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LandWISE News February 2013

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Pukekohe Field Walk with Tim Chamen – 1:00pm Thursday 21 February

Hosted by A.S. Wilcox at Seath’s Block, 567 Mercer Ferry Rd, Pukekawa

We are fortunate to have Tim Chamen in the country on his way to the International Controlled Traffic Conference in Toowoomba later this month. He is keen to join our field walk and keen to share stories.

Tim had a long research career at the Silsoe Research Institute in the UK, looking at the effects of soil tillage and compaction on soil and crop responses. He recently recently received a doctorate covering field traffic, soils and crops.

Since 1996 he has consulted on soil tillage and increasingly on ways of avoiding soil damage from machinery. In 2007 he established CTF Europe Ltd to facilitate controlled traffic farming across Europe. CTF Europe uses a membership scheme and offers consultancy to individuals or groups.

The focus of the day at Seath’s is the Controlled Traffic Farming that the Wilcox team has been running for four years. Having now completed a full crop rotation cycle (onions, potatoes, cereals, onions) they have a good grasp of the issues and have certainly got a good idea of the benefits. Does halving costs have appeal?

We’ll also consider how the programme fits the theme of “Resilient Cropping”, increasing farm capacity to bounce back from adverse events, whatever they may be.

LandWISE 2013 – 11th Annual Conference 15 – 17 May 2013

Put the 15-16 and 17 May 2013 in your diary for the 11th Annual LandWISE Conference.

Debbie Walton has rejoined our team, working to ensure another successful conference. She is contactable via info@landwise.org.nz or Phone 06 650 4531.

Most of our (very loyal) sponsors have already caught up with us, but anyone else can contact Debbie to discuss opportunities.

Part 1: 15-16 May “New Ideas”

The traditional LandWISE Conference on 15-16 May will be held at the Havelock North Community Centre.

We have a few slots left in the programme, which it is looking fresh and interesting. If you have a presentation you would like added, or ideas you want covered, please direct your query to Dan via dan@landwise.org.nz or Phone 06 876 6630. Please be quick as things are filling very quickly.

Part 2: 17th May “Going into Irrigation” LandWISE/IrrigationNZ

Friday 17th May will be a special focus day based in Tikokino, on the Ruataniwha Plains. “Going into Irrigation” is a joint effort with Irrigation New Zealand.

While set firmly in the Ruataniwha Water Study area, the content and contacts apply to anyone thinking of making the jump into irrigation. They may be an independent abstractor or in an existing, new or proposed scheme area.

Registration

Conference registration will be available on-line soon. A notice will be sent to you with details. As usual, discounted rates for paid up members.

LandWISE Video Competition – Cash Prize

Entries are open for the Inaugural LandWISE Farm Video Competition. Don’t leave it too late to grab some clips.

Theme 2013

“Farming is great – it’s good for us all.”

Make a “YouTube” clip video that improves understanding and perception of agriculture among the urban populace. All aspiring Smartphone Jacksons, start planning and grabbing clips while there’s stuff happening down on the farm!

The main message this month is “GET FILMING”. Phone video is just fine!

We know you are hard out at present, but take 30 seconds now and then to capture key farm events. Remind the public that you produce their breakfast, lunch, dinner and tea. Harvest pictures will drive that message. Remind them it takes time, skill and dedication – care at planting, excellent husbandry, crop monitoring, efficient watering – and lots of hard work.

How many boxes of cornflakes does your farm produce? How many salad meals? Hash-browns? Servings of peas? Cobs of corn?

Tip: Good light is important for good video, especially using small lenses.

Entries close 12 noon, Monday 6th May 2013.
Foreign Entries welcome

By entering, you agree that LandWISE can use your video and to post your entry on internet.

Serving suggestions:

  • Maximum length four minutes
  • Provide good quality information about farming
  • Health and Safety are important – avoid Jackass stuff
  • Originality is highly valued, even if it is parody
  • Involve real farm staff (and animals and machines)
  • Sell farming to urban folk (honestly)
  • Soundtrack choice has a huge effect on impact
  • Humour counts a lot
  • Video quality needs to be acceptable, remember it’s YouTube standard, but it should be ok full-screen

Judging and Winners

Top entries will be shown at the LandWISE Conference dinner, where the winners will be announced.

Judges’ decision is final, cannot be appealed, and need not be justified.

Protocols for GPS Guidance

We’ve updated the format of the booklet, Protocols for GPS Guidance so it prints nicely for A5 layout. This makes it a good handbook size with font large enough to read!

See http://www.landwise.org.nz/publications/

LandWISE Membership

SIGN UP ON LINE: Complete a membership application here>

Feedback

You got this far! We’d appreciate feedback on this newsletter, or anything else LandWISE does or could do. Send us a message here>

For all LandWISE communications:
email     info@landwise.org.nz

Drainage, Irrigation, Precision Agriculture, Soil, Tillage, Water

LandWISE NEWS June 2012

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Conference 2012

The 10th Annual Conference was our biggest gathering with over 160 attendees. We extend our thanks to the speakers, sponsors, trade supporters and delegates that made the event such a success. There were some important issues up for discussion by excellent speakers and we have received very positive feedback.

2012 saw our first Focus on Viticulture, an extra day dedicated to wine growing technologies. Keynote Rob Bramley started the conference and was well supported by the remaining speakers. Rob and Tim Neale both made a number of presentations over the three days, and we are very grateful for their high quality inputs.

The second day investigated implications of the National Policy Statement for Fresh Water Management. Thanks to Land and Water Forum Chair Alistair Bisley, HBRC CE Andrew Newman, LandWISE Chair Hugh Ritchie and the others who presented clear outlines of the concepts, process and possible future.

The field event at Hugh Ritchie’s farm was also extremely well received and we thank Hugh and the other presenters for their work setting everything up – a significant undertaking. The Anderson Road block was transformed into a precision farmer’s perfect sandpit for the day.

Live demonstrations of Trimble surface levelling and Keith Nicole’s GPS tile laying were of much interest. These drainage options were supported by Precision Irrigation’s variable rate irrigation fitted to the towable pivot on-site. and Hydro-Services showing soil moisture monitoring options including neutron probes and electronic sensors and telemetry from WaterForce.

New Board Members

Long term Board members, David Clark and Chris Butler, retired this year.

We have two new Board members, both from Pukekohe. Paul Munro from Peracto and Brent Wilcox from AS Wilcox were elected at the AGM.

Precision Agriculture, Uncategorized

LandWISE News April 10 2012

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LandWISE 2012 – 10th Annual Conference

Put 22, 23 and 24 May 2012 in your diary for the 10th Annual LandWISE Conference.

The title is Site Specific Management: growing within limits. We are looking at the changing requirements for farming, in particular the increasing need to demonstrate that farming has minimal environmental impact. Look for a focus on soil water management, irrigation, monitoring and drainage.

For the first time we also have a day focused on Smart Viticulture. This builds on current LandWISE work with local viticulturists investigating the benefits, costs and logistics of applying zone management using precision viticulture techniques.

  • People with viticulture interests will find Day 1 extremely useful. They will also see there are great presentations on the other days.
  • LandWISE traditionalists be assured; Days 2 and 3 follow the usual pattern. But do have a look at the Day 1 programme – you’ll find a lot there that can give you completely new ideas.

The draft programme and more details are available here http://www.landwise.org.nz/events/landwise2012/ . This page will be updated as conference draws nearer, and you’ll receive direct messages too.

Conference Speakers

We are extremely pleased to have support of a number of excellent speakers – returning and new. Here are a few to start the list:

  • Rob Bramley CSIRO Adelaide
  • Tim Neale precisionagriculture.com.au
  • Craig Ross Landcare Research
  • James Peck PX Farms, UK
  • Alistair Bisley Land and Water Forum
  • Caine Thompson Mission Estate
  • Mark Krasnow Eastern Institute of Technology – Viticulture
  • Graeme Cox OptiSurface, Australia

More soon . . .

Conference Registration

Conference registration is available on the LandWISE website, click here>. As usual, discounted rates for members.

Conference Platinum Sponsors

 

We are very pleased to announce CASE IH has joined Eastern Institute of Technology as a Platinum Sponsor for Conference 2012. Case IH has been a willing LandWISE supporter in the past and their continued support is appreciated. Ivan Wilbore and colleagues will be about during the conference and at the field session for those wanting to catch up about Case IH products.

Conference Gold Sponsors

A number of organisations have taken up Gold Sponsorships. We are grateful to returning sponsors Trimble GPS Control Systems, AgriTurf John Deere, Hawke’s Bay Regional Council and Product groups of Horticulture NZ. We are pleased to welcome a new sponsor, GPS-It.

Secondary School Students

Apatu Farms is sponsoring two Lindisfarne student conference attendances again this year. They are joined by WaterForce who are also sponsoring two school student attendances which are yet to be allocated. EIT is supporting some of their viticulture students to the Viticulture day.

LandWISE believes giving top students the opportunity to see farming at its best is one of the best ways to attract top people into the sector. Anyone else who wants to sponsor either secondary or tertiary students please contact us info@landwise.org.nz or talk to us at 06 650 4531.

Agronomy, Controlled Traffic Systems, Drainage, Irrigation, Precision Agriculture, Soil, Tillage, Uncategorized, Water

LandWISE News March 2012

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LandWISE 2012 – 10th Annual Conference May 2012

Put the 22, 23 and 24 May 2012 in your diary for the 10th Annual LandWISE Conference.

The title is Site Specific Management: growing within limits. We are looking at the changing requirements for farming, in particular the increasing need to demonstrate that farming has minimal environmental impact. Look for a focus on soil water management, irrigation, monitoring and drainage.

For the first time we also have a day focused on Smart Viticulture. This builds on current LandWISE work with local viticulturists investigating the benefits, costs and logistics of applying zonal management using precsion viticulture techniques.

  • People with viticulture interests will find Day 1 extremely useful. They will also see there are great presentations on the other days.
  • LandWISE traditionalists be assured; Days 2 and 3 follow the usual pattern. But do have a look at the Day 1 programme – you’ll find a lot there that can give you completely new ideas.

The draft programme and more details are available here http://www.landwise.org.nz/events/landwise2012/. This page will be updated as conference draws nearer, and you’ll receive direct messages too.

Conference registration is available on-line. As usual, discounted rates for members.

Conference Platinum Sponsor

We are very pleased to announce Eastern Institute of Technology as a new Platinum Sponsor for Conference 2012. There are strong cross-overs between an institute such as this and LandWISE with our focus on upskilling for the primary industry sectors.

EIT has a very strong viticulture and wine programme, and is also active in agriculture and horticulture in Hawke’s Bay and the East Coast/Tairawhiti.

Key Speakers

We are also delighted that Rob Bramley from CSIRO in Adelaide will be one of our key presenters. Rob is well known for his precision viticulture work, but is also very experienced in broadacre crops.

Tom Botterill from the Geospatial Research Centre at the University of Canterbury will talk about machine vision and robot pruning. More announcements coming soon . . .

 

Driverless Tractor

LandWISE Member Matt Flowerday from GPS-It sent a link to this site for a new driverless tractor.

A few of you have expressed interest in autonomous tractors – so with a favourable exchange rate and a $US 150,000 price tag, here’s your chance.

It’s interesting for a few reasons:

  • The 225 kW tractor can be controlled in real-time from a base station with a remote control device that can be up to 40 km away. The master base station can handle up to 16 operating tractors at one time.
  • Hew can couple units together for more power, like train locomotives
  • It uses twin laser unit called LIPS (Laser Imaging Position System) rather than GPS (we need to learn more about LIPS)
  • Power is diesel electric with a 15 to 25% better fuel economy than conventional systems

Australian Conferences

Dan attended the SPAA Precision Agriculture Australia Expo in Port Lincoln, South Australia and the precisionagriculture.com.au Conference in Maroochydor, Queensland in February.
Speakers discussed nutrient tests we don’t use, plants we seldom grow, pests, diseases and weeds that remain thankfully foreign, and yields most New Zealand farmers would consider disastrous. They talked of soil electromagnetic sensors, pH sensors, biomass sensors, protein sensors, animal trackers and robots. Of precision farming in Canada, Scotland, England, New Zealand, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.

The messages were strikingly familiar. In essence; know and look after your soil, monitor your crop, and apply inputs where they give the best returns.
At both events, the farm was the focus; the technologies merely tools to help manage better. Much, much better.

A couple of areas to watch:

  • UAV proliferation. There are more and more self-flying ‘toy’ planes and helicopters suited to crop inspection tasks. With increasingly light and quality cameras, and return to base GPS guidance they have great potential. There are a few issues yet with processing the data, and like all sensor things, ground trothing is still needed.
  • RFID Tags. The advances in electronic tagging have been very fast, and new applications are only now being realised. With new technologies, the range of some devices has become quite extraordinary, offering ability to track items or animals at increasing distances. Cheaply.

A Guide to Smart Farming

Our Guide to Smart Farming book has been the subject of tremendous acclaim from farmers, industry, researchers and teaching staff in New Zealand and overseas. Thanks for the feedback!

About 7,000 copies were printed, and we’ve only 300 left in stock, so that’s a lot that are out there and, from what we hear, being read.

Purchasing copies:

A Guide to Smart Farming was distributed free to people in the LandWISE Community. Extra copies are available through TradeMe at $29.90 plus post including GST. Search TradeMe guide smart farming and it will pop up.

See the Table of Contents here>