Issues That Matter: Industry Roundtable EXTRA

Josh Weeks, Aventis - "The answer to this question is like a Rubik's Cube. The first thing we do is test a product for control, then look at its registration potential. Persistence, per se, is manageable, but the problem with other programs with residuals is there other variables with vapor pressure or leaching to ground water. So resistance can bring a lot of other baggage with it, so the tendency is toward lower residual products."

Tom Tolkacz, Swingle Tree - "We use degree days for our timing, and we’ve got 20 years of tracking in our markets. But if you can tell me when mites are going to show up on pines and what cycle I need to hit - that’s impossible.

Ken Wentland, Lied's Landscape Design & Development - "And, if you’ve got a four-week window in a four-week cycle, then the two middle weeks are fine but the front and back weeks aren’t ideal, and you’ve got to hit all of your customers in that time."

Keith Burrell, The Lawn Company - "We have to have real good systems in place to get that technician there when he needs to be there. That becomes a real information nightmare more than a matter of getting people on the site."

Bill Hoopes, Scotts Lawn Service - "And I don’t want to go back because that costs me $25 every time I show up, so I want to hit that problem and take care of it."

Gary LaScalea, GroGreen - "When you talk about the idiot factor and delivering more control with new products, you need to get out and look at your guys and see what they’re doing on the jobs and how well their making the applications."

Burrell - "As products get more specialized and do less, the technician has to be more qualified to make decisions of, "Am I in the window for control," and "Do I need to use this product or that product?"

"Fifteen years ago, we sprayed with everything that lasted so we didn’t have these issues. But now there’s a greater responsibility on the guy to get the product down, do it right and go back and check. That means more training by the company. You can’t just have someone who sprays whatever is in the tank."

LaScalea - "I also think surfactants play into control today because we’re not soaking properties like we used to, so we need to maximize coverage."

Tolkacz - "We're really looking at the closed systems with water and concentrate in the truck where the product is mixed via an injection system as you apply. You carry a little more concentrate in the vehicle, but the technician never touches the product. Such a system takes a lot of the thinking out of the job."

Tim Doppel, Atwood Lawncare - "I'm watching what is going on in Canada closely as they’re losing a lot of pesticide use, and that could be in our future."

Sam Lang, Fairway Green - "Things will change and become very dynamic, so you can’t run your business in the future like we do today with the DOT issues, exposure issues, regulatory. When they all come into play, our business will change. If you remain static, you won’t stay in business. If the environmental groups can pick off the agriculture and tobacco industries, then we’re small potatoes because we don’t have their lobbying efforts. I think we’ll have to change and become very dynamic."

Wentland - "I think we have an advantage that in the last 10 years this has happened to other industries and we’ve started working to present a positive image. Because we weren’t the first ones who got shot we’ve got the opportunity to present a better image and prevent some of these things from happening."

Lang - "We have to be proactive. Look at where things were 10 years ago when no one cared what we mixed or used. Now there’s more knowledge, involvement and people who know the benefits of what we do. We obviously need to continue, but we’ve made progress."

Gerry Grossi, Arborlawn - "Our business is market driven, and the consumer is demanding a great deal of us. We’re growing 20 percent a year, and as long as we meet customer demands we will adapt. We’ve changed in the last 10 years, and I’m sure that will only accelerate. We’ll see more change, whether it be environmental or business, but I think we all have a very bright future."

LaScalea - "You need to be involved in community. Donate your services to City Hall, for example, so they put a face with the issues."

Burrell - "I agree. You need to be out there and let people know what you’re doing. I’m amazed by the people with their preconceived notions from 15 or 20 years ago, but they don’t realize this."

Lang - "We have to be as passionate as the environmentalists. If we were half as passionate as they are, we wouldn’t have these problems. But the economy is good, and we’re making money so we don’t concern ourselves with that."

LaScalea - "I think a word we need to get out of our vocabulary is pesticide. We need to stay away from that word no matter what."

Wentland - "We don’t call it pesticides. We call it plant medicine. That’s no different than a child with head lice - the doctor says they will use a medication, not a pesticide."

John Buechner, Lawn Doctor - "One of the concerns we have is the unregulated and sloppy applicators who give the legitimate companies a bad name. States keep passing new legislation, but they don’t enforce what they have, which would clean up a lot of the problem."

Wentland - "In Wisconsin, they’ve passed new laws but cut back on the number of state ag inspectors. I also think the do-it-yourselfer will be more of an issue in the future. As we get more technical with products, timing and use, that will slowly take away the DIY opportunity from them. If we’re positioned properly, we’ll take advantage of that."

Hoopes - "One approach for the future could be to get our state lawn care associations tighter with the state governments. People simply don’t see the pressing need. Instead of trying to sell every lawn care company on the urgency of these issues, maybe we need to take this to a state level."

Tolkacz - "We have an advisory committee made up a representative of each classification in the state as part of our state act. We meet with the government bi-monthly, and you can absolutely influence legislation that way. In addition, our dept of ag has worked closely with us on areas like pre-notification."

Buechner - "Regulation is what you want to impact, not legislation."

Hoopes - "If we’re doing such a great job, someone explain New York to me."

Lang - "But the environmental department is trying to move pesticide regulation out of the department of ag into the department of environment. Look at whose budget is getting increased vs. the department of ag. The department of environment is complaining that now we’ve got the fox guarding the henhouse, so they’re looking for more control."

Buechner - "That could be part of the equation in New York because that was passed by the department of environmental conservation."

Doppel - "You don’t even have to be a big group if you are involved consistently and are talking to the legislators and the state departments about what they need and how you can help them."

Burrell - "If you walk into a meeting with the government and they’re on a first-name basis with the environmental groups but they don’t know you or your association, then you’ve already set the tone and it’s not a good one."

Tolkacz - "I think there are a bunch of people out there right now dying to know who we are and what we do. In our market, we’re lacking people and the resources to train them, but there’s a tremendous opportunity to service more people. The opportunity is huge. People also want us to do more work for them, and we all have that happen all the time."

Gary Clayton, All Green - "Also, we have to provide technical knowledge to service the plant materials and make them feel good about making the decision to have us on their property after all they’ve heard or read via the media."

Tolkacz - "We've been marketing asset protection as our theme, and, in a lot of cases, people’s greatest asset is their home. That’s where they’ll make their real money. People love to hear that we’re there to increase the value of their property. We’re just limited by people."

Hoopes - "I think a major trend is going to be using more non-English-speaking people. I don’t know how we’ll do this, but it has to happen. I’ll figure out how to do this because we don’t have the choice. We would have been 15 percent bigger this year if we had the people."