Wednesday was another tremendous day as we traveled from Belgium to Reusel, in the southern region of the Netherlands near Germany, for a demonstration day with Imants.  Imants manufacturers unique and high quality turf care equipment, along with specialty agricultural equipment, and was founded in Reusel over 125 years ago.

Hats off to Hans de Kort of Imants for assembling a wonderful demo day that was attended by nearly 50 groundsman from the surrounding 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 United States 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 of 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, MUCH more on this eye opening process to come).  Machines demonstrated 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 possibilities!!

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 equipment.  I enjoyed the time talking with Mr. Rodenberg in which I learned so much, so quickly; and I am indebted to him for being so generous with his time.

The day’s end came entirely too fast as we had to head up to Rotterdam to Europort for the boat back to the UK across the North Sea.  Sleeping on a cargo ship was an experience all in itself!  But we arrived safely back to the UK through Hull Port at 8am this morning-  set for another full and fun day!!