Synthetic fields sprout all over Seed Country
26 Jun, 2007The Pacific Northwest, and primarily Oregon’s Willamette Valley, is the epicenter for the production of forage and turfgrass seed production. Farmers here plant thousands of acres of grass for its seed, which is harvested, cleaned, (in some cases) certified and shipped worldwide. Grass seed (including common turfgrasses, such as fescues, ryegrasses, bentgrasses and bluegrasses) is one of Oregon’s biggest agricultural crops.
In 2005, grass seed production ranked third on Oregon’s list of top 40 commodities with a value of $373 million. More than 570,000 acres of grass seed were harvested that year. The State’s total grass seed production in 2005 was more than 740 million pounds. Oregon produces 99% of the ryegrass seed grown in the United States and 75% of fescue seed.
But, ironically and as circumstances would have it (Kentucky bluegrass, the primary cool-season grass for sports fields does not establish or hold up well in the Pacific Northwest), the state’s sports fields are rapidly converting to synthetic turf, perhaps as rapidly here as anywhere else in the United States.
The Oregonian newspaper ran an interesting article on the phenomenon in its June 12 issue. Click here to read the article.
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