Category Archives: Nutrients

Agronomy, AgTech, Conference, Data Analytics, LandWISE People, Nutrients, Research

Bruce Searle

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Bruce Searle is well known to LandWISE regulars having been on the Board for many years and an active contributor at many conferences and other events.

A crop physiologist in the Integrated Crop Production Systems group, Bruce leads the Plant & Food team researching onion crop development and modelling. His group is responsible for recording the life histories of 2,000 individual onion plants!

These data have informed development of an on-line tool to assess crop performance and help growers understand if crop development (and yield) is limited by established population, plant growth or both.

The collaboration with LandWISE has combined detailed plot scale work with whole paddock surveys to help Onions New Zealand growers understand the drivers of crop variability.

A small trial within this project looked at fertiliser rate and timing options when canopies are variable. Can we reduce rates in small canopy areas and still get the potential yield?

Agronomy, Conference, events, LandWISE People, Nutrients, Plant Health, Soil, Water, Weeds

Dan Drost

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Professor Daniel Drost is a vegetable researcher and extension specialist from Utah State University.

Dan Drost grew up on a small diversified animal and crop farm in Michigan (USA). He graduated from Michigan State University with a BS and MS degree in Horticulture. In 1983, he moved to New Zealand to teach Horticulture at Massey University. He returned to the US in 1987 to study at Cornell University where he was awarded a PhD in 1991 in Vegetable Crops and Plant Physiology. 

Dan’s research and outreach efforts focus on small intensive production systems, sustainable and organic agriculture, and how land-use management impacts field and farm scale productivity. In his 25 years at Utah State, he has authored more than 150 extension and scientific articles on vegetable production and management practices, shared his understanding of farming systems with producers, scientists and industry leaders around the world, and focused his attention on sustainable vegetable cropping systems that are farm appropriate, socially acceptable, and economically viable.

One of our invited international keynote speakers, Dan was bought to New Zealand in conjunction with Onions NZ and Plant & Food Research to discuss sustainable production systems. His presentation to LandWISE 2018 was titled “Sustainable Crop Production: Field and Farmscape Management for Sustainability”.

Dan says,

“Insects, diseases, nutrient management, and weeds pose yearly threats to vegetable productivity and sustainability. This presentation will address how to best manage the farmscape (whole farm) to protect and mitigate these risks in field and farm settings. Using examples from a variety of vegetable crops (annuals, perennials, intensively managed) grown in a range of settings, I will outline how modern farms adapt to and deal with yearly uncertainty.“

Dan and colleagues have completed a lot of work on high tunnels for crop production. See a video here.

You can hear and discuss sustainable production with Dan at LandWISE 2018 in Havelock North on 23-24 May.

 

 

Dan’s attendance at LandWISE 2018 was supported by AGMARDT

AgTech, Conference, Drainage, LandWISE People, Nutrients, Soil, Water

Aldrin Rivas

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Aldrin Rivas is a Catchment Hydrologist at Lincoln Agritech. He has over ten years of professional experience in the fields of water and environmental science, engineering, and management; and has worked for private and government entities.

Aldrin has experience in denitrification in natural and engineered systems and will tell delegates at LandWISE 2018 about a Lincoln Agritech, ESR and Aqualinc project investigating woodchip bioreactors to remove nitrate from drainage water. Some say this is closing the stable door after the horse has bolted. Others say it’s catching the horse and putting it somewhere safe!

With a mixed background in engineering and science, Aldrin is involved in a variety of Lincoln Agritech projects including the Ground Water Mitigations project and the Transfer Pathways Programme.

His interests include:
• Groundwater
• Denitrification in the vadose and saturated zones
• Vulnerability assessment of freshwater resources
• Integrated catchment development and management
• Water supply systems and management
• Environmental and hydrological modelling

You can hear and discuss this with Aldrin at LandWISE 2018 in Havelock North on 23-24 May.

Conference, LandWISE People, Nutrients, Research, Soil

Matthew Norris

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Matt Norris is a research associate at Plant and Food Research within the Sustainable Production (Field Crops) team in the Hawke’s Bay. 

Matt has a background in soil science and chemistry and a keen interest in sustainable nutrient management including modelling nutrient losses from arable and vegetable production systems.

Matt is responsible for leading and managing a range of environmentally focused research projects. His primary focus areas relate to nutrient management, specifically quantifying N and P losses from arable and vegetable production systems. Additional areas of research include N mineralisation dynamics from dairy effluent amended soils and developing novel soil testing approaches for informing N management decisions.

Matt will present both a talk and a practical demonstration on  a Quick Test for Nitrate, a way to rapidly determine how much available nitrogen is in the soil for crops to access. LandWISE and Plant & Food used this in our Onions NZ /SFF research this season to determine how much fertiliser we might apply when we had areas with different size canopies.

You can hear and discuss this with Matt at LandWISE 2018 in Havelock North on 23-24 May.

Agronomy, AgTech, Conference, Data Analytics, LandWISE People, Nutrients, Plant Health, Precision Agriculture, Sensing, Soil

Michael Nichols

Michael and Rochelle Nichols and their six children have a mixed farming enterprise at Sisters Creek in Northwest Tasmania.

The family crops Wheat, Pyrethrum, Poppies, Potatoes, Onions, Canola, Mustard, Peas, Buckwheat and run 80 Friesian steers. Michael has a contracting business which provides muck spreading, spraying and combine harvesting through which he buys local wheat and barley to on sell to local dairy farmers.

The closing of a vegetable processing plant in the state prompted the family to diversify and invest in canola oil. The canola is cold pressed and sold in cubes or bottled for retail sales. 

“The oil business is ticking along nicely.  We’re providing chickens with canola meal and the cold pressed canola oil is going mostly to the Japanese catering market, as they prefer the GM-free status. We go through about 120 tonnes of seed a year and produce roughly 50,000 litres of oil.”

Michael is a very passionate farmer and is using NDVI images to improve and even up crop yields with variable rate spreader applications and is verifying the results using yield data.

Michael is an invited international presenter at LandWISE 2018

Michael’s attendance at LandWISE 2018 was supported by AGMARDT

Agronomy, Nutrients, Soil

Practically managing soil N using quick tests

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Republished:
2014 Conference presentation by Matt Norris and Paul Johnstone
The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited

Norris NTestStripNitrogen fertiliser is used extensively to maximise productivity across a range of vegetable, arable and forage crops in New Zealand. Matching crop N demand with supply from residual soil mineral N, N mineralisation from organic matter and fertiliser N is central to economic and environmental outcomes in these sectors.

To improve nitrogen use efficiency, effective tools and approaches are required to help guide nutrient management decisions. One potential method is the ‘quick test’ soil nitrate (NO3-N) approach. This in-field approach uses a ‘test strip’ impregnated with a NO3-N sensitive alert zone which, with a simple colorimetric scale, may be used to measure soil solution NO3-N concentrations. Measured NO3-N concentrations can then be compared with critical threshold limits that have been established for a number of crops.

The quick test strips have already been used for a number of years overseas to support growers in making N fertiliser decisions. Depending on NO3-N levels at sampling, a test strip reading may indicate the need for fertiliser to be applied, withheld for a period or eliminated entirely. The test can therefore provide more certainty in decision making. In addition to being cost effective and simple to use, the quick test approach provides the user with rapid information thus enabling decisions to be made at short notice.

In 2013–14, Plant & Food Research undertook a series of proof-of-concept trials to examine the ‘quick test’ soil nitrate (NO3-N) approach under NZ conditions. The aim of the work was to:

  1. substantiate the relationship between test strip nitrate values and laboratory-determined mineral N (the ‘gold standard’) and
  2. assess the suggested quick test critical thresholds for making N fertiliser decisions in beetroot and carrot crops.

Results from this preliminary work were encouraging. Follow on trials will test further the suitability of the strip in making field-scale N fertiliser decisions.

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Agronomy, AgTech, Automation, Conference, Drainage, LandWISE People, MicroFarm, Nutrients, Precision Agriculture, Projects, Sensing, Soil

LandWISE 2017: Are we ready for automation?

In 2017 our 15th Annual Conference focuses on automated tools for data collection, decision making and doing actual tasks on the farm (and beyond).

  • What do you want?
  • What’s on offer?
  • How will farms and management have to change?

We have a comprehensive programme. We’ve gone a bit outside the box to bring a variety including from outside the horticultural and arable sectors. We find cross-pollination and hybrid vigour valuable!

So register, come along and listen to excellent presenters, discuss the ideas with colleagues and go away with new understanding and plans.

Thanks to Our Loyal Platinum Sponsors!
Many thanks to AGMARDT, sponsors of our international presenter, Thibault Delcroix, France

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council, John Deere and BASF Crop Protection are our Platinum Sponsors again in 2017. Many thanks to these loyal supporters who have backed the Conference for a number of years.

We also welcome our Gold Sponsors, meal sponsors and  trade displays new and old. These are the organisations that make conferences like this possible and affordable.

Join them and us at the Havelock North Function Centre on 24-25 May 2017 to mix with leading practitioners, farmers, growers, researchers, technology developers and providers.

Register now – click here!

 

Agronomy, AgTech, Conference, Nutrients, Precision Agriculture, Research, Soil

Variable Rate N Fertiliser – the Value Proposition

Adrian Hunt is a crop scientist at Plant and Food Research.

He recently completed a PhD at the University of Tasmania, investigating Pre-Harvest and Post-Harvest factor effects on the quality of onion bulbs exported to Europe for counter seasonal supply.  He now works across the vegetable and arable sectors to improve yield, profitability and environmental outcomes.

Together with colleagues Joanna Sharp, Paul Johnstone and Bruce Searle, Adrian has been investigating the value proposition for variable rate fertiliser application.

The technology to deliver variable rate fertiliser in an automated manner has advanced substantially in recent years. This has been aided by new or adapted spreading technologies coupled with location awareness using GPS (Global Positioning System). It is now technically possible to distribute fertilisers in a wide range of spatial patterns within a paddock, however the value proposition of variable rate fertiliser application is not thoroughly understood.

The Plant and Food team looked at the difference in productivity, profitability and potential environmental impact of a range of spatial management scales.

Based on a sampling grid of 105 points in a Hawke’s Bay paddock and used mineral N and a N mineralisation assay to quantify the underlying variability in N processes/cycling within the paddock they “grew” both irrigated and unirrigated maize in the crop simulation model APSIM Next Generation for the 105 sampling locations for 35 growing seasons, using long term weather data.

Adrian will present this work and the results at the LandWISE 2017 Conference in Havelock North.

AgTech, Drainage, Nutrients, Projects, Soil, Water

Drainage and Erosion Planning

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The Arawhata Catchment Integrated Storm Water Management project is drawing to a close, the majority of work is done but farm follow-ups continue. The aim of the project was to reduce crop loss from ponding and minimise erosion of soil to Lake Horowhenua. 

We completed OptiSurface drainage analyses for 26 Levin properties covering 450ha of intensive vegetable cropping. OptiSurface calculates flood patterns and erosion risk and creates cut & fill maps for GPS levelling. An example is shown in our earlier post “Mapping for Drainage”.

Drainage and Erosion Management Plans were developed for each block. The plans identify drainage problem areas and erosion risks and recommend management strategies to respond.

Individual farms have done significant work to prevent erosion and reduce crop damage. Farmer actions to reduce sediment runoff and ponding include realigning bed direction, levelling, grassed headlands and drains and swales and sediment traps.

Stages in headland redevelopment

Original design used narrow headlands subject to pugging in wet weather with high risk of slumping soil into vegetation-free drains
Headland lowered to ensure adequate drainage from furrows. Vegetation being encouraged to protect drain from sediment inflows
Land-shaping created a much wider headland for a greater vegetation buffer between cultivated land and drains
Completed headland with its well-established vegetated buffer filtering sediment from drainage water

Now farms are required to have consent in this catchment, the Drainage and Erosion Management Plans are a useful component of the overall Farm Nutrient Management Plans required.

AgTech, Nutrients, Precision Agriculture, Projects, Research, Soil

Fertiliser Spreader Calibration

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We successfully completed our SFF project “On-farm Fertiliser Spreader Calibration” and launched the online tool, www.fertspread.nz earlier this year.

Some key messages:

  • Our testing found wide performance variation
  • Most new machines do a good job if set up correctly
  • Caution is essential spreading blended fertilisers or when bout widths exceed 30 m
  • Visible striping indicates > 40% application variability and at least a 20% yield penalty.
  • Fertiliser ballistics play a critical role
Setting out a line of catch trays to test fertiliser application uniformity
Driving over a line of catch trays

We ran a number of workshops from Waikato to Ashburton reaching a wide range of farmers and industry people. Information, training handouts and how-to YouTube video clips are on the LandWISE website. See www.fertspread.nz for the on-line calculator and field recording sheets.

We are grateful for strong support from Miles Grafton and Ian Yule at Massey University.

This project was co-funded by the Foundation for Arable Research (FAR), the Fertiliser Association (FertResearch) and MPI Sustainable Farming Fund.

More at www.landwise.org.nz/projects/fert-calibration