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!
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.
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!
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
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!)
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.
This week we hear from Dr Johanna Steyaert, Trichoderma research scientist and molecular biologist and Max Purnell, Trichoderma practitioner and dairy farmer. Johanna and Max will talk about their work with Trichoderma a type of fungi that lives in symbiosis with plant roots, where they can increase nitrogen use efficiency and solubilise phosphate as well as protect against root diseases.
“Spray-free” is an oft cited aspiration as the shift towards regenerative practices continues. An important part of such a strategy is the use of bioinoculants such as Trichoderma in place of traditional chemicals. However, it is not quite as simple as that. Beneficial microbes form part of a large interconnected web, a biological and chemical ‘superhighway’. Understanding those relationships is the foundation for understanding how to better optimise growth promotion and biocontrol.
Dr Johanna Steyaert is a senior scientist at Lincoln Agritech Ltd with 20 years’ experience working with Trichoderma bioinoculants used for disease control and growth promotion. Her research spans understanding the genetics of Trichoderma fungi to optimising production of biocontrol agents in collaboration with commercial partners. After completing her PhD, Johanna won a prestigious Marsden Fund grant from the New Zealand Royal Society. She led a highly original project studying the effect of the Earth’s electromagnetic field on fungal reproduction. Johanna has a strong interest in regenerative practices and the role Trichoderma play.
Max Purnell, was a member of the AGMARDT board for 10 years where his interest in soils and background in farming lead him to become interested in the work of Dr. Robert Hill who pioneered Trichoderma research in New Zealand. Max runs an 80 ha dairy farm in Thames, and takes a soils-first approach to farming. He has experimented with several strains of Trichoderma on the farm, and has supported research to collect Trichoderma fungi and observe their benefits to the farm system.
Thanks to our LandWISE Conference sponsors who continued their support by helping with the podcasts series after our May 2020 conference was Covid Cancelled.
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.
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!
Unable to gather for our popular annual conference in May, but not wanting to you to miss hearing new ideas about sustainable production, we joined the virtual conference crowd.
We are pleased to present “LandWISE: Promoting Sustainable Crop Production” a podcast that will bring the insights of lead researchers, technologists, and farmers to listeners from all over the Ag and Hort industry. Each month has a theme with guests joining on the last Friday of the month as a discussion panel.
This month we’re presenting “Reducing Nitrogen Losses from Intensive Vegetable Cropping” starting with our first guest Jay Clarke, Director of Woodhaven Gardens.
Woodhaven was named the Regional Supreme Winner at the Horizons Ballance Farm Environment Awards in April 2020. We are looking forward to hearing how Jay and the Clarke family have transformed Woodhaven’s growing practices to achieve this outstanding recognition.
JUNE: Reducing Nitrogen Losses from Intensive Vegetable Cropping
On the last Friday of the month – look out for our live Panel Discussion where we bring together all of the guests from the show and ask them your questions.
WE HOPE TO BRING IT TO YOU IN A DIFFERENT FORMAT. WE ARE ACTIVELY EXPLORING OPTIONS AND OPPORTUNITIES
The COVID19 beat LandWISE 2020. We were looking forward to an interesting two days filled with presentations from lead researchers and growers, networking, and practical demonstrations focussed on the theme of “Back to the Future”. But that cannot happen.
We regret this, but fully support the government’s initiatives and a fully complying at work, home and play. All registration fees have been refunded. We are working with our loyal sponsors to find ways to bring you the ustainable cropping messages we had lined up.
LandWISE staff are still working, so contact us by email or phone.
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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