Tips From The Pros

A SCIENTIFIC APPROACH TO FIELD MANAGEMENT

As a sports field manager, it is well established that you need to be part scientist. Not like a stereotypical scientist in a white lab coat and goggles, but more an in-the-field applied scientist. In order to be successful as a field manager, you have to always be building upon your body of knowledge. That is what science is, building upon what we know. Now, good science can come in many forms. In the field, you cannot practically conduct pure research with necessary quality control mechanisms like replication, double-blind designs, multiple treatments, statistical analysis of the data and peer reviewing of the research. But that doesn’t mean you can’t set up simple in situ experiments that can give you valuable knowledge and insights into your field management decisions and impacts, even if never published in a reputable scientific journal. Your work will be in the field, not on test plots. “In situ” is Latin for “On site”.

Good science follows a basic work flow.

First, find out if any formal research has been conducted and published on your issue. Why do research that has already been done in a formal setting, with all the quality controls? The great thing about science is that formal research allows you to build on someone else’s work.

Next, develop your hypothesis. This is essentially your educated guess about the issue. Try to boil it down to an “If this_____, then this_____” type of prediction. Example, if we use this product at labeled rates on our field, we will see quick and noticeable darker green color in the turfgrass.

Now design the methods and materials needed to test your hypothesis. This is the critical step. You need to be fair to the theory being tested. Try to boil down the experiment so that only one factor at a time is being tested. This is where it gets difficult on your existing field. You have to work within your existing field maintenance plan to tease out your knowledge. Generally, to prove out the efficacy of a product, this can be as simple as laying down a few small plywood squares before a treatment to act as a “control” plot where the product is not used for comparison with treated turfgrass. It could be some sort of objective measurement or observation is made before and after the treatment. For example, you might do a simple test to show how much, if at all, you are softening a grass field with core aerification by testing the field impact attenuation (GMax) before and then after the aerification.

Analyze any data or observations made and draw a conclusion. Was your hypothesis confirmed or not? How might the design of the experiment be improved for next time?

Finally, you communicate your results to those who need to know.

Turf Tips 101: Turflogs

Most field managers keep a log of tasks and work done, but could we improve them to get the most out of them? Sports field management is a unique business to start with and beyond that, we often perform maintenance and repair items on the field that are only done once or twice a year, or even less. We host a lot of different kinds of events on our fields of play. A good log of your work can serve to gain efficiencies and get better work done on the field the next time around. It can also act as an aid in designing the field event for next year, or for similar one-off events.

Before you begin, spend some time thinking about the mechanics of your records. What format will you use? How will you be able to quickly find the pertinent logs and records? There several ways to organize your logs and even some software out there available to help. Turfkeeper is one geared towards turfgrass management. Turfcentric is another example. There are certainly more. Most are overall grounds management software platforms. Capterra is a business software review site with several reviews of these type of apps and software.

Maybe a commercial software is not practical for you. You can still create a very useable system of turf record keeping or ‘”turflogs”. One of the simplest ways to begin is to make task and treatment notes on a computer calendar. If you don’t have access to a company-based digital calendar, Google offers a good free online calendar with a free Google account. You can also set up an online calendar with ICloud. We often do items on a calendar based schedule and tend to remember items by when we did them. I’ve found I can usually find what I need this way. Your turflogs could be as simple as hand-written notes in a daily diary type of log, but digital is always best, even just a simple Word document with the same info.

A typical log entry of this type might include:

“Topdressing. September 8, 2016.Entire playing surface treated. Topdresser setting of 4 1/2. Pull-cart was 2nd gear-high at 1500 RPM (2.5 MPH). Used 14 tons of sand over 2.0 acres for 7T/acre rate. Pattern was north/south swaths with start/stops on the goal line. East/west clean-ups in end zone. Rate was light enough to just water into the canopy with 5-mins per zone, no brooming was necessary. Operator was John Doe. 2 hours, start to finish. Notes: Sand was a little wet from rain a few days ago. Some grass and organic build-up on topdresser tires had to be scraped off periodically, especially in the more worn middle of the field. Weather: 75F. Sunny, dry with light winds. –Joe Blow, field mgr.” Have the person filling out the log include their name in case future readers might have questions.

Create an event on your computer calendar for that date with a heading: “Turflog-topdressing”. Most calendars allow you to do a search of terms or flag or color-code events so you can search for “Turflogs-Topdressing and retrieve all your topdressing logs. Again, there are a myriad of ways to record your logs, this is just one way. Learn how to maximize the options on your calendar to attach photos, videos or other relevant documents and add written descriptions.

Remember, some treatments or chemical applications require you to keep a treatment log with certain items that must be recorded, so follow your local laws for these record keeping requirements. Your organization may have formal systems and protocols for record keeping, so be sure to check.

Another good idea is to take a phone image of what you are doing if it will help for future treatments on the fields. Perhaps get before and after treatment images. A short video clip works wonders in terms of conveying information quickly and easily. These video and image logs can be later downloaded, dated and even attached onto your calendar event for easier retrieval. Use a wide-angle lens if you can, it’ll help get everything in your images without having to stand too far back. Several companies sell small wide-angle clip-on lenses for your phone camera. Keep your videos short and succinct using narration and giving details as needed. Consider what you say in your video turflogs and who might be watching down the road. Your phone camera can act as a poor man’s digital scanner. Have something like a seed tag you want to include in your turflogs? Just snap a good picture of it and attach to your log entry. Think about what it is you would like to know before you do this type of operation on your field again and include these items in your log. Think about what you would like to teach a trainee about the operation and include that in your log as a training guide.

I would generally keep my image and video logs on a portable storage device that has the capacity to store lots of large image and video files. A 1 terra-byte external drive shouldn’t fill up for several years. Every couple of days I would download the files off my camera and change the file names by date for easier retrieval. Some imaging/storage software allows you to “tag” a photo or video file for easy searches. Back up your turflogs regularly, they are quite valuable and you wouldn’t want to lose them.

You can use your turf logs for lots of items beside turf maintenance. Logging the details of layout, traffic flow and other issues involved with a non-sporting field event can be just as helpful. Draw up a simple field map with notes, take a picture of it and attach it to your turflogs.

You don’t have to be the head field manager to do these types of logs. It’s a good idea to do on your own if need be. Then before the next similar treatment goes on the field, having reviewed your logs you will look like the smartest person on the turf team. You can take these logs with you as an aid in managing other fields later in your career. Plus, when you get a little longer in the tooth, it’s always fun to go back and watch videos of the “good old days”.

A good wide angle lens can capture the entire summer concert field layout. Images coupled with video logs as needed will make every future concert easier. ©Ross Kurcab, CSFM

Some digital cameras today have some type of “time-lapse” function that takes an image every few seconds to few minutes and turns them into a time-lapse video. (Or you can import all the images into a video-editor software and make your time-lapse that way). Time lapse videos of an event or work on your field can be a valuable turflog inclusion on certain projects. These can be used to estimate time and materials needed for future projects. And you will often be surprised at how much foot traffic even a small, short field event can add onto the field from event set-up through the strike. It can also work as a valuable planning aid for future events.

Finally, you’ll do best if you learn some basic photo and video editing skills to better present the valuable turflogs information. The ability to create simple field maps and event elements images is not very difficult but highly valuable as a field manager. Find and learn how to use basic imaging and video editing software. It needn’t be complex or professional level for your turflogs needs and with a little practice you will get much better and faster with the work.

Resources of the Month

PC Magazine has a lot of good info and reviews of video editing software.

They also have a useful page all about photo image editing software.

End Quote

“If you wrote one sentence every day for five years, you’d capture over 1,825 memories”. – Gretchen Rubin, Good Housekeeping Feb. 2012