49ers' new digs means new grass on the way

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LIVINGSTON — Befitting a brand-new, $1.3 billion sports arena, the Levi's Stadium turf is springy, uniform and brilliant green. It feels soft and inviting to the touch. It looks perfectly manicured. And pretty soon, it will actually reside in Levi's Stadium.

For now, the grass that will one day support the exploits of Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis is a long, thin strip in the upper San Joaquin Valley. It's on a farm that occupies a sleepy, square-mile pocket between Interstate 5 and Highway 99, about 17 miles south of Kaepernick's home in Turlock, on property formerly owned by Charles Howard (who owned the racehorse Seabiscuit) and the Gallo wine family. The address of the farm is Livingston, but it's closer to a hamlet called Stevinson.

Very soon, this grass will be property of the 49ers. For now, it's still Greg Dunn's baby.

Dunn, a tall Midwestern transplant, is Northern California sales manager for West Coast Turf, a quietly powerful company that provides grass to every natural-turf professional stadium in California and Arizona but one — University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz. — plus many colleges and golf courses, including those at Mayacama, Santa Rosa Golf and Country Club, and The Links at Bodega Harbour.

Tucked into a wedge of valley floor between the Merced and San Joaquin rivers, the NorCal West Coast Turf farm (the company has several sites in Southern California, too) sits atop a deep layer of what Dunn calls "the sandiest soil in the Western United States" — sand washed out of the Sierra Nevada peaks to the east.

"We're farming the other half of Halfdome," Dunn said, referring to the iconic Yosemite Park formation that is visible from the facility on particularly clear days. "All of this layering from the mountains is coming into the valley."

Sandy soil doesn't work for a lot of crops, but it's perfect for, say, yams and sweet potatoes. And grass. Water drains quickly from sand, encouraging growth of deep roots.

Founded in 1990, West Coast Turf also grows grass for the home consumer, berries for the Driscoll's corporation and herbs for a company in Turlock. But it's primarily known for its high-profile sports fields. That made it the natural choice for the 49ers — along with the fact that the company grew sod for Candlestick Park for almost all of the soon-to-be-imploded stadium's final 30 years.

A large sports venue makes unique demands upon its turf. It has to look good practically year-round.

And it must be hardy and regenerative enough to withstand the pounding of — in Levi's case — at least 29 men at a time (including game officials), many of them weighing upward of 300 pounds, all stomping around in cleats.

West Coast Turf grows several varieties of grass here, including two types of Bermuda grass.

That variety is known as the bane of suburban lawn tenders, but Bermuda hybrids are a great choice for sports fields. They're durable and relatively cold-tolerant, and they use less water than fescues, a trait with skyrocketing value during this drought.