Bruce Searle is well known to LandWISE regulars having been on the Board for many years and an active contributor at many conferences and other events.

A crop physiologist in the Integrated Crop Production Systems group, Bruce leads the Plant & Food team researching onion crop development and modelling. His group is responsible for recording the life histories of 2,000 individual onion plants!

These data have informed development of an on-line tool to assess crop performance and help growers understand if crop development (and yield) is limited by established population, plant growth or both.

The collaboration with LandWISE has combined detailed plot scale work with whole paddock surveys to help Onions New Zealand growers understand the drivers of crop variability.

A small trial within this project looked at fertiliser rate and timing options when canopies are variable. Can we reduce rates in small canopy areas and still get the potential yield?