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Jack Trice is ready for the first game of the season, but getting to that point takes some time and hard work. I recently visited with Tim Van Loo Manager of Athletic Turf and Grounds for Iowa State University on what it takes to get Jack Trice ready. This year marks the 20^th season since natural grass returned to Jack Trice Stadium. While much of the work is done during the summer, all of the painting is done just a day or two before the game. The grounds crew will mow the football field four times the week of the game, and they will always mow the same direction to make the light and dark stripes of the Kentucky bluegrass stand out. After a final mowing on Friday, the painting began.

This year the field was painted last week for the Victory Day, so some of the logos are still barely visible.

Three colors are used on the playing surface at Jack Trice Stadium: white, cardinal and gold.  The white is applied first with the white lines of the field painted first then the numbers and hash marks.

Care must be taken to not have paint drip when moving stencils.

Then the logos are painted and the end zones, sometimes the crew is large enough to paint several area's at once.Tim is assisted by 8 Iowa State Horticulture students focusing on turfgrass management and one Graduate Student in Horticulture with a focus on turfgrass management.

ISU Horticulture students studying turfgrass management help paint the football field.

ISU Horticulture Turfgrass Graduate Student Colton Metzger paints the midfield logo. 

It will take this crew 55 man hours to mix the paint, paint the field, and clean up the painters.  They will use 50 gallons of white paint, 40 gallons of gold, and 40 gallons of cardinal paint. On game day the crew will arrive 6 hours ahead of kickoff to mow the field, put out sideline tarps, and help with any other project that may need to be done in the stadium.

Tim Van Loo, Manager of Athletic Turf and Grounds for ISU, painting numbers for tomorrow's first game of the year.

On a typical game day Tim estimates that around 600 to 700 people are on the field. After the game the crew will take screwdrivers and lift divots on the playing surface, similar to how a ball mark is fixed on a putting green, and the field will have the debris blown off of it. This process takes about two hours, allowing the crew to leave after Saturday's game around midnight.  

ISU Horticulture Students learn turfgrass management skills while helping take care of Jack Trice Stadium.

Go Cyclones!!

The recent Sports Turf Managers Association (STMA) Annual Meeting in Orlando, FL was a great opportunity to learn, network, and see the new products being offered to athletic field industry. Iowa State was very visible throughout the week. The incoming president is Iowa State Athletic Field Manager, Mr. Tim Van Loo, who took over from outgoing president, and an Iowa State alumnus Mr. Jeff Salmond.

On the educational side, Dr. Nick Christians gave a presentation on Micronutrients for athletic fields.

Dr. Nick Christians presenting on Micronutrients.

Students from Iowa State University recently competed in the Sports Turf Managers Association Student Challenge at the Annual STMA Meeting in Orlando at the end of January. This year's exam focused on turfgrass, weed, and insect identification, irrigation component identification, equipment troubleshooting, and an essay question. The teams finished second and tenth respectively in the four-year division. 

Pictured above are the students that took part in the competition at the STMA Annual Meeting with advisors Dr. Nick Christians and Dr. Adam Thoms.

In addition to the competition, scholarships were awarded to the top sports turf students.

Mitchell Countryman of Iowa State received a SAFE Scholarship at the meeting.

This was a very good event for Iowa State to be a part of.

The 2017 Iowa State Turfgrass Field Day in partnership with the Iowa Turfgrass Institute was held on September 12, 2017. This year’s field day was moved to September to better display the research results from the traditional July date. Attendance increased greatly with 225 registered attendees, up from around 80 last year. This year’s event also included a return of the turfgrass equipment and management demonstrations, with 21 companies taking part in the demonstrations.

The field day started with three hours of education in three separate areas of focus: golf course management, sports turf management, and lawn care. Each area of focus had research projects currently underway at the Horticulture Research Station, some of the trials discussed were: turfgrass variety trials, amino acid effects on creeping bentgrass putting greens, putting green rootzone recycling trials, new products for athletic field paint, fertility and seed blends performance for lawn care professionals, improving drainage on your course or athletic field, and comparing aerification methods for optimizing athletic field safety and performance. The event also had Iowa Pesticide Applicator Training, and a demonstration on how to treat for European Ash Borer.

The last hour of education included a turfgrass pest walk coving everything from turfgrass weeds, diseases and insects. Lunch was from Hickory Park, and demonstrations of equipment were from 1 to 3 pm. Look on the Iowa State Horticulture Homepage and Turfgrass Blog for the date of next year’s field day. We hope to see many of you in 2018!

Dr. Nick Christians discusses turfgrass weeds at the 2017 Iowa State Turfgrass Field Day.

Mr. Ben Pease, Turfgrass Research Associate, discusses sports turf research projects to attendees of the 2017 Field Day.

Dr. Adam Thoms presents the performance of various turfgrass and fertility treatments to the lawn care professionals in attendance.

Not all was turfgrass at the recent turfgrass field day; Jay Goughnour measures an ash tree to demonstrate how to treat for E.A.B.