Down on the Croke Park turf farm

The introduction of a Turf Farm has revolutionised maintenance and renovations at the Croke Park stadium.

Pitch Manager, Stuart Wilson presented to the UK stadia group both at the turf farm and Croke Park stadium.

Kerry Haywood recently visited the turf farm with a contingent of leading UK stadia turf managers, where Pitch Manager, Stuart Wilson, told us how the farm has been a positive revelation for the Dublin stadium and the wider industry.

In years gone by, the farmer’s field had been used for cows to graze. Fast forward to present day and that is now Croke Park Turf Farm, utilised for providing turf - not only for the stadium, but also distributed around Ireland for Gaelic games, football and golf.

Stuart commented: “We purchased the land six years ago with the objective to turn it into a turf farm, which is what you see today. The old farmer passed away and the land was put up for sale which was a fantastic opportunity for us and one we couldn’t pass on. We have 70 acres in total which includes a large water tank; in theory, we could water every acre with the water supply that we have and we wouldn’t run out.”

“Initially the turf growth was difficult, as we found that there was too much organic material within it. We addressed that pretty quickly, but I had to learn that this was a farm and not a pitch. Sometimes I would look and think ‘we need nutrient on it’ but, in reality, it just wasn’t needed. We’ve also had to learn about the amount of work that it takes and the number of staff needed to manage a farm - which is probably the biggest challenge. I have one person working up here full time and three in the stadium, plus two at the training facility - there is a lot of pressure on the team.”

He continued: “We have additional help from a contractor because we wouldn’t be able to meet deadlines without them. The amount of work has grown significantly; we started with one field, then two and they both needed drainage and irrigation before installing the 5000 square metres of hero hybrid carpet. Six months later, we had the first batch of turf ready for Croke Park.”

Stuart re-turfed the full pitch in September and the first match was Leinster and Munster n the URC. “We had four weeks from moving the turf from the farm to then hosting the event at Croke Park, which provided enough opportunity to get the turf to look and play as good as possible. We held off with the nutrient (as we wanted it to substantially root) however, we knew that the scrums could affect the turf rolls, so we laid it length ways to allow less movement. I was worried, but it performed well and didn’t budge.”

Before the farm, it was challenging to source turf quickly after concerts. Stuart added: “We had to import turf from UK companies, but this posed huge risks because of things going wrong in transportation. Sometimes the turf would go black after a few days because it had been transported after harvesting it during warm conditions from the UK and/or been sat on the ferry for too long. There were no turf farms in Ireland which could produce the quality of turf that we needed, so it proved easier to grow and move our own turf.”

The turf cycle

“The hybrid turf at the farm starts out as a 2.5m wide x 100m long carpet which gets stitched together. Next, there is a gentle process of filling the carpet with sand starting with 5mm, whilst using the Campey UniRake to finely groom the surface and keep the fibres upright until we get to 40mm. That equates to 25mm of fibre on show at the top, which we seed into, and allow 6-8 weeks growth time.”

“We use Goldcrop Champions pitch seed as it grows exceptionally clean. Stuart uses prohexadione active ingredient on the turf farm and points to Attraxor® plant growth regulator as a beneficiary at the stadium: “We work to 250 Growth Degree Days (GDD) and, within 24 hours, we are controlling what’s going on which promotes much more consistency. On the farm, we will slightly increase the amount we use to reduce mowing hours and keep organic matter to a minimum.”

Leading UK stadia turf managers got the opportunity to visit the Turf Farm and Croke Park stadium in conjunction with Agrovista Amenity.

“When the turf is ready to be lifted, it is cut and the base of the carpet is cleaned to remove the soil. This is an important process to avoid different depths of turf when it is re-laid. The rolls are loaded onto one or two lorries which takes about 45 minutes and then it is transported half an hour down the road to the stadium… as simple as that!”

When asked if Stuart thinks his project could be emulated in the UK, he said: “In Ireland, we don’t have as many turf growing companies, which was part of the reason for us to start this farm for ourselves. Clubs have good choices of turf growers in UK, compared to Ireland when it comes to hybrid turf. It is nice to be self[1]sufficient and even turf growers have visited the farm set up and been impressed with the turf quality. When you are growing your own, you can have a groundsperson eye on it - as opposed to the business and profit eye. It is a great business model for a multi-use venue.”

Concerts and events

Croke Park Stadium is one of the largest in Europe, with a capacity of 82,300 hosting an array of field sports and concerts. “The average life of a pitch at Croke Park will last for ten years, but it really depends on the amount of concerts. We are almost guaranteed to replace 20-30 metres of the pitch after the Bruce Springsteen concert and, now that we have the turf farm, we can justify replacing some - if not all the pitch.” “I don’t always know what concerts are coming up; I could be told six months in advance that we need two full pitch replacements, so we always have to have two pitches on standby. The challenges come when you have a concert one weekend and then a match the next. It is hard to turn the pitch around and have it ready for play within days. We are dealing with over eighty fixtures a year, plus fifteen kids Go Games days and sponsor days. Every year we have close to 100 events on the pitch. including concerts and Go Games days with four or more pitches set out - natural turf couldn’t deal with that.”

The turf harvester at the farm works at rapid pace

Stuart touched on other sports played at Croke Park: “Gaelic games are the main sports that we host here; the speed of the sport is phenomenal and that has a huge impact on turf management due to wear and tear. The players will go into a corner and do 180 degrees in one spot which can really tear the grass apart but, most importantly, we don’t want players to fall and injure themselves; if someone slips over at Croke Park, I will know about it quickly. For everything other than football and rugby, we play the pitch slightly softer so that the turf has a little bit of give for the players going at extreme speeds.”

Stadium fixtures and challenges

“The fixture schedule is a huge challenge and games come thick and fast from January through to mid-August when the concerts start. There is a never a single game in a week – we always have a double, triple header or even four games over one weekend. Obviously, this poses its own issues with additional warmups and wear, but we always manage to turn things around. We were under pressure back in June due to the number of games, but we managed to get it back. From a groundspersons point of view it was tired, but no one else would notice.”

“As for most groundspersons, weather is another challenge and, the weather in 2024 was brutal. We had warm temperatures and wet conditions which isn’t often a great mix, but I think we managed the stadium quite well. Moisture levels were high, which saw some Fusarium creep in, but we are fortunate that the big Championship games come during summer, so recovery of the pitch was often a lot faster.”

Brian O’Shaughnessy, Product Specialist for Campey Turf Care was delighted to present their range of turf farm equipment to the group.

“We have a standard Hunter irrigation system at the stadium with sixteen perimeter heads and eight in-fields. We have a John Hewitt Pollard system which went in a while ago, that is still functioning very well, but the hybrid pitch has increased the irrigation requirements.”

Additional revenue

Stuart concluded by telling us about external turf sales from the farm: “We sell the turf to stadia and golf clubs around Ireland. One day in November, we harvested for ten clubs - which accumulated to around £40,000 in sales and it keeps the farm ticking over. It is a separate business and we have received only positive feedback from clubs utilising the farm services.” It was a pleasure to visit the farm and it will be interesting to see if UK clubs consider this option in future years… watch this space?