The Sandy Lane Resort on the Caribbean island of Barbados will be a world-class golf course.
Quail Valley spriging saves water and energy resources.
Quail Valley Grasses sprig-washing machine removes all soil from each sprig.
All soil is removed prior to export.
TOP
Barbados News Release(As Released February 1, 2002)
Quail Valley Grasses save water, energy at new Sandy Lane Resort in Bardados
Little Rock, Ark. – Sprigs of an Arkansas-produced turf grass are giving a Barbados resort golf course beautiful roughs and lush fairways while conserving water and energy resources. Quail Valley Grasses of Little Rock is exporting the Cavalier Zoysia and El Toro Zoysia grasses to the Sandy Lane Resort on the Caribbean island for the extensive development of the resort’s championship golf course.
“Resort golf courses are high maintenance operations, so opportunities to save money and conserve resources are very important,” Roger Gravis, president of Quail Valley Grasses said. “The Cavalier and El Toro grass varieties being used at Sandy Lane Resort will result in significant savings on water costs and nutrition. With desalinization of water and energy costs so expensive, the use of Quail Valley’s exclusive turf grasses provide a bottom-line benefit and a high return on investment in the Caribbean. And the golf course looks better, too.”
El Toro and Cavalier are private, patented varieties and Quail Valley Grasses maintains exclusive rights for both varieties for this area. Texas A&M developed Cavalier while the University of California created El Toro.
The grasses possess special characteristics that make them uniquely adaptable to the Caribbean environment. Cavalier exhibits a fine texture and a dark green color and offers the benefits of low water needs and high salt tolerance. El Toro contrasts well with Cavalier in color and texture, while being highly tolerant of salt and a very low water user.
These turf varieties assure a better playing surface that outperforms Bermuda grass in the Caribbean climate. Studies show that Bermuda grass requires higher temperatures and more sunlight than available in the 12 hours of sun and average 83-degree temperature in Barbados and much of the Caribbean.
Exporting grass is a meticulous process involving harvesting grass sprigs, and then washing, packaging and preparing them for refrigerated transportation. Just like the United States, Barbados protects its valuable agriculture industry by prohibiting from entry to the island any foreign soils attached to plant roots. Quail Valley Grasses invented a proprietary washing process that eliminates soil and protects the grass’s roots. This assures Quail Valley customers outside of the U.S. that its turf grass shipments will pass a high quality inspection without delaying delivery.
Gravis said his company is exploring other Caribbean applications of these two grass types. “If we can provide a turf grass product that meets the customers’ needs and conserve some of the world’s energy and water resources at the same time, it’s a benefit for everyone,” he said.
Other notable applications of Quail Valley Grasses’ turf grasses and sportsturf include the 1996 Olympic Stadium in Atlanta, the new Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, the Albert P. Murrah Building Memorial in Oklahoma City and War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.
