Get to know Dana and Tom Groh of Minnesota Sodding Company
Minnesota Sodding Company (MSC) specializes in sodding but also does commercial construction, natural sports field maintenance, synthetic field maintenance, prairie management and 3D grading. Started in 1991, the company’s influence on the sports turf industry goes far beyond the state of Minnesota.
Athletic Turf’s Seth Jones sat down with Dana and Tom to learn more about the company, their favorite tools and their use of technology to get the job done.
What should we know about Minnesota Sodding Company?
Dana Groh: We do commercial sod and seed work. Anywhere from installing sod all the way up to seeding, hydro-mulching, erosion control blankets. And then the other half of our company is maintenance. It’s not your normal, everyday maintenance that most people in the green industry consider. It’s athletic field renovations. So that’d be anywhere from topdressing, for example, all the way up to a full field renovation, where the field gets tired and it’s not level anymore.
Where are some of the places I might have seen your work?
Tom Groh: We work as close to home as the Minnesota Twins’ ball field, but we go all over. We do MLS fields, like Sporting Kansas City. We’ve worked for the Cubs. We’ve done work for the Detroit Tigers and the Detroit Lions, the Colorado Rockies, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Chicago White Sox’ training facility and many projects in between.
What are your favorite tools to get the job done?
Tom Groh: Our Caterpillar skid-steers are doing really well for us. This year, we switched our entire fleet. We spent 12 years with another brand, and Caterpillar really put a nice package together. They have a nice machine. We run Echo backpack blowers, they’re just dynamite powerhouses for us. And also our Kubota tractors. Our local dealer, Niebur Implement, really supports us. We can’t complain at all, it’s all about the dealer and we’ve got a great local dealer.
What are some of your strategies on how you hope to make the business successful?
Dana Groh: We’ve been concentrating on a few different strategies. One of our strategies has been concentrating on our 10-year vision as a company. That’s been really helpful for everybody to see what the future vision of MSC is and our path forward, so everybody can work together as a team. Another one of our strategies is continuing to look into the future in technology, to see what will be able to help us and our business, to make us more effective as a company. And then finally, AI. We’re really digging deep into AI and how that will be able to help us. We’re looking at AI as a tool. We consider that one of our big strategies in our path forward.
How is MSC using AI?
Dana Groh: One of the big ones is developing standard operating procedures (SOPs). Before we got going with AI, just the thought of an SOP took so much brain power, the look and the feel. And how are we going to be able to make an effective SOP and make them so they all have the same feel and look? Being able to develop consistent SOPs where everybody can go to the same spot and find them and know what to do with them has been huge.
What is the best part of having your job?
Tom Groh: The best part is watching people grow. It’s pretty fun. And really, I’m a builder — I get satisfaction from watching things improve. Sod really feeds that. You can see instant growth. But watching our people grow, it’s a lot of fun when somebody has an aha moment and they get better. That’s the most satisfaction.
What makes you most proud about MSC and the work you do?
Dana Groh: One of the things I’m really super proud of is our team. We just really have a great team and everybody is always willing to dig in when the schedule gets tight, which is really fun. We will bring in people that don’t always work in the field, like they’re like an estimator. Or Tom and I will go out in the field, and that’s always fun. It’s a good opportunity to work together and do some team building. One of our favorite ballpark projects is at Target Field (home of the Minnesota Twins). We were the labor behind the original installation when the park was new, and now we go back and we help them out when they need help. Say they have a concert, sometimes the outfield will need a little sprucing up after. We’ll come after a concert and put out some new sod for them.
What’s the best advice you’ve been given?
Tom Groh: A good friend of mine, his father was our mentor when we were in high school. We asked him: “What is the secret to success?” He just sat back and smiled and he goes, “The secret to success is only working half-days.” And we sat there like, sweet, this is going to be awesome! And then he goes, “It doesn’t matter which 12 you work.” So, we’ve been working 12-hour days pretty much since that day.
About the Author: Seth Jones
Seth Jones, an 18-year veteran of the golf industry media, is Editor-in-Chief of Golfdom magazine and Athletic Turf. A graduate of the University of Kansas School of Journalism and Mass Communications, Jones began working for Golf Course Management in 1999 as an intern. In his professional career he has won numerous awards, including a Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association (TOCA) first place general feature writing award for his profile of World Golf Hall of Famer Greg Norman and a TOCA first place photography award for his work covering the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In his career, Jones has accumulated an impressive list of interviews, including such names as George H.W. Bush, Samuel L. Jackson, Lance Armstrong and Charles Barkley. Jones has also done in-depth interviews with such golfing luminaries as Norman, Gary Player, Nick Price and Lorena Ochoa, to name only a few. Jones is a member of both the Golf Writers Association of America and the Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association.
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