John Deere's Women in Turf program brings together female workers in sports turf management. The speakers discuss stadium work, turf harvesting, and building a network of women in an industry where they're still rare.
In my day to day role, when I produce an oval, we don't have anyone in and around the grounds. We hand over our ovals on a Friday, ready for play for Saturday and Sunday. So to work in a stadium, to see a crowd, the atmosphere was amazing. I've never in like over 20 years, I've never experienced anything like that.
The Women in Turf program was launched by John Deere earlier this year to help encourage more women to join the industry. It creates equal opportunities, offers personal development for the participants, and really highlights the role women play in the turf industry.
At HG Turf, we harvest turf to be transported and planted at sports stadiums. This is a hero hybrid turf and it's just synthetic and natural grass. It's more consistent and reliable with the synthetic through the natural grass. So it just makes it a smoother surface to play on.
It's very satisfying and rewarding knowing that I was part of the team that got it here. I was part of the operation of actually harvesting it. The highlight of working for women in turf, probably watching the game itself and also getting to see how the field is maintained and all the work that goes into was important. Working with the women in turf, it was really fun to meet new women in similar areas in this industry. Now I do have a network of other women in Turkey.
