Category Archives: LandWISE People

Agronomy, LandWISE People

Bram, our 2022 Summer Intern

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With support from Callaghan Innovation, we were delighted to welcome Bram Paans to LandWISE for the summer season. Bram has just completed a B Hort Sci and Massey University, and is returning to undertake Master of Horticultural Science studies in 2022.

Bram spent much of the summer sampling the asparagus and process crops we are researching, and doing many, many Nitrate Quick Tests. Here he is taking soil samples from a squash paddock as part of the Sustainable Vegetable Systems project being run by Vegetables Research and Innovation, Potatoes NZ and Agrilink. 

We were delighted to host Bram this season, and to show him some of the farming systems we work with and research methods we use. 

Many thanks to Bram, and Callaghan Innovation for support via the R&D Experience grants programme. 

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”.

events, Irrigation, LandWISE People, Water

Water Security More than Dams – Tom Skerman

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:

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

LandWISE People, Uncategorized

Farewell to our Coordinator

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As some of you may know, this week is Georgia’s final week with LandWISE as Project Coordinator. Since November of 2018, Georgia has been LandWISE’s project and extension coordinator – organising everything from field days, workshops and our conference, as well as writing and presenting technical resources on soils and nutrient management. Georgia recently took on the role of podcast host since our annual conference was disrupted by Covid-19, and has recorded some great interviews with a variety of lead researchers, technologists and farmers. Aside from resources and events, Georgia has also collected data from our on-farm trials – spending time in Gisborne and Levin doing Nitrate Quick Tests, and yield sampling.

Georgia is leaving us to work for LandVision in Whanganui, a land management consulting firm, and will enjoy working with farmers to enhance their land management and farm systems.

From Georgia:

“I am extremely grateful for my time at LandWISE, I have thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to meet and engage with all of our farmer members, and wider community. It’s been a great introduction to the Horticultural and Arable industry, and has given me a huge deal of respect for its growers and farmers. I have learnt so much and gained some fantastic experiences – from talking visual soil assessments with growers, to harvesting potato trials, and driving tractors around orchards the work has been varied and challenging (in a good way) from day one. I will miss the wonderful team here at LandWISE, and plan to stay in touch.”

Agronomy, Conference, events, LandWISE People, Membership, MicroFarm, Nutrients, Projects, Uncategorized, Vegetables

LandWISE AGM – Tuesday 21st July

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.

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

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!

Agronomy, AgTech, Automation, Conference, Controlled Traffic Systems, Data Analytics, Drainage, events, Fertiliser, Innovation, Irrigation, LandWISE 2015, LandWISE People, Membership, MicroFarm, New Crops, Nutrients, Orchard, Orcharding, Plant Health, Planting, Precision Agriculture, Projects, Research, Robotics, Sensing, Soil, Tillage, Uncategorized, Vegetables, viticulture, Water, Weeds

Memberships Open for 2020-2021

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:

  • Results from on-farm trials
  • Projects focussed on real farmer and grower problems
  • Regional field days and workshops on a range of topics from conserving soil to nutrient management and novel fertiliser technology
  • A discounted registration at the 2021 LandWISE Conference
  • Subscription to our annual LandWISE News publication

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!

Sign up here >

Agronomy, AgTech, Conference, Drainage, events, Innovation, LandWISE People, Precision Agriculture, Projects, Research, Robotics, Soil, Tillage

Nutrient Budgeting made easy…

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.

Agronomy, LandWISE People, MicroFarm, Projects, Vegetables, viticulture

Welcome Kazi, our Summer Intern

Kazi Talaska is our summer intern at LandWISE. She is  studying the newly developed Bachelor of Horticulture at Massey University.

Kazi tending vines in our “Inverse Goblet” trial block

Kazi has come from an international background, originally from Bogor in Indonesia, spending her school years there, before deciding on New Zealand for University.

Bogor is just outside Jakarta the capital city, home to the country’s agricultural and fisheries university. Bogor also has the highest annual rainfall in Indonesia.

Kazi chose to study horticulture because:

“I have always had a strong affinity towards the natural environment. After an internship with a local nursery during high school, working with plants became a possibility. After graduating it seemed like the natural path to go to as horticulture itself looked so globally dynamic and interesting to me.”

Kazi’s role with us is to support our significant workload of summer trials in Levin and Gisborne as part of Future Proofing Vegetable Production and our ongoing management of the MicroFarm here in Hawke’s Bay. We are keen to expose her to the variety of work we undertake at LandWISE – from soil sampling and testing for growers, running field days and workshops on sustainable Nitrogen management, sprayer and fertiliser equipment calibrations.

So far Kazi has been busy maintaining our trial blocks – including all the trimming, leaf plucking, and wire tucking in the NanoVineyard. On regular trips  to Levin and Gisborne as part of FPVP, Kazi has assisted the LandWISE team in data collection, and Quick N soil testing in trial plots. She has also been working on the landscaping at the Centre for Land and Water.

“I’ve really enjoyed the grower engagement and field work we’ve been doing – I can grasp the whole system when we are able to listen to growers discuss their problem, and help them find the right solution.”

Kazi says the experience so far has helped her to understand the challenges the Horticulture industry faces, and bring significance to the concepts she’s learning at University.

“I can relate what I’m studying to what is important and potentially achievable for growers”

We look forward to working with Kazi for the rest of the summer, and supporting her to gain valuable skills for her career in the horticulture industry!

LandWISE People

LandWISE’s New Precision Agronomist

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Luke Posthuma has joined the LandWISE team as our Precision Agronomist.

Many LandWISE members and followers will know Luke from GrowMaps, a precision mapping and consulting company he formed in 2016.

At GrowMaps, Luke has been helping horticultural and arable farmers identify and manage spatial variability in their crops to improve their farm profitability. A large portion of this work has involved soil mapping, yield data analysis and soil sampling to create VR fertiliser and planting recommendations to go into a range of tractor GPS controllers. Having a passion for sustainable land use, Luke focused on improving farm profitability through more efficient utilisation of inputs including fertiliser, seed and irrigation.

This and previous experience  makes Luke ideal to help Georgia and Dan with the Future Proofing Vegetable Production and Smart Tools for Orchard Drainage projects we have underway. 

Having a reasonably hands-on practical approach to farm advising, Luke enjoys getting involved with farmers and using data to improve practical management decisions on farm, whether it be identifying side-wall compaction from a maize planter, nutrient deficiency issues or soil type challenges. A key part of his work has been to identify and quantify agronomic issues, and create a management plan with the farmer and their farm adviser.

Luke graduated from Massey University with a Bachelor of AgriScience (Horticulture) degree. He gained a number of scholarships and is a recognised Massey Scholar.