FROM LAWNS TO athletic fields and city streets to county roads, there are few places one can travel without encountering the work of the turf industry. Today, the industry covers more than 60 million acres across the United States, and behind those great expanses of green is a vast network of sectors and an intricate business structure — all hinged and dependent upon one another. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Economic Research Service, the turf grass industry, in all its forms, con- tributes a cumulative $60 billion to the U.S. economy each year, but it’s estimated that the industry’s contri- bution is actually much greater. “The sod industry is the only sector of the turf industry actu- ally surveyed and reported on by the National Agricultural Statistics Service,” says Kevin Morris, National Turfgrass Federation (NTF) and National Turfgrass Evaluation Program (NTEP) executive director. “The turf industry has lobbied USDA several times in hopes of getting a national survey, but the answer is always that the industry is just too big, with too many sectors.” However, the athletic turf sector is one component of the net- work that can be valued through expenditure reviews and independ- ent industry research. Annually, U.S. sports turf services and product purchases surpass $1.29 billion and encompass more than 2.8 million acres. Seedsmen, and those who partner with the industry, share their insight as to what’s driving the turf seed market and what areas hold the most promise. Laura Handke @Hankx3 TURF, TRENDS AND CONSERVATION 30 / SEEDWORLD.COM OCTOBER 2017 Contributing to the growth of those numbers is youth sports complexes. “Youth sports are on the uptick,” says Kim Heck, Sports Turf Management Association chief operating officer. She explains complexes are being built around a number of new models, one of which is entertainment. “Today’s youth sports complexes are being built around an entertain- ment model, rather than a solely sports-focused model,” Heck says. With support from corporations hoping to gain market share and advertisement through sponsorship and a rise in the number of year- round youth sports leagues, the nation’s youth sports have grown into a $7 billion industry. That pros- perity is shared and driving growth in other sectors connected to the youth sports industry. Turf Trends Artificial turf has been a major com- petitor for the turf grass sector, but that might be shifting. “In the seed industry, we’re seeing an increase in youth sports complexes: baseball fields, soccer fields and football fields,” says Patrick Reed of LaCrosse Seed. “Most of those are using real grass. We’re also seeing sports asso- ciations move away from artificial fields. Those fields wear out, are expensive to maintain long term and are really hot in the summer. When they wear out, a lot of associ- ations are going back to real grass.”