Category Archives: LandWISE People

Help Wanted

We’re not quite sure what to call the job: science manager, extensionist, project manager, consultant? We know it offers diverse activities and needs excellent communication skills and practical knowledge of horticulture and technology.

We are looking for someone to help identify and lead research projects and extension activities across a variety of issues and regions. For the right person, this is a role with considerable potential to grow.

This will be a Page Bloomer Associates appointment. They provide our science, management and support services while having addditional private consultancy activities.  Working closely together, we know they share our passion for sustainable land and water management.

Since the dawn of the new millennium we’ve been providing progressive, pragmatic and independent services through projects and consultancy. A key feature of our work is close collaboration with end users, researchers and developers. We talk about “linking thinking from the farm out”.

The role includes engaging with growers, industry and researchers to identify opportunities to review practices and integrate new technologies to create sustainable cropping systems. The appointee will develop and manage projects and support services that support economically and environmentally sustainable primary production.

If you know someone with passion for smarter farming who wants a key role in a small dedicated organisation, Page Bloomer Associates would like to chat with them!

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Inaugural Achievement Awards

LandWISE introduced two new awards at the 2019 Conference. They recognise outstanding achievement among our members.

The Board determined that neither would be awarded lightly or necessarily regularly. They are to be special and valued.

In 2019, the inaugural year, both Awards were presented to Hugh Ritchie of Drumpeel Farms.

LandWISE Manager Dan Bloomer presenting the Sustainability Award to inaugural recipient, Hugh Ritchie

The LandWISE Sustainability Award

The Sustainability Award represents a no-till tine, reflecting technology and our origins working towards minimising soil erosion and improving soil quality. The base is 100 year old native New Zealand Black Mairie recycled from a fireplace surround, representing sustainability and longevity.

The LandWISE Sustainability Award

Honorary Membership

The Board has created a new category, “Honorary Life Member” and awarded this the Hugh Ritchie.

A spage engraved and presented to Hugh Ritchie, our first Honorary Life Member

A Recipient of the LandWISE Honorary Life Membership will have shown extraordinary commitment including:

  • Active contribution to the management, direction and development of LandWISE
  • Active for 5 or more years as a LandWISE member/supporter/board member
  • Actively promoting and helping raise the profile of LandWISE

An Honorary Life Member will have been an active ambassador for LandWISE.

Hugh seemed happy with his award!

Hugh has been involved in LandWISE since its inception, joining with Dan Bloomer, Stuart MacIntyre and Moray Grant to investigate ways to avoid soil loss from wind erosion. This resulted in projects to refine strip-tillage and then into auto-steer and precision farming investigations. 

Following his Nuffield Scholarship, Hugh strongly promoted strip-tillage and the need for better irrigation management and system checks.

Hugh’s awareness of the need to check irrigation systems led to our project on Irrigation Performance which now forms the basis of Irrigation New Zealand’s Code of Practice for Piped Irrigation Performance Assessment and NZQA qualifications. The Bucket tests that are increasingly part of the farming scene are the direct result of this initiative.

Hugh was Chair of LandWISE for over ten years, and while no longer a Board member continues to provide practical and intellectual support. The foundation he helped establish has proved solid, and allows us to continue as we do today.

 

Highlights from LandWISE 19

LandWISE 19 “Rethinking Best Pratice” wrapped up less than a week ago, and we’re already in the planning stages for 2020. However, before we get too carried away with that, we reflect on this year’s conference and its highlights.

We were honoured to have two guest speakers join us from the US thanks to our Platinum sponsor AGMARDT – Brad Bernhard from the University of Illinois, and Frank Forcella from the University of Minnesota (now retired).

Brad’s presentation was well received, with the message of soil testing, and matching nitrogen applications to plant demand and yield potential very relevant for the growers whom attended. Brad’s PhD work was also well delivered with on-theme humour interspersed with the corn and nitrogen content.

Frank’s presentation “Weeding with Walnuts” focused on abrasive weeding, and was well placed as part of our session on Managing Herbicide Resistance. Frank’s abrasion weeding technique and research was on display at the MicroFarm field visit on Thursday afternoon. Thanks to Trevor James and AgResearch for lending us his abrasion weeding machine. This was a popular demo to view and test out on the broadleaf weeds in our Barley crop.

We are very grateful to all of our invited speakers, without whom we would not be able to present a new LandWISE conference each and every year. There was particularly good feedback about the presentations from the “Something Rather Different” session on Day 1 where two farmers and one researcher presented their experiences cultivating markets for and growing novel crops in New Zealand. We look forward to hearing more about NZ grown Bananas, Hemp, and Quinoa.

A massive thank you must also go to our kind sponsors who made this conference possible. At the platinum level HBRC, AGMARDT, and BASF helped us very generously, we also appreciate our gold sponsors Vegetables NZ Inc, Process Vegetables NZ, ARAG Australia / SenseFly, Potatoes NZ, and Power Farming.

Another highlight for the LandWISE team was seeing Hugh Ritchie receive the inaugural LandWISE Sustainability Award, as well as being bestowed with the honour of Life Member. Hugh has been involved with LandWISE since its humble beginnings in a maize paddock in 1999. Hugh also acted as chairman of the LandWISE board for over 10 years, and since stepping down has remained a staunch supporter of our work and projects. As part of receiving Life Membership, Hugh was gifted with an engraved shovel with which, judging by the picture below, we think he was quite pleased…

Finally, we thank all the conference attendees for their interest, participation and engagement with the conference content. We are very lucky to attract growers, farmers, researchers, and industry people from such a wide array of backgrounds and industries – the variety and diversity of conference attendees has significantly contributed to the quality of discussion and network building.

If you missed this year’s LandWISE conference, make sure to subscribe to our newsletter, and stay in touch for updates about LandWISE 2020 – we look forward to seeing you there!

 

LandWISE 2019: Best Practice Changes

Hugh Ritchie – Honorary Life Member

Drumpeel Farms has been run as a continuous mixed cropping farm since 1962 but had been cropped prior to that time. Key to the ongoing success of this farm has been a 5-year rotation utilizing legumes, cereals, seeds and stock.

During the 70’s a significant injection of lime was used to lift performance, irrigation was introduced in 2000 which provided resilience and opportunity for new and higher value options. This was closely followed by a move to reduced tillage eventually progressing to direct drilling and strip-tillage. These changes were driven consciously by a desire to make good business decisions but also there was an underlying understanding of importance of soil health and with limited water a need to be as efficient as possible with that water.

Good farm practice is an ever-evolving status. What was good in the 60’s is now modified and the 2000’s are completely different from today. Going forward,best practice will need to incorporate carbon zero thinking and (what will be even harder) meet public expectation even if that expectation does not reflect scientific findings, for example Roundup acceptance in the marketplace. Currently our business of good practice and reduced cultivation relies heavily on a chemical herbicide program.

Facing these new and emerging issues means a further refinement of good practice and even completely new enterprises to utilize our soils, climate and water resources with the aim of creating a sustainable business.

Drumpeel Farms is a family business Hugh runs in conjunction with Sharon and their four children. It is a mixed enterprise business with livestock, seeds and cereals and process vegetables as the main components.

They produce peas, beans, carrots, sweetcorn and some export squash, along with carrot and onion seed. The business is exploring the options for kiwifruit and apples as a way to increase value from the soils and water resources available to us.

As a grower Hugh has always contributed to industries in which he is involved. Currently a director of Hortnz and chair of the Foundation for Arable Research board, a member of Process Vegetables NZ and a director of Water Holdings, Central Hawke’s Bay, Hugh recently retired from the LANDWISE and Irrigation NZ boards.

LandWISE 2019: The Vineyard of Tomorrow

John van der Linden  – LandWISE Board Member

Epitomising this years theme of “Rethinking Best Practice” John van der Linden from Villa Maria Estate discussed the “Future Vineyard”

Future Vineyard – Inverse Goblet

Often people’s future thinking is constrained by their past practises and experiences and so many ‘innovations’ are often only ‘improved ways of doing the same thing’. Two main considerations went into designing the vineyard of tomorrow:

  1. How to use land more effectively (more high quality grapes/ha)
  2. How to grow grapes more efficiently (eliminating, minimising, or combining operations)

Some solutions in this space that Villa Maria is trialling include:

  • “Trunk-Wrapping”: eliminates disbudding, or avoiding disbudding altogether and combining it with pruning.
  • “Sustainable Vineyard Floors”: eliminating or at least drastically reducing the numerous weed control and mowing passes by using different inter-row species and management techniques.
  • “Inverse Goblet” style vines: growing staked vines in an isometric pattern can provide advantages over current planting arrangements (parallel rows)

John van der Linden is a Viticulturist with Villa Maria Estate, NZ’s most awarded wine company. He has developed a wealth of viticultural experience and knowledge having grown up on a vineyard, owned and managed his own vineyards, studied and lectured in Viticulture and worked as a Viticulturist in Hawkes Bay and Marlborough for some major NZ wine companies.  One of John’s philosophies is that ‘there is always a better way’ and so innovation, sustainability and continuous improvement play a big part in his role.

John’s interests include family, rowing, cycling, swimming, guitar, Hi-Fi, technology, flying, design & architecture.

 

 

New LandWISE Project Coordinator

Hi,  I’m Georgia O’Brien, the new LandWISE Project Coordinator.

I am the contact person for the Smart Tools to Improve Orchard Drainage Project jointly funded by Sustainable Farming Fund and New Zealand Apples and Pears Inc. I am excited to be working with growers and industry on this pressing issue in the pipfruit sector. I am also looking forward to supporting Pip and Dan in the Future Proofing Vegetable Production project – aiming to improve nitrate management on vegetable cropping farms.

Part of my role is keeping our Memberships up to date and working with sponsors and trade displays for the LandWISE Annual Conference. If you have any queries about your membership status, want to become a financial member, or want to get involved with the conference, contact me!

Originally from Palmerston North, I grew up on a small thoroughbred breeding stud and recently beef finishing farm. I studied horticulture at Massey because I’m passionate about growing high quality food sustainably in New Zealand. I was proud to receive a T&G Global Summer Internship which included placement in Hawke’s Bay orchards last year.

I’m keen learn and take on new challenges, so please don’t hesitate to get in contact at georgia@landwise.org.nz if you have any questions or ideas on our projects or the organisation itself.

I’m looking forward to meeting more LandWISE members and helping Dan and the team achieve success on our LandWISE projects.

New LandWISE Research Manager

Hi All, I’m Pip McVeagh

I have just joined the LandWISE team as Research Manager. I have had an action packed first couple of weeks meeting great people, making a start on some really interesting projects and I’m excited to be involved!

I’m keen to get started with trials and monitoring for the Future Proofing Vegetable Production project. I have spent 2 days in Gisborne and a day in Levin with Dan meeting many people involved in the project and I am really looking forward to working with them. I am off to Queensland next week to learn all about woodchip bioreactors which we hope to install in some areas to reduce nitrate leaching. I will also be involved in an orchard drainage project, and it was great to meet some of the Gisborne orchardists where we will be doing some trial work.

As part of my role, I will be looking to identify opportunities to develop more sustainable cropping systems. I have worked and studied in the New Zealand Centre for Precision Agriculture for the past 8 years using crops sensors, RTK GPS systems, soil EM mapping, running field trials, GIS, image and spatial data analysis… among other aspects of precision ag.

I grew up living and working with sheep and beef, am a keen vege gardener and have studied a mix of subjects including landscape management, weeds, plant pest and diseases, soils… I enjoy learning new things, a challenge, problem solving and will give anything a go, so please don’t hesitate to contact me (pip.mcv@landwise.org.nz) for a chat if you have any thoughts or ideas.

I’m excited to join Dan and the LandWISE community and get involved!

Trials and Extension Role Available

With an increased work load, we’re looking for a self-motivated person to  join us. You’ll be curious about transforming agricultural practices, keen on technology and pragmatic. You’ll enjoy working with growers, researchers and tech folk. 

We’re not quite sure what to call the job: coordinator, advisor, officer? We know it offers diverse activities and needs excellent communication skills and practical knowledge of horticulture and technology. For the right person, this is a role with considerable potential to grow.

Your role will be to help run trials and extension activities and be part of identifying opportunities to improve economic and environmental performance in horticultural production.

We’ve just started new projects.

Our “Future Proofing Vegetable Production” project has a significant element of on-farm monitoring and field trials to help assess the realistic approaches fresh vegetable growers can take to reducing the loss of nitrates.  It includes using new techniques to monitor soil nitrate levels, running on-farm trials to test new approaches, calibrating fertiliser application and irrigation equipment and testing new nitrate mitigation techniques.

Our “Smart tools to improve Orchard Drainage” project is using high accuracy GPS to map and model orchard drainage, and control land shaping equipment to ensure surface water can flow off during heavy rain events.

The LandWISE MicroFarm has just been land levelled and we are monitoring the effect of that, while we wait for a new series of cropping trials over coming years. In the past we’ve tried manipulating peas, changing bean planting arrangements, and mapping onions from satellites, UAVs and tractors. Now we’ve got a list of public and private trials in waiting.

Previous LandWISE projects include precision mapping vineyards to increase juice quality,

testing a small autonomous weeding robot,

the impact of banding fertiliser rather than broadcasting it, and how changing irrigation nozzles can affect application uniformity.

We prepared guidelines and calculators to calibrate fertiliser spreaders,led work on soil quality, novel crop canopy assessment technologies and tested satellite-augmented GPS positioning.

And of course, we helped introduce RTK-GPS and Autosteer, pioneered strip tillage and worked to prevent wind erosion and improve soil resilience by adopting minimum tillage techniques.

If you think this is the job for you, please send us your CV and a letter explaining why you’re the perfect candidate. Applications close very soon on Thursday 20th September 2018. We look forward to hearing from you!

Job Description here>

Email a query

 

Notice of Annual General Meeting 2018

2018 Annual General Meeting

Notice to Members

The Annual General Meeting of LandWISE Inc. will be held during the 2018 Annual Conference “Technologies for Timely Actions”

When: 2:30 PM on Wednesday 23 May 2018
Where:  Havelock North Function Centre

Business

  • Minutes of Previous AGM
  • Annual accounts
  • Subscriptions
  • Constitution changes completed
  • Retiring Board members – Mark Burgess, Simon Wilcox
  • Board Elections – Analeise Murahidy and Simon Wilcox nominated
  • Activity reports
  • General Business

Minutes of 2017

2017 Minutes available here

Revised 2017 Constitution available here

Financial

  • Annual accounts will be presented at the AGM
  •  Subscriptions – recommendation of the Board

Retiring Board Members

Simon Wilcox (three year term completed) is retiring by rotation, but offers himself for re-election

Mark Burgess has retired from University of Auckland and is stepping down from the Board

Board Elections

The remaining Board members are:

  • John Evans – farmer/grower (arable) CHAIR
  • John van der Linden –  farmer/grower (viticulture)
  • Oliver Knowles – Precision Ag Extension (support industries)

Two positions are vacant.

For re-election

  • Simon Wilcox  – farmer/grower (vegetables)
    • nominated John van der Linden, seconded by John Evans

A new nomination has been received

  • Analeise Murahidy – University of Auckland (research)
    • nominated Mark Burgess, seconded by John van der Linden
Brief Bio.Analeise Murahidy

Business Development Manager – Environment
Auckland UniServices Ltd.

Analeise has been working within the Higher Education Sector for over 15 years’ in various business development, contract management, and operation management roles. Analeise is currently working at UniServices and is responsible for the client engagement and business development strategy within the Environment and Industries portfolio with a focus on AgriTech, CleanTech and Climate Change. Prior to joining UniServices, she worked at Imperial College London in both the Medical and Natural Science Faculties in research and business administration roles.

General business

If you wish to make comment or have items added to the AGM Agenda, please contact Dan@landwise.org.nz

2018 Technical Session: Implementing new technologies to manage crop health

The Technical Session is an opportunity for lead farmers, researchers and technologists to workshop a topic, hearing from different perspectives and seeking opportunities for collaboration.

Looking for answers – LandWISE 2015

In May 2018, the topic is “Implementing new technologies to manage crop health”. The day will start with presentations from lead farmers followed by presentations from research and tech perspectives. There will be much discussion, connections will be made and links forged.

The Technical Sessions are “by application” events with numbers limited to ensure good dialogue and quality discussion.  If you would like to be part of the 2018 Technical sessions, contact us and explain why you need to be there! (See below)

Programme:

Scoping research and farm technology needs and creating networks of people.

  • 60 second introductions (all)
  • Lead presentations
  • Defining future farm problems and challenges
  • Discussion of key issues

From an earlier event:

“LandWISE was one of the best forums I’ve participated in. The sense of goodwill and teamwork was extraordinary” Professor David Lamb, University of New England, Australia

Your investment for this event:

  • 2018 Conference Attendees:  $75+GST
  • Others: $150+GST

Apply and pre-register here>