All posts by LandWISE Admin

Agronomy, Nutrients, Precision Agriculture, Research, Soil, Water

New food production paradigms: why farm systems are changing

August 15, 2015 LandWISE Admin Leave a comment

HBB_RSNZ_Header

A public lecture offered by the Hawke’s Bay Branch of the Royal Society of New Zealand

Dr Charles Merfield, Director
Future Farming Centre, Biological Husbandry Unit Lincoln

7:00pm – 8:30 pm, Wednesday 26th August 2015
Hawke’s Bay Holt Planetarium, Chambers St, Napier

13032009338 sm Modern farming systems are 70 years old. They have been very successful at meeting their key aim; maximising food production. However, society is asking farmers to take on new aims including providing ecosystem services to protect and enhance the environment.

Four key technologies created modern farming: fossil fuels, synthetic nitrogen fertilisers, soluble lithospheric fertilisers and agrichemical pesticides. There are increasing issues with each of these both from the input (e.g. cost, resistance) and outcome (e.g. pollution) sides.

Sustainable agriculture is smart agriculture that uses all available tools to find long lasting alternatives. A key to developing and analysing farm systems is overlapping the sciences of physics, chemistry, biology and ecology. Sustainable farming can be viewed as a martial art, probing and testing the opponent’s strengths and weaknesses then using smarts, not brute force, to win the contest.

Viewing farming through the eye of Darwin’s Law of Evolution will allow more sustainable and durable solutions to be developed.

Dr Charles Merfield is the founding head of the BHU Future Farming Centre which focuses on ‘old school’ agri/horticultural science and extension.

Charles studied commercial horticulture in the UK and then spent seven years managing organic vegetable farms in the UK and NZ.

In the mid 1990s he moved into research, focusing on sustainable agriculture including soil management, pest, disease and weed management general crop and pasture production.

He has been fortunate to work and experience agriculture in diverse range of countries including NZ, UK, Ireland, USA and Uruguay. He therefore has a broad knowledge of real-world farming as well as science as well a deep understanding of the history of agriculture and science, which enables him to paint the big-picture of where modern farming has come from and where it is going.

Thanks to the Foundation for Arable Research, Charles Merfield will also be offering one day workshops for farmers and industry. For details see the FAR website>

FAR

Agronomy, MicroFarm, Precision Agriculture, Projects, Research, Sensing, Soil

Onion Research Underway

August 12, 2015 LandWISE Admin Leave a comment

OnionsNZ

After months of planning our OnionsNZ, Plant and Food, Sustainable Farming Fund onion variability project, things are underway at the MicroFarm!

Gerry Steenkamer planted the crop on 2nd August. Rhinestone seed was donated by Vigour Seeds and treated for us by Seed and Field Services. We are very grateful for their support.

An initial residual herbicide application of Dacthal and Stomp was applied. We had a lot of wireweed last year and are keen to get on top of that.

Plant and Food Research staff have established plots for detailed monitoring. They are doing many very detailed individual plant measurements at plot scale. LandWISE is coordinating a number of sensing surveys of the whole crop using a range of technologies.

20150805_PlotMarking — Plant and Food staff setting up monitoring plots in onions beds. (Wintery southerly)

More details for the research programme and measurements are available on the MicroFarm website.

Plant and Food researchers have developed growth models for a range of crops. This work will help refine their onion growth model, a key to understanding the development and variability in crops. The detailed plot measurements will also be compared with the whole paddock sensor measurements to corroborate and calibrate them.

The first paddock scale surveys have been completed. These give some base information and understanding of the site and it’s variability. Maps as pdfs are available on the MicroFarm website.

One of the first “layers” we can look at is Google Earth imagery – free info on the web! Have a look at your place: use the time slider to view a series of aerial and satellite images captured over recent and not so recent years.

MicroFarm Onion Beds with Winter Cover Crops (as shown on Google Earth image 19 April 2015)

We have posted some of “our place” images and some interpretation here>.

Pagebloomer vs Page Bloomer Associates completed an RTK-GPS survey using Trimble equipment from GPS Control Systems. The data were used to create surface ponding and runoff risk maps.

AgriOptics completed a Dual-EM survey in early July. This gave shallow and deep soil information maps. The dry winter means soil had not reached field capacity when the survey was made, so we are a little cautious when interpreting the results. But we risked not getting a survey at all, and by planting in August it had still not rained. With beds formed and crop planted and emerging, we have no opportunity now to repeat the survey.

AltusUAV AltusUAS has prepared NDVI maps of cover crops from UAV mounted sensors. They will be making repeated measurements as the crop develops. AltusUAS is now using MicaSense technology for efficient multispectral image collection.

ASL_Square_150 ASL Software has provided their Cover Map canopy cover measurement tool fitted with high accuracy GPS. We can now use that technology to measure relative plant development and ensure our readings (our mapped data) are located in the correct beds!

LandWISE People, MicroFarm, Precision Agriculture, Projects, Research, Sensing

BioRich Tractor for MicroFarm

August 12, 2015 LandWISE Admin Leave a comment

The arrival of a BioRich sponsored tractor at the LandWISE MicroFarm will support precision farming research efforts.

BioRich_JD900HCWeb — The John Deere high clearance cropping tractor is set to match the onion beds at the MicroFarm.

The John Deere cropping tractor has been set to a 183cm wheel track to fit the onion beds planted in early August. It’s first role is to act as a carrier of sensors that are used to map crop development.

We are delighted with the tractor. After much investigation into options for a sensor carrier, we finally landed on a high clearance cropping tractor as the ideal machine. Then, after searching wide and long, we discovered there was one sitting on our back door.

BioRich Principal, Mike Glazebrook is a LandWISE founding member and past Chairman. He said he was keen to support the work being done at the MicroFarm as he sees it as of benefit to the community. There is obvious alignment with LandWISE objectives for sustainable production.

BioRich Limited is an organic waste recycling company. It’s main activity is capturing organic material that would otherwise be wasted, or cause pollution, and turning it into rich compost. Where it is practical to do so it also seeks to extract stock food and energy from organic material that would otherwise be wasted.

Every year, throughout New Zealand, many thousands of tonnes of organic “waste” is dumped into landfills or is inappropriately discharged to land. Once dumped much of this material breaks down in an uncontrolled manner and releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and pollutants into our waterways.

Meanwhile most of New Zealand’s cultivated soils have been steadily deteriorating. This is due to both to a decline in soil organic matter and a depletion of minerals and nutrients.

Hence BioRich’s mission is to divert organic matter (carbon) from ending up in places where it can do a lot of harm – in our atmosphere and water – and putting it somewhere it can do a lot of good – in our soils.

Agronomy, Nutrients, Precision Agriculture, Projects, Research

Free Fertiliser Spreader Test Tool Released

August 11, 2015 LandWISE Admin Leave a comment

What is FertSpread?

FertSpread is a free-to-use on-line calculator and reporting tool to support on-farm calibration of fertiliser spreading equipment. It can be used on any internet connected device: computer, tablet or smartphone.

Access FertSpread at www.fertspread.nz

FertSpread uses field test results to calculate fertiliser product Size Guide Number (SGN) and Uniformity Index (UI) ensuring that evenness of application is within the recommended ranges.

Other calculations include fertiliser flow rate, required spreader speed, and actual application rate (kg/ha).

Finally and most importantly the tool allows you to analyse your Broadcast spreader configuration and based on your test results allows you to optimise your bout widths and ensure that you’re laying consistent, cost effective fertiliser spread patterns where ever possible.

Why was FertSpread developed?

FertSpread is one output from the Sustainable Farming Fund “On-Farm Fertiliser Applicator Calibration” project. The project arose from repeated requests by farmers for a quick and simple way to check performance of fertiliser spreading by themselves or contractors. They wanted to know that spreading was acceptable.

Fertiliser application calibration procedures suitable for farmers applying nutrients with their own equipment allow on-farm checks to ensure and demonstrate application equipment is performing to expectations.

A calibration check includes assessment and correcting of both application rate (kg/ha) and uniformity (CV). Farmers indicated that checking the paddock application rate is reasonably easy and commonly done. Very few reported completing any form of uniformity assessment.

Assessing Performance

Uniformity requires collection of samples from a spreading event and calculation of a uniformity value. It will involve either physical or theoretical over-lapping of adjacent swaths. Use of standard test trays is strongly advised, given the need for baffling to stop fertiliser bouncing out.

Weighing samples is complicated by the very small quantities involved – often a single prill in the outer containers. Scales weighing to 0.01g are required, but satisfactory options are readily available at reasonable price. If a larger sample is wanted, two or more runs at the chosen application rate should be made rather than applying some higher rate.

Analysing collected data

Analysing fertiliser spread data is a somewhat complex task. The effect of overlapping runs (either round and round or to and fro) needs to be taken into account, and then the statistics to describe how uniform application is must be made. And in most cases, calculations should consider a number of different bout widths.

FertSpread was developed to process collected field data and generate statistical reports automatically. This reduces potential errors and makes the whole process very quick and efficient.

Key outputs are measured application rate, the CV at the specified bout width and the bout width range at which CV is within accepted limits.

The results of the uniformity test are given as the bout width where the coefficient of variation (CV) does not exceed a specified level. The maximum accepted CV is 15% for nitrogenous fertilisers and 25% for low analysis fertilisers.

NOTE: Different types of collection trays show varying levels of capture during testing. Some can lose a significant amount of fertiliser through “bounce-out”. Experience suggests the uniformity calculations are reasonably accurate, but the application rate may be under-reported. Check the application rate by dividing the quantity of fertiliser discharged by the area covered.

This project was undertaken by LandWISE Inc with funding from the MPI Sustainable Farming Fund. It was co-funded and supported by the Foundation for Arable Research and the Fertiliser Association.

FertSpreadPartners

Agronomy, Research

On-Farm Trials – goals and objectives

August 10, 2015 LandWISE Admin Leave a comment

The LandWISE On-Farm Trial Guide series provides clear yet comprehensive descriptions for people wanting to get the greatest benefit from on-farm research.

OnFarmTrialGuide Set sm This post looks at the first steps: getting your goals and objectives sorted. We acknowledge the original authors; Peter Stone, Andrea Pearson and Maaike Bendall (then of Crop & Food Research).

Setting goals and objectives – what do you want to find out and why?

Know what you want to know, and why you want to know it. If you’re not clear on these, don’t start on your trial.

You need to have a clear and simple statement of what you want to know (objective) and why you want to know it (goal). Goals are statements of the overall target that you want to reach. Objectives are the specific questions that need answering for you to achieve those goals.

Let’s start with goals. A common goal would be to increase gross margin per hectare. There are obviously lots of ways that you could try to achieve this, but for the purposes of a single trial you need to focus on a single approach. Your goal might be to see whether increased plant population increases your gross margin per hectare.

Once you’ve got your goal clear, you can move onto your specific objective. In this case, a common objective would be to compare the gross margin from your current population with that from a higher population. Gross margin is made up of expenditure and receipts, so fulfilling the objective will require you to measure the amounts and values of inputs and outputs. Objectives should always be measurable.

You can see that setting a clear goal led naturally to a simple objective which, in turn, suggested the sorts of treatments and measurements that will need to be made for the trial to succeed. This gets you through the worst of the planning stage!

Setting goals and objectives isn’t usually a difficult task, but it does require some care. Fuzzy goals usually lead to poorly defined objectives which, in turn, produce unfocused trials and inconclusive results – an all round waste of time and effort.

If you find that your objective doesn’t relate adequately to your goal, have another go at it. By the same token, if your objective requires tricky treatments or more data collection than you can handle, modify it. The key is to be clear and simple.

If your goal and objectives can’t fit into a simple sentence, you’re probably biting off more than you can chew. Write them down and see if they pass muster.

If they’re not quite right, have another go at it. You’ll never regret spending time getting this part of the trial planning process just right. Mistakes made here almost always lead to trouble down the line.

Having established an achievable goal and objectives, it’s time to think about the treatments that you’ll apply and the measurements that you’ll make on your trial.

Summary:

A simple statement of what you want to know and why you want to know it is the essential first step in running successful on-farm trials.

End of section critical decision point

Can you write a clear statement of what you want to know from trial, and why you want to know it? This is important if you are to get the best from the next section –Getting the treatments right.

Automation, Nutrients, Precision Agriculture, Research, Sensing

Pioneering Precision

August 5, 2015 LandWISE Admin Leave a comment

Aerial Imaging for Better Data Collection

Rural Delivery Series Eleven, Episode 24
Saturday 22 August 7am TVOne

The use of sensors of one kind or another is nothing new in agriculture, particularly in the hands of cropping farmers. But a new imaging tool is currently being evaluated at Massey University. It was originally designed for space exploration and military operations but is now being adapted for data collection, to help farmers make the best management decisions possible.

The sensor is flown over land, gathering images from more than 450 wavebands including visible, near, short and infra-red. Maps of farms are developed, identifying pasture quality, nutrient content, potassium and sulphur levels, land surface temperatures, and areas of poor drainage as well as nutrient movements on slopes.

Professor Ian Yule of Precision Agriculture at Massey University says in the past, remote sensing has tended to focus on nitrogen use but the more sophisticated sensors allow the presence and concentration of other nutrients to be determined.

The technology is being used as part of Pioneering to Precision, a Primary Growth Partnership Programme (PGP) with particular interest in fertiliser application on hill country, but Professor Yule says it will also have significance for the dairy industry.

Agronomy, Automation, Drainage, Irrigation, MicroFarm, Nutrients, Planting, Precision Agriculture, Projects, Sensing, Soil, Tillage, Water

Onions Research – three year project

June 14, 2015 LandWISE Admin Leave a comment

LandWISE has partnered with Onions New Zealand and Plant & Food Research in a three year project focused on understanding variability in onion crops. The project is funding by Onions NZ and the MPI Sustainable Farming Fund.

Dr Jane Adams, OnionsNZ Research and Innovation Manager, says the project, “Enhancing the profitability and value of New Zealand onions” is designed to provide the industry with tools to monitor and manage low yields and variability in onion yield and bulb quality.

It will incorporate precision agriculture with initial work to be done at the LandWISE MicroFarm. At the MicroFarm, we have been building increasing knowledge of the site, but will ramp that up with more layers of soil and crop information as we try to unpick factors contributing to lower yields and reduced quality.

Information about the 2014-2015 MicroFarm Onion crop can be found on the MicroFarm website.

The project proper starts on 1 July, but there has a lot of preparatory activity to ensure everything kicks of smoothly.

Anyone interested in joining a regional Focus Group supporting the project should
contact us>

Agronomy, Automation, Precision Agriculture, Sensing

LandWISE 2015: The Farm of 2030

May 25, 2015 LandWISE Admin

20-21 May 2015, Havelock North, NZ

Farmof2030Web

Looking for the next big thing in agriculture?

Maybe the next big thing is a small thing. Bigger equipment has given amazing work efficiencies and helped drive production and productivity. Are there any downsides?

As we seek to achieve efficient crop production, we need to manage variability. What are the drivers, what tools can help us? How do we link technology and agronomy?

Leave LandWISE 2015 with new understanding of where technology has taken us, where current development is opening possibilities and which things may yet be some way off.

The theme “The Farm of 2030” comes from a prediction made in 1980 by John Matthews of the UK National Institute for Agricultural Engineering Describing a farm fifty years in the future, soil quality and alternative machinery featured strongly. Computers and robotics were becoming available but GPS, internet and wireless were not.

Join us at our 13th Annual Conference, a meeting of technologists, farmers and their many support providers, where you can engage with leading researchers and practitioners.

Top presenters from Australia and New Zealand will update you on sensors, networks and robots, crop and field variability and what we can do to manage it. Dealing with troublesome weeds, identifying pest outbreaks, monitoring soil moisture and automating irrigation management. Can a robot do our scouting, our weed control, our mowing?

Ultimately, what will a farm look like in 2030? What do we need to be doing to make sure we are ready?

More here>

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Agronomy, LandWISE 2015, MicroFarm, Precision Agriculture

A message from BASF Crop Protection

May 25, 2015 LandWISE Admin Leave a comment

LandWISE 2015 Platinum Sponsor – BASF Crop Protection

Fenton Hazelwood - BASF Crop Protection — Fenton Hazelwood – BASF Crop Protection

I would like to firstly thank Dan and Debbie and the entire LandWISE team for the opportunity to be here. It seems we are all getting increasingly busy, even with these Smart Phones. However, for me this annual LandWISE conference is a must do on the calendar, and I don’t say this lightly.

LandWISE and its members are focused on a topic that is dear to me; “sustainability”. Not just sustainability, a word to be thrown around because it sounds good, but sustainability in the true sense of the word. They are active in the pursuit of sustainable farming and have built a solid track record of success.

So BASF Crop Protection is very proud to again be a key sponsor of the Annual LandWISE conference. The philosophy of LandWISE fits very well with BASF Crop Protection: providing real solutions in our primary industry that will enable us to sustainably produce more saleable yield per hectare. Without the ability to sustainably produce more, we will struggle to feed a growing population.

Many in NZ feel we are insulated, but we are all part of the global stage. A few statistics resonate daily for me. I like this one, which helps engage non primary industry people:

We need to produce more food in the next 50 years, than has been produced in the last 10,000 years.

Give or take 10% either-way and this is a hell of task with available land for production reducing constantly.

It is well worth asking people you know, “What is the biggest job on earth?” There’s a video about it here>

BASF celebrates its 150th birthday this year; a HUGE milestone, and one that as a company we are incredibly proud of. May the next 150 years plus be as ground breaking. But I have some worries.

I am concerned in particular, that in the next 5 years or so our industry is going to see some very experienced individuals retire. Primary production in general is going to lose these individuals, people with extensive knowledge and wisdom.

Yes, there are more being trained, however we will be losing a block of knowledge spanning four or more decades. That “old knowledge” is extremely important as to go forward we really need to be a ware of the past. Imagine having no one with experience pre Glyphosate? And that is but one of many examples.

With a slow-down in new molecule introductions, chemical resistance management is becoming even more vital. There are challenges a plenty, of which makes the journey all the more interesting.

A constant challenge of looking after the molecules we have in preventing resistance management is at a mode of action level, not an active ingredient level. We need that thinking to permeate the entire industry, developers, suppliers, users and all. If we pay attention to detail, take care to understand how resistance develops and make sure our strategies do their best to prevent it, the chemistry we have can continue to help our production systems for longer.

And to all delegates and contributors of this conference, thank you for your support and your support to LandWISE, it is HUGELY appreciated.

Automation, LandWISE 2015, LandWISE People, Precision Agriculture, Sensing, Soil, Tillage, Uncategorized

The Mechanical Farm of 2030

May 25, 2015 LandWISE Admin Leave a comment

LandWISE 2015 Presenter, Dan Bloomer

DanBloomer200 — Dan is the Manager of LandWISE Inc, an independent consultant, and a member of the Precision Agriculture Association of New Zealand Executive.

In 1981, John Matthews of the UK National Institute for Agricultural Engineering described what a farm would look like in 2030; a fifty year horizon.

“The mechanical farm of 2030” identified four factors that would influence the farm of 2030; social factors including employment, preservation of the environment, animal welfare and primary energy sources.

NIAE_Cover

Soil quality and alternative machinery were high on their list. Computers and robotics were available but GPS, internet and wireless were not.

In 2015, with all the benefits of knowing what happened in the last 35 years, we revisited the question to ask, “What will a cropping farm look like in 2030?” Were John Matthew’s predictions of technology on-track? And importantly, what must farmers do to ready themselves for next year, five years and fifteen years down the track?

The general consensus was a resounding round of applause for John Matthews. The issues he identified continue to be key drivers today. The technological developments he envisioned are progressing towards the 2030 deadline with examples of commercially developed gantries now being tested on farms in Europe.

MatthewsGantry — The NIAE Gantry image from John Matthews paper

John Matthews article included a robotic harvester. We know the computing and actuation required for that is still tricky, but it seems quite probable robotic harvesting will be feasible and possible it will be relatively common by 2030.

The NIAE robotic harvester image from Matthews' paper — The NIAE robotic harvester image from Matthews’ paper

Perhaps his control tower windows are more likely to be computer monitors, and he didn’t know about smart phones, but his vision of the role computing would play is remarkably close – though perhaps thanks to Moore’s law and compounding development we have already got further than he estimated.

MatthewsComputer — The NIAE image of a farm computer appears to have a rack for storage disks, but also shows a microphone and aerial perhaps for wireless communications.

Maybe the design (how) is different to now, but much of the what of John Matthews’ predictions suggests he deserves a high score.