Category Archives: Agronomy

Agronomy, AgTech, Conference, Cover crops, Drainage, Fertiliser, Innovation, LandWISE People, Nutrients, Projects, Soil, Vegetables

Growers Making Changes – Jay Clarke

Jay Clarke, Director of Woodhaven Gardens joined us at LandWISE 21 to discuss changes that have been made on their vegetable growing farm.

Woodhaven grows a diverse range of 23 vegetable crops in Horowhenua. Operating on more than 1000ha their annual production comprises 10% of the national fresh leafy greens supply for New Zealand.

Woodhaven Gardens has been working hard to meet and exceed environmental targets in their region. They have sought help from the experts, collaborated within their community, and thoroughly reviewed their processes on-farm to achieve improved environmental outcomes. Some examples include considerable reductions in fertiliser use, reduced soil and nutrient losses, contribution of land and resources for trials, and community engagement supporting other vegetable growers with environmental management.

Jay urges growers to avoid “ticking the compliance boxes”. AS well as providing 220-250 full-time jobs, Woodhaven Gardens consults with their community, iwi and regulators to understand their needs and wants. By meeting these community aspirations, Jay believes Woodhaven Gardens will stay ahead of regulation. 

Listen to a Summary SoundClip here:

Woodhaven Gardens was named the Regional Supreme Winner at the Horizons Ballance Farm Environment Awards in April 2020. This award recognised their significant efforts to improve their efficiency on-farm and the environmental outcomes of their land management practices. Judges commented that “new technology is being integrated to lower nutrient output” and that “the Clarke’s are making changes to their business to improve water quality”.

Agronomy, AgTech, Conference, Cover crops, Drainage, Fertiliser, Nutrients, Projects, Soil, Vegetables, Water

Future Proofing Vegetable Production – Dan Bloomer

Dan Bloomer is LandWISE Manager and a consultant working with and between farmers, scientists and regulators. He likes to be “linking thinking from the farm out”.

Through the MPI SFF project, “Future Proofing Vegetable Production”, Dan, Georgia O’Brien and Luke Posthuma worked with growers to identify ways to minimise nitrate leaching from vegetable production areas.

In this LandWISE 21 Conference presentation, Dan will describe the four strands they set out to address: Precision Prescription, Precision Application, Maximum Retention and Nutrient Mitigation, and the processes for achievement they employed.

The LandWISE team has observed a significant shift in grower thinking and practice. This came when growers were supported with easy to access and use tools and one-on-one coaching.

Agronomy, AgTech, Conference, Fertiliser, Nutrients, Projects, Research, Soil, Vegetables

Making the Right Fertiliser Decision – Luke Posthuma

LandWISE Precision Agronomist, Luke Posthuma has lead our Future Proofing Vegetable Production project since arriving in 2019. He established and owns GrowMaps, a precision mapping company and has a passion for farming and horticulture.

Through the SFF Future Proofing Vegetable Production project, we have seen time and again that fertiliser savings can be made by applying the right rate of nitrogen fertiliser based on cropping goals and soil test values.

Last summer’s sweetcorn trials demonstrated that there was little value in switching to more ‘efficient’ forms of nitrogen where the application rate is already higher than required. Following on from last year’s work, this summer we set up 12 sweetcorn and 6 field tomato split-paddock trials in Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay to test two grower tools. We compared current grower fertiliser practice with a side-dressing rate determined using either the FAR Nitrate Quick Test Calculator or the HortNZ Nutrient Management Guidelines for Vegetable Crops.

Using the grower’s expected yield for a given planting, a pre-plant soil test with a potentially available N result and a Nitrate Quick test soil test collected to 90cm just prior to side-dressing, we found growers could often* (please note – not always) get away with significantly less nitrogen than they expected to apply. 

For growers facing continued environmental pressure, soil testing is a tool that can be used to justify nutrient applications. A nitrate quick test costs less than $2 plus the time taken to collect the soil sample. The Nitrate Quick Test will show whether more or less fertiliser is required, and if your current fertiliser plan is about correct.

Taking soil tests at harvest, we found that by using less nitrogen at side-dressing, we had also reduced the nitrogen in the soil profile at harvest. Minimising excess nitrogen left in the soil after harvest will reduce over-winter nitrogen leaching from a cropping paddock.

Deep Soil Sampling for Nitrate
Deep Soil Sampling for Nitrate

We want to apply sufficient nitrogen to maximise crop yield without leaving significant quantities in the soil after the crop is harvested. Following good practice means applying the right rate of fertiliser for each of your crops. The right rate will vary based on the soil test results and your expected yields.

Listen to a Summary Sound Clip here:

Agronomy, Conference, Cover crops, Fertiliser, MicroFarm, Nutrients, Orcharding, Plant Health, Research, Soil, Tillage, Vegetables, Water

Growing Soil Carbon – Phil Schofield

Phillip Schofield is a soil scientist and rural professional, working with growers and farmers, helping them improve soil function and hence profit.

He holds a B Ag Sci (hons) and a PhD, is a Certified Nutrient Management Advisor and Certified Green House Gas Advisor. Phil is a founding Board Member of the HB Future Farming Charitable Trust.

Phil provides farmers and growers with soil health advice and adapt production systems to improve farm performance and profitability in the face of increasing compliance and regulation.   

At LandWISE 21, he asked: Why is soil carbon important? How might we increase it?

Atmospheric CO2 is a greenhouse gas, responsible for global warming. The IPCC reports that soil holds two to three times as much carbon as the atmosphere, so the 4.5 billion ha of pastures and croplands are an immense source or sink.

Plants fix carbon dioxide by photosynthesis, and this provides a mechanism to move CO2 from the atmosphere to the soil. Human activities release about 9 GT C/yr. so increasing soil carbon by 0.4% would account for much of our emissions. It would also improve soil health and set us up better for climate change. Atmospheric CO2 can be sequestered. Plants exude 30% of their sugars through their roots, providing energy and raw materials for synthesis by other organisms.

Soils that contain more carbon have more humus to hold particles together, provide a better environment for root growth, hold more nutrients and hold more water. However, many of our current practices degrade soil. Regenerative practices address soil health by minimising disturbance, keeping the soil covered, always keeping living roots in the soil, increasing plant diversity and introducing grazing animals.

The HB Future Farming Trust aims to establish a series of trials partnering with industry, HBRC, CRIs and MPI. One set is a replicated trial proposed for the LandWISE MicroFarm, with further demonstration trials on orchards, vineyards, and arable and vegetable properties.

Trial sites will be heavily monitored, benchmarking soil physical, chemical and biological properties, nutrient and GHG budgets, water, energy and financial analyses of the enterprises.

Listen to a Summary Sound Clip here:

Agronomy, AgTech, Conference, Data Analytics, Irrigation, Precision Agriculture, Sensing

Simple tools for complex problems – Aaron Furrer

Aaron is a Stanford University graduate with both a technical and agricultural background. Aaron has prior experience in running his own company as well as being involved with several start-up opportunities and VC firms in Silicon Valley.

Aaron moved to New Zealand in 2016 where he co-founded an AgriTech company specializing in smart irrigation control. At the end of 2020 he joined CropX, a global AgAnalytics company whose vision is to revolutionize and automate the farm and the decision-making process.

At LandWISE 2021, using case studies of growers from around the world, Aaron illustrated examples of the myriad of tools and technologies growers have at their disposal, and how CropX helps connect the dots between these data layers to make management decisions with tangible outcomes.

Listen to a Summary Sound Clip here:

Agronomy, AgTech, Automation, Conference, Innovation, Orchard, viticulture

Connecting Horticultural Work with Workers – Genevieve Griffin-George

Genevieve is a kiwifruit grower and founder of PicMi, a digital platform connecting horticultural work with workers.

With a  foundation in spatial design, she joined PWC as an Experience Designer, scoping and shaping work, and creating a platform and accelerator for new ways of working. Supporting clients with their strategic initiatives, she specialised in group facilitation, design thinking and provide neutral, safe discussions around the strategic or tactical needs of the business.

Her mission to create straight-through seasonal hiring was born from Genevieve’s first-hand experience of the frustrations of hiring for her family’s kiwifruit orchard in the Tasman. She stepped in to help when her father had a serious tractor accident, and came face-to-face with the pain and time pressures of trying to find seasonal staff.

At LandWISE 21, Genevieve will outline 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 easy, and meeting the many aspects of compliance.

Agronomy, AgTech, Automation, Conference, Data Analytics, Fruit, Innovation, Orcharding, Precision Agriculture, Sensing, viticulture

Unlocking the Value in Maps – Matt Flowerday

Matt Flowerday has been involved in farming and horticulture his whole life.

Matt started using GPS to map farms and orchards in 1998. In 2001 he set up GPS-it to carryout GPS mapping, with a focus on kiwifruit.

From beginnings in a small office on a kiwifruit orchard, with just one staff member and a GPS unit, the business has evolved significantly. GPS-it is now an established aerial farm mapping and software development company, providing high-quality customised geospatial solutions to our clients, using ESRI technology.

At the LandWISE 21 Conference, Matt will show how Landkind, an interactive platform that lets orchards and packhouses unlock the value of their maps, improves productivity and profitability by allowing users to create, manage, and interact with orchard data effortlessly.

Thanks to all our sponsors!

 

Agronomy, Conference, Research, Uncategorized, Weeds

Herbicide Resistance – Trevor James

Trevor James is a senior scientist with AgResearch and has been involved in researching weed management for more than 46 years. His work has covered weeds in pastoral, arable, horticultural and environmental situations.

Specific research areas include Herbicide resistance, soil weed seed bank and seed ecology, herbicide residues and persistence, border biosecurity and new incursions.

Trevor is a keen photographer of plants and with colleagues has published books on identification of weeds and their seeds.

At LandWISE 21 Conference, Trevor will report on progress being made in the MBIE funded project “Managing Herbicide Resistance”.  The goal is improved weed control and vegetation management to minimise future herbicide resistance.

Herbicide resistance occurs due to genetic mutation – in this case, when mutations help the plant to survive an application of herbicide to which they were once susceptible. “Target Site” resistance is related to a single gene, which alters the biding site so the herbicide no longer works. “Non-target site” resistance involves many genes, and alters the path to the binding site so the herbicide doesn’t reach it, metabolises (destroys) the herbicide or increases the number of binding sites.

Many thanks to our Sponsors!

Agronomy, AgTech, Conference, Research, Weeds

Rapid Test for Resistance – Andrew Griffiths

Andrew Griffiths is leading work identifying genetic markers of herbicide resistance. The broad aim is developing tests that allow the quick assessment of weed tissue that shows a plant is resistant to herbicide.

Currently plants are gown to maturity, seeds harvested, sown, grown and treated with varting rates of herbicides. This is a slow and costly process. The genetic marker tests could give answers in days.

Andrew is a Senior Scientist at AgResearch where he has worked extensively on forage improvement, including researching the genetics of grasses and clovers.

Agronomy, AgTech, Conference, Innovation, Precision Agriculture, Research, Weeds

Thor Versus Tinkerbell: Options for weed control – Dan Bloomer

Dan Bloomer is an aging part-time PhD student at Massey University.  Passionate about farming and technology, he’s been an irrigation consultant, kiwifruit orchardist, lecturer, and land management advisor. He is currently Principal of Page Bloomer Associates, member of the AgritechNZ Executive Council, and importantly, Manager of LandWISE Inc.

At LandWISE 21, Dan will describe some alternative non-herbicide weed management technologies, and give consideration to the amount of energy they may require.

The amount of energy required typically ranges from 2 to 2,000 Litres of diesel per hectare. With a desire for sustainable practices and low energy consumption in food production, Dan’s current focus is using very targeted, high voltage but low energy techiques to effect control of arable weeds, including braodleaves and ryegrass in cereal crops.

Dan’s weeding research 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.