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
Gisborne9 June 2021 10:00am – 12:00 noon
Bushmere Arms, 673 Matawai Rd, Gisborne
15 June 2021 1:00 – 3:00 pm
The Mahi Space, 10 Bath St, Levin
All are invited to attend these FREE workshops
Please RVSP your attendance to info@landwise.org.nz or by text to Luke on 022 479 6805
Tom Skerman is a self-described “jack of all trades, master of none” who has relished the opportunity to view the primary sector from a number of different viewpoints.
At LandWISE 2021: Working Smarter, Tom will take the topic, Water Security: more than just dams.
In addition to farming business interests he has practised Law and worked as a commercial development manager for the Maori Trustee, Te Tumu Paeroa, identifying, analysing and executing commercial opportunities for owners of Maori freehold land.
Tom is an investor in a Waikato sheep and beef farming syndicate, a director and shareholder of farm financial software company Figured, an independent director of a foreign-owned NZ forestry and commercial property company and was previously the independent Chair of a pipfruit investment syndicate in the Esk Valley.
In 2016 Tom received a Nuffield Scholarship which, after several months of international travel focussed exclusively on the world of agriculture, culminated in his report “Agribusiness Governance – Finding the Green Zone.”
Tom joined Hawke’s Bay Regional Council in 2013 to work with the Ruataniwha Water Storage Project giving him a front-row seat to the environmental issues and tensions challenging the primary sector. In 2017 he was appointed to the executive team as Group Manager Strategic Planning, which includes responsibility for progressing Hawke’s Bay’s policy and regulatory framework for natural resource management, including all things freshwater.
Listen to a Summary Sound Clip here:
Listen to the Podcast Episode >
Hugh Ritchie is a founding farmer and life member of LandWISE. Hugh farms on Drumpeel Station a 2000ha mixed arable, process vegetable and lamb fattening operation.
Hugh joins us to talk about his experiences with Strip-Tillage. A type of minimum tillage system which he brought over from the U.S in 2000, as part of LandWISE’s first project addressing wind erosion of soil in Central Hawke’s Bay.
Listen to the Podcast Episode >
Allister Holmes is the Technology Research & Extension Manager for FAR and has many years’ experience trialling new farming practices and cultivars and sharing that knowledge with arable farmers all over the country.
Allister joins the podcast to discuss cover cropping, and follows on from the general principles we heard from Charles Merfield earlier in the series.
Allister emphasizes that mixed species cover crops can reduce the risk of poor establishment and growth if environmental conditions are unpredictable. He also discusses the types of machinery making it easier and more cost effective to sow cover crops – either during the cash crop’s growth or immediately after harvest.
Find resources about cover cropping on FAR’s website.
The Live Panel Discussion with the Managing Herbicide Resistance guests was held on Tuesday 28th July after our presenters featured on the LandWISE Podcast. Guests included:
The recording starts with the panel members introducing themselves, along with a quick synopsis of their topic content.
If you’re interested to hear the episodes from Kerry Harrington & Hossein Ghanizadeh, Chris Buddenhagen, Martin Espig & Robyn Dynes, and John Evans & Kai Tegels, you can listen to their individual podcast episodes here:
Subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest news from LandWISE including future panel webcasts, and podcast episodes.
Our 2020 Annual General Meeting was held on Tuesday 21st of July at the Green Shed in Hastings. After missing the annual conference catch-up, we were grateful to reconnect with existing members and meet some new ones!
We thank Ollie Knowles for his input as a Board member over the last three years. Ollie played a significant role in the review of our strategy and was a solid contributor with great knowledge of science extension. We look forward to continuing our relationship with Ollie.
We welcome Simon White to the Board following his appointment at the AGM. Simon runs the family’s Ludlow Farm at Otane in Hawke’s Bay. He is an experienced strip-tiller and no-tiller producing a range of arable, specialist seed and vegetable crops along with finishing beef and lamb. Simon is also co-founder and director of Kanapu Hemp Foods, growing, harvesting, processing and marketing a range of products.
AGM attendees heard LandWISE project updates from the past twelve months, and contributed to some great discussion around nutrient management and cover cropping.
This year we were joined by guest speaker, and longtime LandWISE member, Charles “Merf” Merfield. Merf presented on cover crops, their benefits and challenges for a variety of horticultural and arable systems. In case you missed it, you can view his presentation here.
LandWISE Staff presented on progress updates from our three major projects Future Proofing Vegetable Production, Smart Tools for Orchard Drainage, and Managing Herbicide Resistance:
Thank you again to all those that came, we look forward to seeing more of you at a field day, workshop, or on-farm sometime soon!
Our latest podcast episode is here. This July we’re focussing on Managing Herbicide Resistance – we’ll keep you posted with new episodes, and the panel discussion with our July guests coming soon.
Associate Professor Kerry Harrington and Dr. Hossein Ghanizadeh join us to talk about their work developing a quick test to identify herbicide resistance in weeds.
Associate Professor Kerry Harrington (left) has been lecturing and conducting research in Weed Science at Massey University since 1983, and research officer Dr Hossein Ghanizadeh (right) has been working on herbicide resistance at Massey since 2011.
Herbicide resistance occurs following the build-up of individual weeds that have an inherited ability to survive the application of herbicides that would kill normal plants of that species, such as fathen plants that have developed resistance to atrazine then later also dicamba in Waikato maize crops.
This differs from herbicide tolerance, where all individuals of a species have always survived a herbicide, such as white clover poorly controlled by glyphosate. Some herbicide resistance is target-site resistance, where the site in the plant where a herbicide normally acts has changed so that it is no longer affected by the herbicide.
Other types of resistance are non-target site, so-called because there hasn’t been a change at the site of action, but instead some other mechanism stops the herbicide getting to that site of action. This might be caused by reduced penetration into the weed, or perhaps reduced movement of the herbicide once inside the plant, as can occur with glyphosate resistance in ryegrass.
A quick test would enable faster identification of herbicide resistance allowing for faster response to a growing issue. However, Kerry stresses preventing resistance is the first defence, and has developed a series of guidelines for farmers and growers around rotating herbicides and varying herbicide groups for different growing scenarios.
These guidelines can be found here at the Plant Protection Society‘s website:
Herbicide Resistance Principles
Cases of Herbicide Resistance in New Zealand
Episode |
Podcast |
Release Date |
| 6 | Identifying Instances of Herbicide Resistances (Kerry Harrington & Hossein Ghanizadeh, Massey University) | 3rd July 2020 |
| 7 | Surveying Herbicide Resistance (Chris Buddenhagen, AgResearch) | 10th July 2020 |
| 8 | Drivers of Herbicide Use (Martin Espig & Robyn Dynes, AgResearch) | 24th July 2020 |
| 9 | The Herbicide Tool Box & On-Farm Biodiversity (John Evans & Kai Tegels, Tregynon Farms) | 24th July 2020 |
| 10 | LIVE PANEL DISCUSSION
Register here |
Tuesday 28th July
1:00pm |
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!
Thank you to those who joined us for the Live Panel Discussion with June’s podcast guests. We were thrilled to get so many participants in our first live webcast, and appreciated the rich conversation as a result of the varied viewpoints from panel presenters and listeners.
For those of you who weren’t able to make it to the Live Panel on Reducing Nitrogen Losses from Intensive Vegetable Production we recorded the discussion and you can listen to it above.
The Panel Discussion was presented on June 30th, after our presenters each featured on the LandWISE Podcast. If you’re interested to hear more from Jay Clarke, Luke Posthuma, Georgia O’Brien or Charles (Merf) Merfield, you can listen to their podcast episodes here:
Subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest news from LandWISE including future panel webcasts, and podcast episodes.
