Online learning: ready when you are
When the UK lockdown was announced back in March, BIGGA quickly moved to offer new opportunities for its members to continue their professional development, despite the restrictions on meetings and turf clubs.
We launched Continue to Learn Extra, a series of ongoing live webinars, which have proved incredibly popular on a wide range of topics relevant to turf professionals.
BIGGA members have the added bonus of being able to revisit these webinars at a later date, to refresh their knowledge or catch up on a webinar that they may have missed.
Our friends at Rain Bird and Germinal have also produced an exclusive series of educational videos to sit alongside Continue to Learn Extra, offering even more opportunities to continue your learning and development.
Each webinar is worth one CPD credit, so sign in to CPD on the BIGGA website and start logging.
Continue to Learn Extra is an ongoing education programme that has become a fixture of our online learning offering to members and we’re going to continue hosting webinars, even after the COVID-19 crisis has concluded.
Here are the some of the topics available to watch now:
Continue to Learn Extra Irrigation Series
Providing a step by step introduction to an irrigation system this series is designed to offer bite size information allowing you to build your knowledge. Available now in the Resource Library of the BIGGA website are series 1 and 2.
Speakers: Alastair Higgs and Stuart Tait, Rain Bird
Germinal Amenity: Disease Management Webinars
These webinars discuss Best practices for anthracnose management on putting greens and Using iron sulphate and N rates to control fusarium on poa annua putting greens
Speaker: Dr Bruce B Clarke, Director at the Rutgers Center for Turfgrass Science
Plant parasitic nematodes in turf grass
As nematicides continue to be withdrawn finding novel solutions to control a range of PPNs is of high importance. This webinar presents data from an on-going current experiment that highlights the dynamic nature of nematode activity.
Speaker: Dr Deborah Cox, Agri Food & Biosciences Institute
Talking Shop: Reopening for Golf
This webinar brings together a panel of course managers and club managers to discuss the reopening of golf courses following the Covid-19 lockdown.
Panellists: Andy Laing, Gaudet Luce; James Braithwaite, Long Ashton; Kerry Alligan-Smith, Redditch; Michael Sawicki, Royal Birkdale.
Using turfgrass defence responses to control disease
With severe legislative restrictions on the availability of plant protectants for disease control throughout the UK and EU, turfgrass managers are increasingly seeking additional control tools to reduce disease incidence.
Speaker: Dr John Dempsey, Independent Turfgrass Research
Talking Shop: The Architect’s Perspective
A panel of four experienced golf course architects and members of the EIGCA discuss the effects of the COVID-19 crisis on their part of the industry, for current and planned projects and future work.
Panellists: Tim Lobb, LOBB + PARTNERS; Paul Kimber, Kimber Glen; James Edwards, EDI–Golf; Gareth Williams, Faldo Design.
How do soil surfactants work? (Wetting agents)
The goal of this webinar is to provide greenkeepers with an introduction into the basic concepts of soil water, the development of water repellency in soils, and basic principles on soil surfactant mode of action and impacts to enhance water management and improve turf performance.
Speakers: Dr Stan Kostka and Dr Michael Fidanza, Penn State University
Seaweed applications to turf: the science and the marketing
An overview on the use of seaweed products for turf, why they are used, and how they are marketed. The presentation will link to some published science and research on the topic and highlight some current trial work from ICL.
Speakers: Henry Bechelet and Dr Andy Owen, ICL.
Entomopathogenic nematodes
This presentation explains what entomopathogenic nematodes are and how you can use them to control turf pests. The talk will also cover how to store and handle nematodes, how to identify the optimum time to apply them, and how to optimise their application.
Speaker: Dr Colin Mumford, Bayer
The definitive guide to understanding and dealing with stress
Stress is the one area of mental health that we all experience and it comes in many forms. Stress in and of itself is actually a path to growth and some stress (providing we recover from it effectively) can make us stronger.
Speaker: Dave Cottrell, Mindset by Dave
Talking Shop: The Course Manager’s Perspective
This webinar brings together a panel of four experienced course managers from both large and small, member and proprietary clubs, to discuss the effects of the Covid19 crisis on their golf courses and teams.
Panellists: Mike Bush, Crown Golf; Andy Ewence, Woking; Craig Haldane, The Gleneagles Hotel; Scott Reeves, Leyland.
Conservation in a post-COVID world
With reduced staff on golf courses, is golf course conservation a luxury that we can no longer afford or, with less resources available, is now a better time than ever to think about rewilding areas of your facility for flora and wildlife to flourish?
Speakers: James Hutchinson, BIGGA, and John McLoughlin, Warrington
Surviving coronavirus
We've heard so much about COVID-19 over the past few months and in this webinar we'll hear what it's like to be struck down by the virus, by the BIGGA members and supporters who have survived it themselves. The panel talk about their battle against the virus and how they see it changing our industry for years to come.
Panellists: Les Howkins MG, Richmond; Jez Hughes, Symbio; Phil Collinson, ICL
Bio-stimulant review
Presenting an overview of peer reviewed papers plus independent trials work concerning three bio-stimulant products. Bio-stimulants have become a vital part of many programmes to maintain quality turf by optimising nutrient use efficiency, water use efficiency and radiation use efficiency.
Speakers: Steve Flanagan, Indigrow
Safe daily work scheduling
This webinar highlights how to plan and communicate daily work schedules, from anywhere, whilst maintaining safe distances. It will discuss how online systems can engage the whole team using mobile technology, highlighting the importance of recording daily task data and the pitfalls of not doing so.
Speaker: Kevin Scare, TurfKeeper
Soil science and terminology
This webinar explains the basic level the terminology used with soils such as texture, structure and nutrients. It also looks at the effects of compaction and how to relieve it.
Speaker: Andy Spetch, British Sugar TOPSOIL
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