After 20 years of farming row crops spread over some 9,000 acres of fields in Sellers, South Carolina, Bentwood Farms enters the turf industry as a sod producer.
Charlie Baucom, owner of Bentwood Farms, said he became a licensed producer of PremierPRO Hybrid Bermudagrass, licensed by Sod Production Services, and planted 200 acres of the grass in July 2016. At the same time, Baucom also planted about 50 acres of Tifway 419. The difference between the grow-in rate of both grasses was quickly striking.
“PremierPRO had a much faster growth in than the 419,” Baucom said.
PremierPRO was ready for harvest in March 2017, several weeks before the Tifway sod. Almost immediately, Bentwood Farms began selling PremierPRO to commercial landscapers who installed the grass in lawns for residential homes in the new communities built in the Charlotte Metro area.
“The landscapers love it,” Baucom said. “They like the tensile strength of the grass. We ship it in rolls, and PremierPRO stays together in one piece. It doesn’t fall apart like some other grasses do in rolls. PremierPRO roots down quickly and it’s a beautiful green color.”
Chad Adcock, director of business development for Sod Production Services, said, “Charlie Baucom and Bentwood Farms have decades of farming experience. They’ve earned a well-deserved reputation for quality, and that translates to the PremierPRO sod he’s producing for the Charlotte residential market.”
PremierPRO Bermudagrass is a versatile and durable hybrid bermudagrass that easily withstands heavy traffic. Benefits of PremierPRO include fast recovery from injury, high tolerance from wear, high tensile strength that lifts well and stacks tight for better transport as well as fast grow-in speed. PremierPRO Bermudagrass thrives in the Southeast all the way to the northernmost parts of the Transition Zone and has licensed producers in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina Maryland and Florida.
