Category Archives: Orcharding

Agronomy, AgTech, Conference, Data Analytics, Fertiliser, Innovation, New Crops, Nutrients, Orchard, Orcharding, Plant Health, Precision Agriculture, Projects, Research, Robotics, Sensing, Soil, Vegetables, viticulture, Water, Weeds

LandWISE 2021: Working Smarter

May 23, 2021 LandWISE Admin Leave a comment

Havelock North, 19-20 May 2021

Thanks to everyone who made LandWISE 21 such a successful Conference!

We were a touch nervous after Covid-cancelling last year, but so heartened when our sponsors jumped on-board, and delgetaes began registering earlier than usual. Perhaps there was a vacuum . . .

The speakers’ presentations are summarised in a series of blog posts, many with a short sound clip. The time put in to create the presentations is clearly huge, it is a very large gift each one makes. Thanks each and every one of you!

Topics covered:

Best Practice and Beyond
Future Proofing Vegetable Production
Carbon and Water
Smart Technologies for Permanent Crops
Herbicide Resistance Management
Agritech in NZ and Hawke’s Bay

Jump to the Conference Page for links to presentations

Agronomy, Conference, Cover crops, Fertiliser, MicroFarm, Nutrients, Orcharding, Plant Health, Research, Soil, Tillage, Vegetables, Water

Growing Soil Carbon – Phil Schofield

May 16, 2021 LandWISE Admin

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, Data Analytics, Fruit, Innovation, Orcharding, Precision Agriculture, Sensing, viticulture

Unlocking the Value in Maps – Matt Flowerday

May 16, 2021 LandWISE Admin

Matt Flowerday has been involved in farming and horticulture his whole life.

Matt started using GPS to map farms and orchards in 1998. In 2001 he set up GPS-it to carryout GPS mapping, with a focus on kiwifruit.

From beginnings in a small office on a kiwifruit orchard, with just one staff member and a GPS unit, the business has evolved significantly. GPS-it is now an established aerial farm mapping and software development company, providing high-quality customised geospatial solutions to our clients, using ESRI technology.

At the LandWISE 21 Conference, Matt will show how Landkind, an interactive platform that lets orchards and packhouses unlock the value of their maps, improves productivity and profitability by allowing users to create, manage, and interact with orchard data effortlessly.

Thanks to all our sponsors!

AgTech, Conference, Fruit, Innovation, Orcharding, Vegetables

New Zealand’s Place in the Agritech World – Nick Fitzpatrick

May 16, 2021 LandWISE Admin

Nick Fitzpatrick has spent the last 20 years in Primary Industries, primarily Fresh Fruit and Vegetable sector including 15 years with T&G Global’s International division, including establishing their Latin America business with offices in Peru and Chile, and in Asian market expansion.

More recently Nick worked for California based Science and Innovation start up company – Apeel Sciences, introducing plant based science and technology solutions to post harvest operators globally.

Now consulting to the Agriculture industry, including Callaghan Innovation, Nick is passionate about helping companies to embrace Innovation and Sustainability across their business.

With this background and his current role as Project Lead – Agritech Commercialisation at Callaghan Innovation working within the Agritech ITP, Nick was well placed to inform LandWISE 21 delegates about New Zealand’s place in a big world increasingly focused on agritech development.

Nick introduced the NZ Agritech Industry Transformation Plan and its aims:

using comparative advantage to grow Agritech as a high value export sector
Lifting primary sector productivity & sustainability, and enabling companies to move from volume to value
Contributing to global environmental and sustainability
challenges, and helping feed the world & reduce emissions

Callaghan Innovatoin is developing and early adopter network. THe aims are

Ensuring companies are solving the right problems
Increased collaboration between Industry, Agritech companies and government + Research partners
Better understanding of the ‘size of the prize’, both in NZ and Offshore.
Better prepared Agritech companies when showcasing/trialing products or going to market.

Nick explained the size of LATAM opportunities while contrasting the nature of agriculture and horticulture in Chile and Peru. Chile has good infrastructure, an educated population, and a qualified
technical workforce in the Fruit industry. Their key products are Cherries, Grapes, Pipfruit, Berries, Citrus and Avocados.

Peru is emerging as regional superpower. It has a different agriculture structure to Chile which has thousands of small farms and hundreads of packers and exprters. Peru has a number of very large farms. The key products are Berries, Grapes, Avocados, Citrus, Mangos, and Vegetables.

In summary:
Chile and Peru in particular are ripe for introduction of new, cost efficient, technology as the fruit sector transforms from being heavily dependant on human labour to embracing automation and
innovation. Chileans and Peruvians are eager to engage and open to new tech in Agriculture.

Listen to a Summary Sound Clip here:

AgTech, Innovation, Orchard, Orcharding

PicMi – a digital platform connecting horticultural work with workers

December 18, 2020 LandWISE Admin

In this episode, Georgia talks with talking to Genevieve Griffin-George, founder of PicMi, a digital platform connecting horticultural work with workers.

Genevieve found herself running the family orchard and trying to locate people for her seasonal workforce. Here she discusses the problems she encountered, and her path to finding a solution and creating a business to make the process of engaging with growers and workers and meeting the many aspects of compliance.

PICMI

Podcast here

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

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

July 2, 2020 LandWISE Admin

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!

Nutrients, Orchard, Orcharding, Soil, Uncategorized, viticulture, Weeds

Sustainable Vineyard/Orchard Floor Management – FFC Bulletin

November 5, 2019 LandWISE Admin Leave a comment

The 4th version of the 2019 Future Farming Centre Bulletin is now available, and can be found here. The latest report by Charles Merfield focuses on sustainable vineyard floor management, which is described as the key space where sustainability issues in perennial cropping are all intertwined.

The booklet addresses the opportunities for a sustainable vineyard floor to:

Replacing herbicide strips / bare undervine soil for weed management / crop competition with a living mulch of growing plants;
Replace synthetic nitrogen fertilisers through legumes;
Improve soil health and minimise erosion
Sequester atmospheric carbon;
Increase biodiversity and;
Conservation biocontrol of vineyard pests & diseases.

“…many of the sustainability issues facing viticulture, and, indeed all perennial crops, e.g., pipfruit, stone fruit, nuts, vines, bush / cane fruit, come together in a nexus around management of the vineyard / orchard floor as all the issues are all interlinked / intertwined and meet on the vineyard floor. ” (Merfield, 2019).

The Future Farming Centre Bulletin is a free extension newsletter sent out quarterly, see past issues or find out more here and subscribe here.

Referenced

Merfield, C. N. (2019). Vineyard floor management: A sustainability nexus with a focus on undervine weeding. Report number 04-2019. The BHU Future Farming Centre, Lincoln, New Zealand. 51.

http://www.bhu.org.nz/future-farming-centre/ffc/information/bulletin/2018-v4/vineyard-floor-management-a-sustainability-nexus-2019-merfield-ffc.pdf

Conference, New Crops, Orcharding, Planting, Research

LandWISE 2019: Development of a Banana Industry for Tairāwhiti

May 15, 2019 LandWISE Admin

Jane Mullaney is a scientist working in the Food and Nutrition group at AgResearch Palmerston North. Jane is also affiliated with the Riddet Institute for food innovation and is a microbiologist with her PhD in Food Technology.

Jane and colleagues have partnered with Tai Pukenga Ltd to develop a commercial banana industry for the Tairāwhiti/East Coast region.

A bunch of bananas grown at Anaura Bay, north of Tolaga Bay on the East Coast. — Bananas grown at Anaura Bay, north of Tolaga Bay on the East Coast. [Image (C) stuff]

Bananas are economically important fruit crops grown in tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world and are currently cultivated in over 130 countries, on over 5.5 million hectares with a global production of about 145 million tons (FAOSTAT, 2017).

Bananas serve as a principle source of carbohydrates for millions of people worldwide while in New Zealand, we spend more on bananas than any other fruit, and eat about 18kg of them every year, or roughly two bananas a week.

There are hundreds of different cultivars which differ mainly by the amounts of starch and sugars produced in their fruits however, the only bananas imported to New Zealand are the Cavendish variety. While subtropical, bananas can be grown almost anywhere.

By using tissue culture methods, AgResearch have developed and shared this knowledge with Tai Pukenga to enable the rapid expansion of a banana industry for the East Coast region.

Through DNA sequencing, AgResearch aims to identify cultivars and this information will help inform along with trial farms, which cultivar might be best suited for future commercial work.

Jane and colleagues aim to use tissue culture to produce many banana plants for trialling across the region, to identify which cultivars we already have growing in the region using DNA sequencing and to assess the nutritional benefits of the NZ produced fruit. This project is funded through the Vision Mātauranga Connect Fund.

Want to know more?

REGISTER HERE FOR LandWISE 2019!

AgTech, Drainage, Orcharding, Plant Health, Precision Agriculture, Projects, Research, Soil

Smart tools to improve orchard drainage

June 17, 2018 Dan Bloomer

Inadequate orchard drainage, highlighted during the 2017 autumn harvest period, is an extreme expression of a common problem that can occur anytime of the year. Muddy conditions increase disease, increase labour costs and hazards and increase storage fruit rots. Despite numerous attempts to rectify puddles and mud, the problem remains.

LandWISE has joined with New Zealand Apples and Pears Inc in a project which has gained support from the MPI Sustainable Farming Fund. Over the next three years, this project will draw on experience from other sectors and access to new precision agriculture technologies to address the problem through precision surface drainage, particularly in established orchards where it is especially difficult.

Orchard inspections have shown infrastructural factors are limiting surface drainage on at least 25% of the inspected orchard blocks. The microtopography in orchards creates ponding areas that stay wetter for longer. When sprayers and other traffic pass through, the surface is damage and soil smeared. This further reduces natural drainage and the problem spreads.

This project will adapt and pilot use of precision technologies to survey, design and implement surface drainage plans that minimise ponding risk and reduce these negative impacts. These will be supported by guidelines for wheel track management to provide a secure base for harvest traffic. This will become even more critical as the industry automation with picking platforms and robotic harvesters.

As well as designing effective drainage, we will determine the degree of compaction on orchard blocks and assess root development under the permanent wheel tracks. We will develop ways to restore a good working surface in the inter-row that has strength to carry traffic without unduly compromising root development.

For more information, contact Rachel Kilmister Rachel Kilmister Rachel at applesandpears.nz or Dan Bloomer at LandWISE.org.nz

Agronomy, AgTech, Automation, Conference, Data Analytics, Drainage, events, LandWISE People, MicroFarm, Nutrients, Orcharding, Plant Health, Precision Agriculture, Projects, Research, Robotics, Sensing, Soil, viticulture, Weeds

LandWISE 2018 Conference Speakers

May 2, 2018 Dan Bloomer

We are absolutely delighted at the calibre of speakers coming together for LandWISE 2018 – Technologies for Timely Actions. They have a wide range of backgrounds, work in a range of different sectors looking at a wide range of different things.

We’ve put information about the speakers on our discussion (blog) posts. Here, they are presented as a list with links so you can follow as you please.

We are grateful for the support of AGMARDT, McCain Foods and Heinz-Watties for helping bring our international speakers to New Zealand.