Project Wrap-up and Trial ResultsCome and see how land shaping rows can be used to minimise rutting in your orchard.
Gisborne, 9th June 2:00 – 4:00pm
Illawarra Orchard, 635 Awapuni Road.
Hastings, 10th June, 1:00 – 2:30pm.
Bostock Red Barn Orchard, 247 Lawn Rd.
Riwaka,14th June,1:00 – 2:30pm
T&G Riwaka Site, 657 Main Rd, Riwaka
**Covered shoes, HiVis, No agrichemicals at Red Barn please**
RSVP info@landwise.org.nz or by text to Luke 022 479 6805
Thanks to everyone who made LandWISE 21 such a successful Conference!
Topics covered:
Jump to the Conference Page for links to presentations
Tim Neale is Managing Director at Datafarming, where he leads a team of spatial data experts, agronomy consultants, software developers and field technicians are closely aligned to agronomists and the agriculture industry in Australia and New Zealand.
Based in Toowoomba, Queensland, Tim is well known to many LandWISE members. He was ICT Entrepreneur of the Year 2019, and Australian Rural Consultant of the Year 2018.
Tim will describe the various tools in development and available via the DataFarming Platform. He proudly describes DataFarming as Australia’s most popular precision ag software, a claim he can well justify. 15 years in the making, DataFarming continues to develop web mapping applications for Digital Agronomy and Agri-Intelligence. Their aspirational aim is to have 50% of agronomists using spatial data. DataFarming is also developing tools for machine learning using spatial data to deliver deep insights into ag production.
See www.datafarming.com.au
Aaron is a Stanford University graduate with both a technical and agricultural background. Aaron has prior experience in running his own company as well as being involved with several start-up opportunities and VC firms in Silicon Valley.
Aaron moved to New Zealand in 2016 where he co-founded an AgriTech company specializing in smart irrigation control. At the end of 2020 he joined CropX, a global AgAnalytics company whose vision is to revolutionize and automate the farm and the decision-making process.
At LandWISE 2021, using case studies of growers from around the world, Aaron illustrated examples of the myriad of tools and technologies growers have at their disposal, and how CropX helps connect the dots between these data layers to make management decisions with tangible outcomes.
Listen to a Summary Sound Clip here:
David Manktelow founded Applied Research and Technologies, providing contract and independent research work in horticultural plant protection, pathology and spray application technology.
A life-long innovator, he constantly seeks technologies that do tasks better. Whether simple strips of water sensitive paper or a fast laser scanner, he finds ways to help growers constantly improve practices.
At LandWISE 2021, David described the Green Atlas system of automatic counting and mapping of flowers and fruit in orchards. Together with Fruition Horticulture’s Jack Hughes, David has trialled the Green Atlas system in Hawke’s Bay and displayed the equipment at the field event.
Green Atlas Cartographer is a combination of hardware and software that allows flower and fruit counts to be quickly and accurately mapped over entire orchards. An unprecedented level of detail allows crop management to be tailored to every tree.
Listen to a Summary Sound Clip here:
Matty Blomfield grew up in a small town in New Zealand. He took a chance and moved to Japan at 17, and later New York to broaden his view of the world. When he asked growers and packhouses what their biggest problem was they answered, “How do I know what fruit I have to store/pack/sell?”
Committed to reducing the amount of fruit wasted globally, by giving growers the platform to capture data, analyse their orchard in ways they’ve never done before, and improve the consistency of high quality, safe fruit, Matty co-founded Hectre to provide an orchard management software tool. Their super quick and simple fruit sizing app, Spectre, is an example of the innovation they’re bringing to the fruit industry.
Spectre uses computer vision AI technology to detect fruit size and colour, all from the simple click of an iPad or iPhone. Sample sizes captured by Spectre are 100 times those obtained in traditional sizing practices and accuracy levels are extremely high at 95%+. Results are served up within seconds making Spectre the simplest, fastest and most accurate, portable computer vision fruit sizing tool available on the market.
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!
Dan Bloomer is an aging part-time PhD student at Massey University. Passionate about farming and technology, he’s been an irrigation consultant, kiwifruit orchardist, lecturer, and land management advisor. He is currently Principal of Page Bloomer Associates, member of the AgritechNZ Executive Council, and importantly, Manager of LandWISE Inc.
At LandWISE 21, Dan will describe some alternative non-herbicide weed management technologies, and give consideration to the amount of energy they may require.
The amount of energy required typically ranges from 2 to 2,000 Litres of diesel per hectare. With a desire for sustainable practices and low energy consumption in food production, Dan’s current focus is using very targeted, high voltage but low energy techiques to effect control of arable weeds, including braodleaves and ryegrass in cereal crops.
Dan’s weeding research is part of an MBIE AgResearch project “Managing Herbicide Resistant Weeds”, with Dan’s role being assessing non-chemical techologies including hot water/hot foam, compressed-air abrasion and electric weeding.
Hamish Penny started the electric weeding company Weda Tech in 2019. He has a passion for solving problems with technology.
Hamish was introduced to agritech in his final year engineering project which focused building an electric weeding device.
Since then, Hamish has completed a Master’s in Engineering and worked on several projects including Weda Tech, which aims to commercialise the unique equipment he has developed to provide weed control options for farmers.
Electric weeding is the destruction of weeds with high-voltage electricity. Differentiating it from other non-chemical weed control techniques, electricity allows a systemic kill of a whole plant, low energy usage, minimal soil disturbance, operation in wet soil conditions, and can control weeds in close proximity to crops – even when touching.
Weda Tech was founded to harness the inherent benefits of electrical weed control and use a precision approach to develop novel equipment that can control the widest variety of weeds in the widest range of environmental conditions. The focus has been to build highly flexible pulse generation equipment and powerful measurement techniques to allow understanding of the way weeds respond to specific treatments.
There are some obvious synergies between electric weeding and image-based weed recognition and robotics, that could be combined to maximise the capabilities of electrical weed management.
There are a few start-up companies around the world developing and commercialising electric weeding equipment, including Rootwave (who have recently been collaborating with the Small Robot Company), Crop.Zone and others. Weda Tech is focused on thinking about the problem differently and through an understanding of the optimal dosage for a specific weed in specific conditions, is creating solutions that solve the most significant problems faced by farmers.
A strip weeding device is currently under development, with a 10-20cm wide electrode that could control a strip next to a crop or, be combined in parallel to control any width of paddock.
The current research device will also be developed into a site-specific weeder that can control low weed densities, with a robotic or human arm guiding to the target weed.
Plans for future development remain open and feedback is welcome.
Listen to a Summary Sound Clip here:
Thanks to our Conference Sponsors
David France has extensive practical business experience in the primary sector and international food marketing. He owns a vineyard in Hawke’s Bay and is involved in a number of private businesses.
David has a passion for wanting to drive productivity and sustainability in the primary sector by supporting and growing the ecosystem with a focus on Technology, Talent, Innovation and Investment.
David chairs of the Hi-Tech Hawkes Bay Group which was set up to support the tech sector and includes number of Agritech businesses throughout the region. He has been involved in regional sector and cluster development.
He has a great overview of what is happening in Agritech and other tech industries in Hawke’s Bay and the key technologies driving the sectors, topics he will discuss at LandWISE 21.
