Keeping NC State University Beautiful

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• published: 31 Aug 2015
• views: 12020

http://ventrac.com/industries/schools/ How does NC State University keep the campus beautiful from season to season? Grounds Supervisor, Mark Tennant and his crew have discovered Ventrac tractors and a long list of commercial grade attachments to take care of their year round needs. To date, the university has purchased over 12 Ventrac tractors and over 40 attachments. The crew enjoys the pristine cut and quality striping Ventrac mowers offer. “You really notice it when it’s striped and looking nice,” says Tennant. “We had a lot of people this past year telling us how nice the grass looked,” says Michael Oakes, a seven year veteran in the maintenance department. “To me, it’s pride to know I was a part of that, to get it looking so good that parents would notice.” Beyond mowing, the crew uses Ventrac for aeration, edging, tilling, leaf management, and snow removal. “Probably one of our biggest things is snow removal with the [Ventrac] broom. Our job is to get the sidewalks cleaned,” says Oakes. “It would take six people to do what I can do with that machine in an hour with the broom.” “The benefit of the broom is it helps from breaking up bricks,” says Bennie Bryant, who has been with the university for 14 years. “If you are using a blade, if one brick is uneven, the blade is going to catch it and destroy it. This saves us a lot of time from replacing bricks.” Another area the Ventrac shines is minimal turf disturbance, especially on wet ground. “A zero-turn will always leave the spot where you turn around,” says Oakes. “The Ventrac tractor, with the double tires, never does. You can go over it wet, dry and you can’t even tell.” Finally, slope mowing was a big selling point for going with Ventrac. “We either had to weed-eat, or buy a Ventrac,” Tennant says with a smile. “It holds the hill a lot better,” says Bryant. “It never gives you the idea that it’s going to tip over. It is really stable.” Check out the video to see how NC State’s Ventrac fleet is a critical part in making this elite campus beautiful year round.