Project Wrap-up and Trial ResultsCome and see how land shaping rows can be used to minimise rutting in your orchard.
Gisborne, 9th June 2:00 – 4:00pm
Illawarra Orchard, 635 Awapuni Road.
Hastings, 10th June, 1:00 – 2:30pm.
Bostock Red Barn Orchard, 247 Lawn Rd.
Riwaka,14th June,1:00 – 2:30pm
T&G Riwaka Site, 657 Main Rd, Riwaka
**Covered shoes, HiVis, No agrichemicals at Red Barn please**
RSVP info@landwise.org.nz or by text to Luke 022 479 6805
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”.
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.
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.
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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!
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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.
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!)
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.
Calling all followers and friends of LandWISE, we invite you to become a financial member this year.
Your support is vital for LandWISE to continue doing what we do. We rely on farmer support to ensure the backing of new projects, discover new areas for research or technology adoption, and to fund field days, workshops and the development of practical resources.
LandWISE Membership is a great way to support the mission of sustainable production in New Zealand, and as a member you’ll benefit from:
Membership is open to all who are interested in primary production and share our values. We hope you’ll consider becoming a member, or forward this on to a non-member if you already are!
We’re pleased to announce the release of our Nutrient Budgeting Templates. Designed to support vegetable growers to budget fertiliser use according to good management practice guidelines the A4 pdf templates rely on nutrient recommendations from Reid & Morton (2019). Crop yield predictions and soil fertility testing are used to determine the optimum rate of Nitrogen and Phosphorus to apply, based on the best trial data NZ has for 12 different vegetable crops.
The LandWISE Nutrient Budget Templates bring together this resource along with FAR’s Nitrate Quick Test Mass Balance tool which allows growers to enter soil nitrate levels using the Nitrate Quick Test. This test can provide growers with soil nitrate levels in less than an hour for about $1. FAR’s tool reliably converts nitrate concentrations (ppm) into kg N/ha.
Nutrient budgets are becoming a necessary process to document the movement of nutrients on and off-farm, and justify fertiliser applications. Nutrient budgets can be used to develop a fertiliser plan, where each paddock or management unit has a clear strategy to maintain, build or mine soil nutrient levels.
View or download the templates below:
Phosphorus Budget Template 02-20
Nitrogen Budget Template 02-20
The Nutrient Budget Templates have been developed as part of Future Proofing Vegetable Production, a three-year project funded by MPI’s Sustainable Farming Fund, Ballance, Horizons, Gisborne District Council, and Potatoes NZ.
We are keen to hear from those using the templates so please get in touch if you have any questions or feedback.
On Thursday 15th August, we visited Evenden and Red Barn orchards to view the Smart Tools for Orchard Drainage trial blocks.
A few months have now passed since the various drainage treatments were implemented in the trial areas – the soil has settled and the grass is beginning to establish in the interrows.
A group of growers arrived to see the different treatments which we will continue to track to monitor their effectiveness and longevity. One of the main tools we are using is the RutMeter we developed for the project.
After several months, regrassing, pruning and mulching, inter-row 1-2 is looking pretty good. By minimising soil movement during levelling, there is only a small rise/drop between the inter-row and the undertree row ground level.
Very good discussion among the growers covered the different treatments, how they affected orchard operations (especially use of hydraladas) and what future remediation they thought would be needed.
Orchard managers are happy with results to date. They think there may need to be work later after wet periods, but the foundation for better surface drainage in in place.
Many thanks to T&G and Bostocks for hosting the trials and the field walks. And project funders, MPIU SFF and NZ Apples and Pears Inc.
Drainage treatments in trial blocks at T&G Global’s Evenden orchard and Bostock’s Red Barn orchard. The narrow window between finishing harvest and the soil becoming too wet to work was longer than anticipated this autumn making the task easier. All earthworks were completed and pasture re-sown. Vehicle access was restricted to allow the pasture to establish and soil to settle.
A range of treatments was included and implemented to compare to the new land shaping approach including Crasborn’s harrow and planter (Figure 2) and Aqualine V-blade, slotting and ripping and rut filling (Figure 3).
Land levelling is a proven technique more commonly used in cropping, where soil is moved around to create fall across a field and allow surface water to drain off. Growers use this approach to reduce water lying on the surface and saturating areas of crop which results in reduce yield. Software is used that is specifically designed to minimise and optimise movement of soil. The height of the blade or scoop used to cut and fill soil is controlled by software through the tractor hydraulics. The same principles are being applied to existing orchard rows to create fall along the inter-rows and drain surface water off the block.
The inter-rows were rotary hoed to create a suitable tilth, to allow small volumes of soil to be moved along the inter-row (Figure 4). The elevation profiles indicated that only light shaping would be required to create fall along the inter-rows, where 100mm would be the maximum change in height (cut/fill) necessary.
Hugh Ritchie’s Trimble RTK-GPS base station was set up in the orchard. Patrick Nicolle’s Trimble FMX unit with WM-Drain software was mounted on the T&G and Bostock tractors. A GPS Control Systems Trimble GPS antenna was mounted above Gene Williams’ 2.5m wide levelling blade, see Figure 1. The tractor hydraulics were used to control the blade height.
WM-Drain was used to record the elevation of each section in the orchard. An accurate RTK-GPS elevation profile was recorded by driving along the inter-row and the WM-Drain software used to generate the optimal profile (Figure 5), within specified parameters, such as minimum slope.
Soil was shifted using the blade to cut and fill areas to achieve the optimal profile designed in WM-Drain. Because the tractor hydraulics were not suited to automation without major changes, the blade height was manually controlled using the tractor hydraulics and lowered or raised. Multiple passes (up to six) were required along each row to move soil to create the desired profile. The results of the land levelling are shown in Figures 6 and 7.
After earthworks the alleyways were re-sown in pasture. Vehicle access has been restricted to allow the pasture to establish and soil to settle. Timing is important to ensure orchardists can access blocks to continue their yearly programme in a timely manner, without damaging the newly formed alleyways.
The Crasborn machine cultivates and pulls soil from outside the wheel tracks using a set of angled discs. Harrows are used to break up and smooth the soil. A levelling bar with raised sections above the wheel tracks is used to further even out the soil. A compressed air seeder is used to sow pasture along the inter-row. Finally, a cambered roller creates a crowned inter-row and compacts the soil surface. The all in one implement (Figure 2) completes the final product (Figure 8) in one pass.
The Smart Tools for Orchard Drainage project has completed key steps to prepare and implement inter-row land levelling. Terrain analysis has provided a clear indication that a gentle gradient could be developed along the inter-row with minimal soil movement. However, the effects of reducing ponding through slight land shaping would be substantial for management and health and safety in the orchard.
LiDAR data from Hawke’s Bay Regional Council and Gisborne District Council were used to assess the feasibility of inter-row land levelling in the orchard blocks of interest. LiDAR (light detection and ranging) is a type of airborne optical sensing that is used to generate a model of the earth’s surface. It let us create contour maps and look at ground profiles (Figure 1).
The inter-row profiles were used as a ‘first look’ to estimate the fall across the orchard and provide an indication of the approximate amount of soil to be shifted to remove and prevent areas of ponding.
We also surveyed using ground-based vehicles (quad bike or tractor) with RTK GPS (Figure 2). This system has a vertical accuracy of approximately 20 mm. Corrected elevation data were recorded along the inter-rows using WM-Drain. These data were also used to create accurate interrow profiles.
The comparison of the different methods of generating profiles has given confidence that LiDAR is useful for an initial block analysis.
Two of the orchards were visited after a significant rain event (30+ mm over a weekend). Locations of ponding were collected using the ESRI Collector smartphone app and an EOS Arrow SBAS GPS with a horizontal accuracy of 30-40cm. The interrows at one orchard were covered by Extenday, which meant the areas of shallow ponding were difficult to identify (Figure 6).
A drainage analysis created in Optisurface was used as a base map to display ponding locations (Figure 7). After this rain event, the majority of areas of ponding appeared to be located within areas identified by the drainage analysis as areas where ponding would occur.
The ponding locations were also compared to the interrow profiles. Although no formal analysis was completed, many of the ponding spots appear to match dips in the profiles (Figure 9).
The key measurement for monitoring the effectiveness of the different drainage treatments will be the formation of ruts. A sled has been specifically designed to measure and record the depth of ruts and the location within the orchard blocks, see Figure 10.
The sled uses a linear transducer to measure the difference in height between the bottom of the wheel ruts and the ground surface between the wheel tracks. The location is recorded using the SBAS positioning system with an EOS Arrow 100 GPS with a horizontal accuracy of approximately 0.3-0.4m. The data was recorded on a smartphone using an app, Rut-O-Meter. Points are recorded approximately every 0.2m depending on travel speed as the sled was towed by a quadbike along orchard rows.
The average rut depth (of the left and right wheel tracks) throughout the trial block was measured prior to the soil being cultivated. An example of the rut depth along an orchard row and the corresponding elevation profile are presented in Figure 11.
A map from the rut measurements is shown in Figure 12. Deeper ruts are darker blue. Pale yellow is no rutting or the inter-row is lower than the wheel tracks. This compares well with the OptiSurface generated ponding map of the block (Figure 13).
Figure 13: OptiSurface drainage and ponding analysis from RTK survey of the trial block
Project work by Page Bloomer Associates for NZ Apples and Pears Inc and MPI Sustainable Farming Fund
