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Arkansas Turfgrass – ATA

2020 gave us a vision for the future and it’s just possible that our show will take on a much different look in the coming years as we adapt to changing industry trends and respond to member needs. To understand where we are going, it is important to remember how we got this far to begin with. During the Awards Luncheon we surprised longtime director Bill Tippit with a plaque to recognize him for serving on the Board of Directors since 2008. Bill has been a dedicated friend to ATA and a loyal supporter. We can’t thank him enough for his valuable contributions, and we wish him well on his retirement. Hopefully he will come back to the show visit if we promise not to work him too hard!

Our joint tradeshow with the Arkansas Green Industry was sold out, and we enjoyed adding a few new vendors to our line-up. We figure if you didn’t see a vendor for it at this show, you probably don’t need it anyway. But seriously, our show continues to be one of the few left that still bring in equipment for you to see. This affords you the chance to see the latest and greatest innovations from equipment manufacturers without any obligation.

The Awards Lunch was a great time to network and enjoy seeing old friends again. This year we celebrated the achievements of three turf professionals who are the top in their field. Two golf courses were recognized in different divisions. Ricky Self accepted on behalf of Cypress Creek and Dustin McNaughten for Burns Park Golf Course. Daniel Baxley accepted the Sports Turf Field of the Year for Benton Parks and Recreation. Congratulations to all of our winners!

The ATA Conference continues to bring you the most recent research in the industry. Dr. Maria Tomaso-Peterson from Mississippi State educated us on large patch control and foliar diseases in ultradwarf bermudagrass. Dr. Becky Grubbs-Bowling from Texas A&M gave presentations on The Absence of Glyphosate, BMP for Lawns and “What are We Going to do About Poa?” Dr. Richardson contributed many talks in the Sports Turf Session which seems to grow more every year. Dr. Eric Reasor with PBIGordon updated us on the Top 10 Weeds and Their Control as well as addressing herbicide resistance. There are too many to list, but we did change things up and enjoyed an update from Pat Berger about the conversion of Razorback field and Troy Fink, superintendent at The Blessing on hosting major tournaments. We can’t list all the presentations here, but we were proud to offer a well-rounded portfolio of topics. We also offered four workshops this year which proved to be a big success.

Join us in thanking Dr. Karcher for organizing all of education for us and making several presentations. We could not do this show without his connections, insight, knowledge and hard work.