Forsyth Barr Stadium

Here at Forsyth Barr Stadium we are in a very unique grass growing situation. With the high demand of play along with low natural sunlight levels we require a grass species that suits our unique environment. We rely on a continuous over sowing programme particularly through the winter months. Avanex Colosseum’s fast germination means I can have grass germinating within days of it being sown, which is highly important with back to back events week after week. 

Avanex Colosseum’s resistance to wear and recovery from any sort of play whether it be rugby, football or concerts gives me confidence that I can have close to 100% grass cover all year round. The added benefit of utilising Avanex unique endophyte technology means we no longer have to solely rely on the use of potentially harmful insecticides. 

Brendan Eathorne, Stadium Manager
Forsyth Barr Stadium 

Queenstown Event Centre

As part of the Queenstown Event Centre’s strategic plan to be a training venue for the 2011 Rugby World Cup, they wanted to improve the turf cover on their main oval ground. For years this had been a mixture of browntop, Poa annua and a small percentage of ryegrass. They undertook a programme of applying a worm control during spring 2010, sprayed Nortron® for Poa annua control in September 2010 and oversowed ryegrass into the oval by way of dimple seeder in November 2010. The plan was to have this establish over the growing season and then direct drill more into the rugby field area on the oval in the autumn.

“We decided, after considering certain criteria, to go with PGG Wrightson Turf’s AVANEX® Colosseum as our preferred option.

This decision was arrived at for these main reasons:

• Our grounds are bordering the Queenstown International airport so it is so important to have awareness about bird activity
• This product has been developed with an endophyte that grass feeding birds do not like
• This product has been developed with an endophyte that discourages insect activity which aims to reduce insect feeding birds
• The proof we were after has been impressive so far while the bird activity decrease was not immediate with birds still being around the oval from time to time that first growing season

 “It seems now, after the second growing season is behind us that since the establishment of the AVANEX® Colosseum the bird activity is non-existent. Also this growing season, issues with Porina and grass grub on the oval seem to have disappeared. It is our intention to use as much Avanex® Colosseum as our budget will allow in the future on our other fields. We have been very happy with the results thus far”.

Peter Domigan

Queenstown Events Centre