Golf courses go greener

Turfgrass managers have taken up the mantle of sustainability.  Over the past decade, a number of golf courses around the country have even started to "go organic"!

Some of the alternatives to synthetic pesticides proposed by one golf course site include:

1. Beneficial insects
2. Beneficial nematodes
3. Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis)
4. Compost
5. Corn gluten
6. Fish emulsion
7. Garlic oil/juice
8. Horticultural oils (vegetable-based instead of petrochemical based)
9. Kelp/seaweed extracts
10. Lemon & vinegar formulations
11. Lime
12. Beneficial microbes and microbial derivatives
13. Milky spore
14. Neem
15. 100% "organic" fertilizers
16. Pheromone lures
17. Pyrethrin/pyrethrum
18. Rock dust minerals
19. Biopesticides
20. Products on the national list of approved substances established under the Organic Foods Product Act of 1990
21. Products approved as organic by duly accredited certifying organizations such as the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) and the Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI)

And some of the proposed prohibited substances include:

1. All synthetic chemical pesticides
2. Arsenic
3. Biosolids derived from sewage sludge or industrial waste (i.e. Milorganite)
4. Genetically modified products, ingredients, or seeds (endophytically enhanced seed and improved grass seed cultivars produced through conventional breeding programs are not GM and therefore are permitted.)
5. Piperonyl butoxide and other synthetic ingredients
6. Pyrethroids
7. Tobacco
8. Pesticides dispensed by automatic misting systems

For further reading:

* Sustainable golf courses: a guide to environmental stewardship

* Ecological golf course management

* "Pesticide Exposure from Residential and Recreational Turf" and "Lawn and Turf: Management and Environmental Issues of Turfgrass Pesticides" in Hayes’ handbook of pesticide toxicology

* Alternative turfgrasses for more environmentally sustainable golf course management: velvet bentgrass putting greens and fine fescue/colonial bentgrass fairways

* Turfgrass chemicals and pesticides: a practitioner’s guide

* Turf problem solver: case studies and solutions for environmental, cultural, and pest problems

* Proceedings of the IInd International Conference on Turfgrass Science and Management for Sports Fields: Beijing, China June 24-29, 2007

* Golf course irrigation: environmental design and management practices

* Water quality and quantity issues for turfgrasses in urban landscapes
 
* Managing wetlands on golf courses

* USGA Turfgrass and Environmental Research Online (TERO)

Organic vs Conventional Production: Wisconsin Integrated Cropping Systems Trial

Researchers performing long-term agricultural studies in Wisconsin conclude that "...organic systems were more profitable than the Midwestern standards of continuous corn, no-till corn and soybeans, and intensively managed alfalfa" while "rotational grazing of dairy heifers was as profitable as the organic systems."

Further, "...organic forage crops can yield both as much dry matter as their conventional counterparts and with quality sufficient to produce as much milk..." and organic corn, soybean, and winter wheat "can produce 90% as well as their conventionally managed counterparts..." with weed control being a problem on average in one out of three years, and production being almost identical in two out of three years.

Original articles:

Chavas, J-P., Posner, J.L., Hedtcke, J.L. (2009). Organic and conventional production systems in the Wisconsin Integrated Cropping Systems Trial: II. Economic and risk analysis 1993-2006. Agronomy Journal 101:2, 288-295.

• Currently free - future access via UW-Madison library online subscription

Posner, J.L., Baldock, J.O., Hedtcke, J.L. (2008). Organic and conventional production systems in the Wisconsin Integrated Cropping Systems Trials: I. Productivity 1990-2002. Agronomy Journal 100:2, 253-260.

• UW-Madison access via library online subscription

More information:

• Wisconsin Integrated Cropping Systems Trial Project


• Report of the Wisconsin Integrated Cropping Systems Trial Project (1989-2006)


• Vertical distribution of phosphorus at the Wisconsin Integrated Cropping Systems Trial (2004)


• Low-input forage rotation: similar returns, reduced costs (2001)


• Cropping systems trial provides unique analysis (1999)


• Diversity pays off on cash grain farms (1999)


• Gross margins comparison of three cash grain cropping systems 1991-1994 (1995)


• Long-term study evaluates impacts of six Wisconsin cropping systems (1993)


• Baseline data for a coorientational approach to evaluation of changes produced by a sustainable agricultural demonstration program: the Wisconsin Integrated Cropping Systems Trial (1993)