Andrew Turnbull is the owner of SouthWest Agronomy Ltd (SWA) located in Tavistock, England. His company offers advisory and consultancy services to golf courses and sports turf facilities.
One issue the company faced was how to prove to their customers that their recommended treatments were actually having a positive influence on the soil microbes. Other than the obvious visual effects of the quality of the playing surface, which can often be open to interpretation, Andrew wanted to prove that other factors have improved performance such as extra or different maintenance operations. Andrew found regular soil microbial analysis to be expensive with only a few laboratories locally performing accurate testing.
“microBIOMETER® changed the game!” – Andrew Turnbull
Now, in addition to comprehensive nutrient and microscopic analysis, the company incorporates regular microbial testing with microBIOMETER® into their program. This enables them to give their clients confidence that they are implementing changes that not only have a positive visual effect, but a measurable and direct one as well.
About SouthWest Agronomy Ltd (SWA).SWA focuses on the little understood aspect of how turfgrass plants interact with the rootzone biology and how the plant’s metabolism is affected by biotic and abiotic stresses. When a turfgrass plant is healthy it excretes carbohydrates, proteins and other exudates that feed microbes. This increases mineralization of nutrients, enhances disease protection, and causes organic matter recycling. SWA’s Bio Nutrition Program restores the balance between the plant and soil microbes which is lost when turfgrass management relies on chemical fertilizers, and/or is under continual stress from maintenance operations, and/or has less than optimum environmental conditions (e.g. heat, cold, shade), and regular use by players.