All posts by LandWISE Admin

AgTech, Conference, Innovation, Precision Agriculture

Agritech in Hawke’s Bay – David France

David France has extensive practical business experience in the primary sector and international food marketing. He owns a vineyard in Hawke’s Bay and is involved in a number of private businesses.

David has a passion for wanting to drive productivity and sustainability in the primary sector by supporting and growing the ecosystem with a focus on Technology, Talent, Innovation and Investment.

David chairs of the Hi-Tech Hawkes Bay Group which was set up to support the tech sector and includes number of Agritech businesses throughout the region. He has been involved in regional sector and cluster development.

He has a great overview of what is happening in Agritech and other tech industries in Hawke’s Bay and the key technologies driving the sectors, topics he will discuss at LandWISE 21.

AgTech, Automation, Conference, Fruit, Innovation, Robotics, Vegetables

Mechanising Produce Handling – Rob Elstone

Rob Elstone is the Co-Founder and CEO of Hortworx and owner of RBE Automation.

Coming from a background in aviation, commercial and industrial electrical, Rob was Lead Automation Engineer with Fruit Handling systems and subsequently Compac Sorting.

Having spent the last 7 years in the fruit industry, Rob’s passion for machine building has led to the launch of Hortworx’ flagship products, the Robotic Bin Filling range.

With the goal to improve the efficiency of Packhouses and Orchards, through the smart use of robotics, Rob has a vision to maintain the human machine collaboration through “Inclusive Automation”.

At LandWISE 2021, Rob will talk about the development of products for the horticulture industry. He will have equipment on display at the field event.

Thanks to all our sponsors!

Agronomy, AgTech, Automation, Conference, Controlled Traffic Systems, Cover crops, Drainage, Fertiliser, Innovation, Irrigation, Membership, MicroFarm, New Crops, Nutrients, Orchard, Plant Health, Precision Agriculture, Research, Soil, Uncategorized, Vegetables, Water, Weeds

Less $$ than a flat white a fortnight

A message to our members and friends

LandWISE runs on a voluntary membership basis with an annual subscription of just $100 for the current year. Subscriptions are now due and our Financial Members will be getting their invoices sent out shortly.

If you are already one of our Financial Members, Thank You! Can you please help us again by recommending us to a friend?

We haven’t changed our subs for years, but are starting to review that. What would be best, is if more of our followers chose to join!

Not a Member? JOIN HERE!

If you’re getting and valuing our newsletters, downloading and listening to our podcasts, accessing the resources on our website or the FertSpread tools etc. please think about giving us a hand.  It really will only cost you about half a cup of coffee a week, but it will make a big difference to us.

How does LandWISE fund its activities?

Our overheads are kept rock-bottom. The MicroFarm, our offices and equipment are provided as an in-kind service by Page Bloomer Associates. Our Board is voluntary, and we meet mostly by email and video conferencing. But we do need to pay accountants and insurance and run websites and the other things every organisation has to do.

Our major activities are funded on a project by project basis. That means we need a lot of support from co-funders so we can access (hopefully) various reasearch and extension grants such as MPI’s Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures fund (SFFF). Our Conference too (as podcasts in 2020!) also relies on a number of loyal sponsors and the delegate fees we collect.

Merf explaining cover crops and catch crops at the LandWISE AGM
Merf explaining cover crops and catch crops at the LandWISE AGM

All these things cost a bundle. If we can get more members, we can increase the amount of work we can self-fund and provide more member services. 

Please consider becoming a Financial Member today. Click the link, fill it in and we’ll flick you an invoice.  (and we’ll cover the cost of our own coffees!)

Agronomy, AgTech, Innovation, Projects, Research, Robotics, Weeds

Novel Technologies for Non-Herbicide Weed Control

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In this podcast LandWISE Manager, Dan Bloomer discusses non-herbicide weed management, some alternative technologies and the amount of energy they may require.

The amount of energy required ranges for some hectares of weeding per litre of diesel, to over 1,000 litres of diesel per hectare. Dan’s current focus is using very targeted, very high voltage but low energy techiques to effect control of ryegrass in cereal crops.

The work reported is part of an MBIE AgResearch project “Managing Herbicide Resistant Weeds”, with Dan’s role being assessing non-chemical techologies including hot water/hot foam, compressed-air abrasion and electric weeding.

Link to the podcast page here>

This podcast was made possible by our sponsors

 

AgTech, Innovation, Orchard, Orcharding

PicMi – a digital platform connecting horticultural work with workers

In this episode, Georgia talks with talking to Genevieve Griffin-George, founder of PicMi, a digital platform connecting horticultural work with workers.

Genevieve found herself running the family orchard and trying to locate people for her seasonal workforce. Here she discusses the problems she encountered, and her path to finding a solution and creating a business to make the process of engaging with growers and workers and meeting the many aspects of compliance.

PICMI

Podcast here

Our thanks to our loyal sponsors and to Radio Kidnappers for support with our podcast series.

 

Agronomy, AgTech, Conference, Data Analytics, Innovation, LandWISE People, Projects, Research, Weeds

Anticipating Herbicide Resistance

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Distinguished Professor Philip Hulme is a leading international invasion biologist in the Bio-Protection Research Centre, Lincoln University, New Zealand. His primary research focus is predicting the risks arising from plant invasions. 

A scientist working on the MBIE funded AgResearch project “Managing Herbicide Resistance”, Philip joins Georgia to discuss the research he and colleagues are doing into non-herbicide weed control. Podcast here>

Philip’s recent work includes examining the traits that underpin the success of invasive species; clarifying the main routes by which these species are introduced to a region, quantifying the impacts of invasive species on these habitats and predicting the potential impact of climate change on invasive species distributions.

Philip and colleagues are applying a “big data” approach to the problem of herbicide resistant weeds (HRW) to improve our information and evidence-base to raise NZ economic productivity. 

Only now are sufficient data available globally on HRW for innovative analyses to quantify the future risks of HRW for NZ – through both unintentional introduction and in situ evolution of resistant genotypes. To date, all approaches worldwide to predict HRW risks have focused on individual weed species and have adopted a population genetic modelling approach to assess the conditions under which resistance may evolve. However, these approaches cannot predict potential risks of new HRW and are not appropriate for screening large numbers of HRW.

Philip’s group is using global datasets on HRW worldwide to establish prior probabilities of HRW risks. The research is structured along four sequential aims that will
a) Predict the assemblage of HRW worldwide that have a high probability of becoming established in NZ and distinguish both onshore and offshore risks
b) Assess the species characteristics that predispose a weed to become herbicide resistant and forecast new HRW threats to NZ
c) Characterise the climatic, agricultural and socioeconomic correlates of global HRW richness to identify the potential drivers of future HRW in NZ, and
d) Formulate and disseminate national and sector-specific strategies for avoidance of future HRW in NZ.

Many thanks Philip, and our virtual conference sponsors

Agronomy, Conference, Cover crops, Projects, Research, Weeds

Non-Herbicide Weed Control – New Options

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Trevor James and Katherine Tozer are scientists working on the MBIE funded AgResearch project “Managing Herbicide Resistance”, and join Georgia to discuss their two areas of research into non-herbicide weed control.
 

Interview Part 1: Trevor James

Trevor James is a senior scientist at AgResearch responsible for the “Managing Herbicide Resistance” project.

Aside from his role as manager of the many scientists working on the project he is  researching the potential for cover crops to control weeds in maize.

Interview Part 2: Katherine Tozer

Katherine Tozer, another senior scientist at AgResearch is working on tools and practices to improve non-chemical weed management. A key area of her research is pasture fallow, a practice where certain paddocks or parts of the farm are set aside to reduce weed establishment from overgrazing.

Podcast here>

The LandWISE Podcast Series is made possible by our sponsors:

AgTech, Automation, Conference, Innovation, Precision Agriculture, Robotics, Sensing

Agricultural Robotics: part of the new deal?

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A silver lining on the Covid-Cloud is online conferences. Here’s one few of us in this part of the world would get to, but now it’s an online event, attendance is just a click away!

Since 2016, the International Forum on Agriculturral Robotics FIRA has been must-attend event for professionals in the agricultural robotics sector. Initiated and organized in Toulouse by the French company Naio Technologies, FIRA is now presented by GOFAR – the association Global Organization for Agricultural Robotics, founded in 2019.

GOFAR is launching the virtual edition of its annual event, which runs from 8 to 10 December, 2020. FIRA 2020 will provide international participants with online live access to speakers, booths tours and interactions with exhibitors and other participants, and will thus become the social network for agricultural robotics.

This 3-day new format combines innovation and quality online experience for a sector that has a key role to play to address thcurrent environmental, economic and social issues. For those of us in another hemisphere, presentations wil be available to registrants to access as soon as they have been aired.

Registration: www.fira-agtech.com

More information here>

Naio OZ440 at LandWISE Conference

 

Agronomy, Drainage, Innovation, Nutrients, Research, Soil, Vegetables, Water

Vegetated Buffer Strips – a podcast with Fernando Avendano

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In this podcast, Georgia talks with Fernando Avendano a Massey University PhD student from Chile, about “Vegetated Buffer Strips”.

Fernando has a background in edge of field treatments to reduce nutrient losses from cropping systems. He studied the use of vegetated buffer strips to prevent nitrogen losses from maize paddocks, and is now working on a range of N loss mitigation trials in the Horowhenua district of Manawatu.

Vegetated buffer strips can help to prevent nitrogen losses from farming land, thus protecting nearby water resources. The main aim of Fernando’s Chilean study was to assess narrow buffer strips (5 m) wide of different species effectiveness in removing nitrogen forms that flow from cultivated maize fields towards surface water bodies.

During the second year after establishment, variable N loads were estimated from nitrate-N (NO3-N) and ammonia-N (NH4-N) concentrations measured at 1 m depth during the study period. Fernandos’ trial had five treatments: a strip of grass, a strip of grass and a row of native shrubs (Fuchsia magellanica); a strip of grass, a row of shrubs and a row of native trees 1 (Luma chequen); a strip of grass, a row of shrubs and a row of native trees 2 (Drimys winteri); and  bare soil as control. The experiment was set in two cultivated maize (Zea mays) fields located in the commune of Pichidegua, Región de O’Higgins. In a clay loam, buffer strip outlet nitrogen measurements from subsurface lateral flow ranged from 10 to 105 kg N ha-1. All treatments were more effective in N removal than the bare soil control treatment and with the grass strip, row of shrubs, and row of native trees treatment performing the highest N removal.

Many thanks to our sponsors who supported the recording and publication of our podcast  series.

Agronomy, Cover crops, Fertiliser, Nutrients, Plant Health, Soil, Vegetables, viticulture, Water

The Role of Soil Microbes in Soil Plant Interactions

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Our latest podcast is now online. Phillip Schofield talks with Georgia about the role microbes play in soil plant interactions, the use of Visual Soil Assessment (VSA) and practical ways to improve soil health on-farm.

Phillip is a soil nutrition consultant based in Hawke’s Bay. He has a PhD in Plant Science from Massey University where he studied autotoxins, herbicide residues and pathogenic fungi in asparagus crops. He has many years’ experience in soil conservation, and nutrient management in the Hawke’s Bay area.

Our thanks to our loyal sponsors and to Radio Kidnappers for support with our podcast series.