For Barenbrug USA, getting a new turf variety from the experimental stage to market is a long process that can take years. And for most of the company's seed varieties, that journey starts not at a university test plot in some far flung location, but on a privately owned 20-acre farm in central Kentucky.
For the past decade, Mike Harrell's Southeastern Turfgrass Research Center in Lexington has been an important test site for potential new seed varieties, herbicides, fungicides, nematicides, plant growth regulators, overseeding trials, zoysia seedhead suppression, putting green firmness studies and more. Much more."The SETRC is our keystone location," said Barenbrug USA turf breeder Miles Barrett. "Of all the packets I pack up and send out throughout the year, about 70 percent of all the packets come through Lexington, Kentucky. So, it's here that my experimentals are screened in their first turf trials, and if they don't meet minimum quality standards, a lot of time that's the end of the line. So they really need to shine in Lexington to advance on to a secondary location. The pathway to NTEP goes through Lexington, Kentucky. Likewise, our European colleagues screen their experimentals here in Lexington at the SETRC."
For the past four years, Harrell has been sharing some of the results of his studies with vendors and dozens of golf course superintendents from throughout central Kentucky eager to stay on the turf industry's cutting edge. Attendance has grown from about 30 people four years ago to about 60 this year.
Clay Stewart, superintendent at nearby Idle Hour Country Club has been to all four of Harrell's field days.
"These are real-world applications. This is really tailored toward golf course maintenance," said Stewart, who grows 38 acres of creeping bentgrass and 80 acres of bluegrass/fescue rough. "I think with Miike being an independent researcher, he can follow the guidelines given to him by the vendors, and he can tailor all these things more to what we're going to see on a golf course.
"It's a huge help to us in the transition zone trying to grow cool season grass."
Among the trials on display during Harrell's field day was one on overseeding Bermudagrass with Kentucky bluegrass to combat winter damage in warm-season turf in the transition zone.
We're not employees of these companies, but we've worked for them longer than many of their employees have. Our goal is to be their employee of the month every month."
A graduate of the University of Florida, where he earned bachelor's and master's degrees, Harrell started his operation in Lexington a decade ago, shortly after completing his doctorate in 2005 at the University of Kentucky.
Since then, he gradually has earned the trust and recognition from vendors across the turf industry spectrum who seek unbiased research in a real-world setting and secrecy, at least until they are ready to share news about their products.
For Harrell, his research and field day are all about providing value to his clients who want information on their products, and a service to golf course superintendents in his native Lexington.
"We're not employees of these companies, but we've worked for them longer than many of their employees have. Our goal is to be their employee of the month every month," Harrell said.
"This isn't something I started overnight, and it's something I plan on doing for a long, long time," Harrell said.
The SETRC also has attracted a lot of attention from those who want data on potential new products not only before they have a label, but before they have a name.
"Any time we have a numbered compound, we have to enter into a confidentiality agreement so they don't share any information before we are ready to share that," said Kyle Miller, senior technical specialist with BASF. "At universities, it's a very long process to get them to approve that. Here, I send (the agreement) to him, he signs it and sends it back right away. The working relationship is much more seamless."
A few years ago, he teamed with former University of Missouri weed scientist Travis Teuton, Ph.D., who has a similar but smaller operation on his farm in Anthony, Florida. With Harrell coordinating all projects on both sites because he already has earned the trust and favored business partner status with so many vendors, the pair can offer clients the ability to test multiple products under a wide range of conditions."We can screen a lot of things earlier in the process here, and this allows us to do both warm-season and cool-season in different geographic areas ahead of time," said Alan Estes, research manager with PBI Gordon. "What we go to universities with a lot of time is a lot further down the line in the research."
Harrell would like to see the event grow in the years to come, but not too much. There is an air of southern hospitality and coziness to Harrell's field day, where the entire group tours each station together, not in shifts.
"The goal for me is to stay plugged in to what superintendents are dealing with and do trial work that relates directly to the issues they are dealing with," Harrell said.
"The golf side of the business is what I am interested in and what I want this to be about. If we could get to 100 people, then mission accomplished. I don't want to get bigger than that, then we get into capacity issues where we eat lunch and you lose the connection with the people you're talking to. This way, we can all walk around together and we don't have to split the group into different tours."