What kind of tarp do you need? Beacon sells a wide variety of tarps, and choosing the exact right one for your needs can be a chore. To help make the processes easier, we’ve created a single page guide to illustrate the differences between them and provide you with the information you need to make the right choice.
What can have a big impact on how successful your field is? Attention to detail. Read the rest of this entry »
You’re invited to celebrate the Opening Day Event at Beacon Athletics! Join us for tailgaiting, cookout, and more!
April 6, 2010 – 10:30am – 2:00pm
The quality of the infield skin you keep will often be limited by certain factors. Of those factors the most important are:
1) Do you have access to water for managing soil moisture? Water is the life blood of an infield skin, with it, the ball hops more truly, the surface is more resilient, cleats penetrate more easily and disturb the soil surface less and dust control is maintained. The soil make-up of your infield will need to be adjusted depending on whether you have access to water or not. The other important factor you must consider is:
2) What level management will this field receive? Is the field you manage maintained by it’s own dedicated crew like a professional team? Or is it taken care of on an intermittent basis by a regular employee? Maybe there is no dedicated staff maintaining it at all and the field relies on unskilled volunteers to maintain the field. Maintenance levels also play a determining roll in the make-up of your infield skin.
Once you have answered these two questions, you will typically fall into one of three classifications shown below:
The rest of this series will be posted right here, in the Beacon Blog. Feel free to submit any questions you’d like addresses or post your own comment here.
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We just returned from the Sports Turf Managers Association (STMA) Conference held at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort and Convention Center. That is always a great show for us and 2010 was no exception.
I’m sure those of you that had the opportunity to attend the show felt the enthusiasm. A year ago it was all gloom and doom at the trade show as attendees were handcuffed by spending freezes. But this year there was a definite “vibe” to all those who were in attendance. They were excited to be there, excited to get started on their fields and excited to see what we exhibitors had on display for them.
I hope some of you were present for my “Skinny on Skins” presentation on Thursday. I recounted how my turf degree from the University of Wisconsin included so much soils education. Little did I realize at that time way back in the early 80’s just how important those soil classes would be. Since then, I’ve spent the past 25 or so years studying, learning and working with infield soils. This presentation contained some important new information on their make-up.
There is more to infield soils than many people, even STMA members, realize. I have always advised customers that I talk to at Beacon to get their infield soils tested so that they know what is in their infield mix. With this knowledge, they are fully informed of the status of their infield mix and can compare their mix with what myself and some others in the industry have come to define as the desired infield soil makeup.
Given the reaction to my presentation at the STMA conference I’ve decided to write a series of articles. I’ll discuss the parameters that you should try to attain in order to have a successful, easy-to-manage infield skin based on your maintenance level.
You can read the first article now: Classify your Field.
The onset of a new year means Beacon Athletics has a new catalog in the mail. We know customers look forward to receiving their new copy of Beacon’s annual product catalog but sometimes something happens and catalogs don’t make it. It may be as simple as a bad address or an over-eager mail room system limiting catalog distribution. We don’t always find out. If you didn’t receive a 2010 catalog or know someone else who might want one, give us a call at (800) 747-5985, request a print copy here, or download a PDF right now!
This year’s catalog is packed with new products and innovative ideas on how to build a better athletics field or maintain the ones you have. Among the new product listings you’ll see the new Beacon Protective Screens, the battery powered Kombi Field Stripper, FieldSaver (a new infield amendment that can help any field), improved Field Tarps (Made in USA), new Backstop designs and much, much more.
The holidays were great, and the new year is here. And, while January is a cold, typically dreary month up here in the Northern U.S., baseball and softball will be starting to ramp up down South and out West come January. Yet, despite the cold, January was always the beginning of the season for me back in my days of minding a Major League Baseball field in Baltimore. That was the month I would take inventory of everything we had, from tools to chemicals to seed. That annual exercise provided a snapshot of what I had on hand and made for easier planning when it came time to make some purchases. Plan in hand, I would layout and execute my buying over the month of February so that everything I needed was on the premises by the time we would begin prepping for Opening Day.
Read the rest of this entry »
We’re looking forward to seeing you in Salt Lake City for NRPA 2009!
Regardless of where you are in the process, Beacon is ready to help with your project. Whether planning an entire facility or just adding to an existing complex, we can guide you at every step along the way. Ultimately, you just need it done right.
Stop in to meet Jim Myrland and learn how our Facility Support Group can help you with your next project. Visit us at Booth 1937! NRPA 2009 Salt Lake City, Oct. 13–16, 2009 Click here to register for the NRPA show and enjoy early bird pricing until Thurs., September 24!
Print this page and present it at our booth, you’ll receive a free Beacon hat while supplies last!There is a new feature in our online store, Wish Lists! Now while browsing through products, you can not only add them to your shopping cart as usual, but you also have the option to add them to your Wish List.
