Pick a Product You Can Price

Wayne Pittillo’s upbringing on his family’s North Carolina dairy farm led him to study general agriculture in college, followed by several years of work building houses. But he lent a hand every year to bring in the hay and corn silage crops. One day while stacking hay with his dad, Fred, they started brainstorming about switching to sod production.

What kept circling in Wayne’s head was his dad’s advice to “pick a product you can price.”

In 1987 they converted four acres of corn ground to sod, and a year later, “We got braver,” says Wayne. They borrowed money and increased the total to 18 acres. Currently, there are 600 acres in sod and another 500-600 acres in soybeans and corn.

Up until the late 1980s, the farm’s production could only sustain a single family. The Pittillos knew they’d have to change their business model if Wayne and his sister, Linda Bradley, who had a career in insurance adjusting, were to come home and help their folks carry the farm into the fourth generation. 

For the first 20-plus years, what became Turf Mountain Sod specialized in grading new residential sites and installing sod there and on golf courses and sports fields. It took a crew of 20 employees and an incredible amount of manual labor to get the jobs done. They didn’t have the volume of homegrown sod to meet their demand initially, but in time they converted all their row crop ground into sod production.

During this transition, Fred and his wife, Merle, continued to stay involved and active in operations, finally selling the dairy herd in 1992 and helping to invest in land parcels as they became available. The couple owned about 300 acres. In spring of 1995, Linda joined the farm using her marketing and management degree in the office.

First flex
Along came the Recession of 2008-2009 with sharp cutbacks in new construction, so the Pittillos plowed up about 80 acres of sod and put it back into soybeans. They converted to mechanical sod installation, which cut their crew by two-thirds, and boosted their output. “We could move up to 18 trailer loads per day,” Wayne says. “And six to eight guys were laying 30 yards in less than a minute. It’s like rolling out a carpet.”

Continuous business expansion over more time – which led to farming 1,200 acres of ground across four counties – started to cut into the profit margins, so Wayne said, “We corralled ourselves and worked to cut back some of the travel.” They also jumped at the chance to purchase 269 acres of bottomland nearby when it became available.

Wayne and Linda took over full management of Turf Mountain Sod in 2019 and set about focusing on the goal of producing a super high-quality product. They regularly test new spray products, irrigation equipment, precision farming techniques and pick the brains of researchers at North Carolina State University.

A fifth generation has now joined the effort, bringing additional skill-sets to bear on business challenges. Wayne’s daughter, Scarlett, exhibits skill with both staff and customers. Wayne’s son, Colton, helps with all things necessary from ground preparation to shop work, and Linda’s son, Luke, shares his accounting expertise. Wayne and Linda have a younger sister, Candi Mains, who is a schoolteacher.  Over the past few summers, Candi’s oldest son, Walker, has also helped out on the farm. 

Precision to the inch
Though Wayne initially resisted learning a different way to perform field operations, he admits he has now fully embraced precision farming. He points to several advantages the Real Time Kinematics built into their New Holland machinery bring to their business. There’s much less stress and fatigue for drivers using auto steering, he says. Fuel and input savings are sizeable because there’s no overlap when performing field tasks such as planting, fertilizing, spraying and cutting sod. Recordkeeping is simplified since the program keeps a map of all field operations on the whole farm – a big plus when you mow one planting as many as 45 times in a season.

Turf Mountain Sod relies on two T5.120 EC tractors for planting and mowing operations and a T8.390 for much of the tillage. New Holland’s PLM™ Intelligence platform allows the operator to always stay in touch with his machines from anywhere. Remote connectivity with New Holland Remote Assistance, advanced diagnostics, IntelliView™ Connect remote display viewing and software updates all serve to limit downtime and keep ahead of the curve. They also farm using seven other New Holland tractors.  

“We’ve been fortunate to be able to buy new pieces of equipment that improve our efficiency and competitiveness,” Wayne says, who serves as general manager. He employs sod and row crop managers, as well as two full-time mechanics to keep all the machinery rolling. In total, the business employs 20 full-time employees. 

Welcome all comers
This business services a broad range of jobs: from a 1-square-yard order for a homeowner to trailer loads destined for school and college sports fields and everything in between. In fact, the Little League and the NFL are customers.

“We have a unique situation that improves our competitiveness,” Wayne explains. “Landscapers like our sod. They can pick up pallet orders we fill right in the field, or we can deliver.” Turf Mountain Sod seeds both cool - and  warm - season varieties, a combination that takes a little longer to grow, but serves the customer well.

From their home in the mountains of western North Carolina, their market reaches about 100 miles in several directions, including Charlotte, as well as three cities in Tennessee and Greenville, South Carolina. “There’s a lot of building going on in Asheville, North Carolina, right now,” Wayne adds.

The business grows by word of mouth, through magazine advertising, a website and a presence at North Carolina trade shows. “That’s where people can put a face with the name,” Wayne says.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the Pittillos’ business did, indeed, slow down for a while. But Wayne says they served two to three times the usual number of do-it-yourselfers.

Bare ground to beautiful grass
It’s no small task to go from bare ground to beautiful grass harvestable for sod. Turf Mountain can plant in both spring and fall but fall has the best conditions for success. Here’s how the many-step process goes:

First, they disk rip the ground to fight compaction. Then they disk and level with a land plane. Next is an application of fertilizer, which they incorporate with a finishing disk. Now it’s time for seeding, followed by a pre-emergent spray to stop any weed growth. The crew next lays a biodegradable web netting, which speeds digging at harvest. As the grass grows, they will spray as needed, then mow, irrigate and finally harvest the sod. 

The field is tied up for a year in this routine, and the earliest harvest comes is late April or early May. Depending on the variety of grass, such as Fescue, sometimes the crew must plant  a cover crop and later plow it in to start over. Other varieties such as straight Bluegrass, Bermuda or Zoysia, grow back.

Turf Mountain uses a 90:10 mix of cool-season varieties, Fescue and Bluegrass primarily, for home sites and commercial projects. It can take full sun and stays green all year long. Bluegrass is especially well-suited to athletic fields and golf course roughs. By sending a root underground, it fills in bare spots.

Clients south of their home base can better accommodate warm-season grasses, such as the Bermuda and Zoysia. These would go dormant for the winter in more northern climates. Both are also appropriate for residential and athletic field applications.

Wayne has always loved seeing a project through from start to completion and never really tires of watching ground go from bare brown dirt to a beautiful healthy sod. “We’re proud to be farmers who enjoy being outside where we can enjoy the beauty around us through all the seasons,” he says. “We’re Christians who know where everything we have comes from. We are very thankful and always humbled.”

Follow Turf Mountain Sod on Facebook, @TurfMountainSod.