Category Archives: Orcharding

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

LandWISE 2018 Conference Sponsors

We are delighted to present our 2018 Platinum Sponsors, BASF Crop Protection, Hawke’s Bay Regional Council and Power Farming.

BASF Crop Protection and  Hawke’s Bay Regional Council are long term loyal supporters of LandWISE and their contributions are highly valued. Power Farming is a new Platinum Sponsor in 2018 and we look forward to our relationship with them. AGMARDT sponsored our international speakers.

 Hawke’s Bay Regional Council has been part of LandWISE since 1999, when some farmers, scientists and industry people got together to try and improve soil quality, stop wind erosion and improve irrigation efficiency and of course yields. Our Mission doesn’t change so much, but the tools to help us along the way certainly have!

BASF Crop Protection has been a foundation sponsor of the LandWISE MicroFarm as well as our annual conferences.  They show ongoing enthusiasm to help us help farmers and that is greatly appreciated.

Our new Platinum Sponsor is Power Farming. We’ve had help from them in several of our projects, most recently with the Canterbury field work and field events that were part of our FAR/SFF Fertiliser Spreader Calibration project.  The Power Farming catalogue matches well with our conference delegates’ and members’ interests.

We are grateful to our long-term Gold Sponsors, Horizons Regional Council, Process Vegetables NZ and Vegetables NZ, and AGMARDT.

Horizons Regional Council has supported our conference field sessions for a number of years and is a key partner for some of our major research and extension projects including “Integrated Storm Water Management” and “Holding it Together“.

AGMARDT has funded travel expenses to bring many international speakers to our Annual Conferences, as well as several projects including “Soils First Farmers” and “Validating Field Robotics“.

Process Vegetables NZ and Vegetables NZ have been conference sponsors for many years. As the levy funded industry research bodies they represent the farmers in our membership and nationally. These bodies also co-fund research projects including a number of our Sustainable Farming Fund initiatives.

Our conference delegates are well supported by our meal sponsors and trade displays. In addition, Apatu Farms sponsor high school students to attend, and McCain Foods and Heinz-Wattie’s are sponsoring keynote Sarah Pethybridge‘s travel.  Thanks everyone!

 

AgTech, Conference, Drainage, LandWISE People, Orcharding, Precision Agriculture, Projects, Research, Soil

Tim Herman

Tim Herman is Technical Manager – Crop Production at New Zealand Apples & Pears Inc. which he joined in 2013.

His role includes managing the R&D portfolio for the industry and ensuring the outcomes from it are integrated into commercial crop management programmes.

Tim has a strong track record as a technical researcher and advisor in crown research and in industry. LandWISE first worked with Tim to understand slug migration patterns in no-till and strip-till cropping paddocks.

In his LandWISE 2018 presentation, Tim will introduce  “Smart tools to improve orchard drainage“.  This is a new MPI Sustainable Farming Fund project, in which LandWISE is partnering with NZAPI to investigate high precision drainage in existing orchards.

Severe wheel ruts are common especially in wetter seasons. The immediate problem of tractor access for bin shifting is compounded by poor conditions for pickers and the less obvious impact of fruit rots increase. In more severe cases the ruts greatly increase picking costs as the use of mobile hydraulic picking ladders is made difficult, unsafe or impossible. In some cases, harvest costs are reported to have doubled. 

Despite numerous attempts to rectify puddles and mud, the problem remains. The 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.