imants Field Sweeper to clean up any spilled debris, the Imants Shockwave deep aerated the soil, the Speed Dresser topdressed sand, and the Koro by Imants Recycling Dresser mixed in the sand and refreshed the soil air space. I have so many thoughts and ideas from this; it is going to take me some time to wrap my head around the pos- sibilities.
An additional highlight of the day outside of the machines was meeting Mr. Ko Rodenberg, the former Parks Superintendent for the City of Rotterdam and inventor of the Koro line of turf care equip- ment. I enjoyed the time talking with Mr. Rodenberg in which I
>> JERAD, left, with Ko Rodenburg, founder of KORO Systems (and a former parks superintend- ent for the City of Rotterdam).
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