Category Archives: Nutrients

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, Automation, Conference, Controlled Traffic Systems, Cover crops, Drainage, Fertiliser, Innovation, Irrigation, Membership, MicroFarm, New Crops, Nutrients, Orchard, Plant Health, Precision Agriculture, Research, Soil, Uncategorized, Vegetables, Water, Weeds

Less $$ than a flat white a fortnight

A message to our members and friends

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.

If you are already one of our Financial Members, Thank You! Can you please help us again by recommending us to a friend?

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!

Not a Member? JOIN HERE!

If you’re getting and valuing our newsletters, downloading and listening to our podcasts, accessing the resources on our website or the FertSpread tools etc. please think about giving us a hand.  It really will only cost you about half a cup of coffee a week, but it will make a big difference to us.

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.

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

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!)

Agronomy, Drainage, Innovation, Nutrients, Research, Soil, Vegetables, Water

Vegetated Buffer Strips – a podcast with Fernando Avendano

Leave a comment

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.

Agronomy, Cover crops, Fertiliser, Nutrients, Plant Health, Soil, Vegetables, viticulture, Water

The Role of Soil Microbes in Soil Plant Interactions

Leave a comment

Our latest podcast is now online. Phillip Schofield talks with Georgia about the role microbes play in soil plant interactions, the use of Visual Soil Assessment (VSA) and practical ways to improve soil health on-farm.

Phillip is a soil nutrition consultant based in Hawke’s Bay. He has a PhD in Plant Science from Massey University where he studied autotoxins, herbicide residues and pathogenic fungi in asparagus crops. He has many years’ experience in soil conservation, and nutrient management in the Hawke’s Bay area.

Our thanks to our loyal sponsors and to Radio Kidnappers for support with our podcast series.

Agronomy, AgTech, Fertiliser, Nutrients, Plant Health, Projects, Research, Soil, Vegetables

Future Proofing Vegetable Production: Milestone 9

Leave a comment

We continue to have solid engagement with our farming communities in Levin and Gisborne.  At this stage our project plan had us monitoring the effectiveness of a bioreactor to manage nitrogen leaving the field, but we have not been able to find a regular flow of nutrient rich water that we can treat. Further drain flow monitor through Levin has continued to show little nitrogen in the drains flowing past the cropping blocks so any nitrate losses are assumed to be via groundwater, possibly reappearing in the Arawahata Stream between the cropped areas and Lake Horowhenua.

We are working with growers to ensure that they are applying the correct rate of fertiliser in the right place so that they do not lose excess nutrients from the field.

As part of the suite of tools to help farmers, we have created LandWISE Nutrient Budget templates and updated the FertSpread web-calculator for broadcast spreader calibrations to include Fertplace for placement equipment such as planters and side-dressers.

The Nitrate Quick Test is a rapid measurement of available nitrate in the plants’ rootzone

The three main tools we are using in our work with growers are:

  • The LandWISE Nutrient Budget: used in the crop planning stage to ensure planned fertiliser practice follows industry good practice.
  • The Nitrate Quick Test soil test: used as an active management tool during the crop to check the fertiliser plan and to validate additional fertiliser applications where the grower expects that extra fertiliser is required on top of what was originally planned.
  • The calibration tools, FertSpread and FertPlace: used to ensure that the fertiliser application equipment is evenly applying the fertiliser at the target rate where it is required.

In the coming season we have started two large, replicated trials in Gisborne focusing on nitrogen application rates to tomato and sweetcorn crops. Late winter soil testing to 90cm has shown a large range of soil nitrate levels (60-257 kg N/ha) in paddocks across Gisborne. Planned nitrogen fertiliser applications across these blocks were the grower standard rate.

Further work we are completing is turning the LandWISE Nitrogen Budget template into an online app for growers to use. The aim is a mobile-friendly tool that growers can use in the field. By making the information available on the technology growers always have with them, they will be able to simply validate their planned fertiliser plan against industry good practice and make more informed fertiliser decisions.

For queries, contact us here

Many thanks to our project funders, and the growers and industry folk who are putting so much time and effort into being the best they can be.

 

Agronomy, events, Nutrients, Research, Soil

Podcast – Cover Cropping: The Ts & Cs

Leave a comment

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.

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, Conference, events, Fertiliser, Nutrients, Soil, Uncategorized, Vegetables

Reducing Nitrogen Losses from Intensive Vegetable Production – Panel Discussion

LandWISE: Promoting Sustainable Crop Production
LandWISE: Promoting Sustainable Crop Production
Reducing Nitrogen Losses from Intensive Vegetable Production - Panel Discussion
/

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:

All Podcast Episodes here >

Subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest news from LandWISE including future panel webcasts, and podcast episodes.