Category Archives: Precision Agriculture

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

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.

Invited Overseas Speakers

Dan Drost – Utah State University, USA

Will Bignell – DroneAg, Tasmania

Michael Nichols – Redbank Farming, Tasmania

Sarah Pethybridge – Cornell University, USA

Invited Local Speakers

Dan Bloomer – LandWISE

Tim Herman – NZ Apples and Pears

Wade Riley – GPS Control Systems

Mark Bart – Metris

Dan Clark – Eagle Technologies

Bruce Searle – Plant & Food Research

Matt Norris – Plant & Food Research

Aldrin Rivas – Lincoln AgriTech

Taylor Welsh – Plant & Food

Matthew Warner and Nicholas Woon – Acuris Systems

Matty Blomfield – Hectre

Armin Werner – Lincoln AgriTech

Shane Wood – Vinea

 

 

Agronomy, AgTech, Automation, LandWISE People, MicroFarm, Precision Agriculture, Projects, Research

LandWISE OnionsNZ Project on TV

We invite you to watch telly. Here’s a link to Rural Delivery, broadcast on Saturday 21 April.

At the end of January, we had a visit from director Kirsty Cooper and camera and sound operator Richard Williams of Showdown Productions.

Why did they come?

They were filming for Rural Delivery and wanted to discuss the Onions New Zealand MPI Sustainable Farming Fund project we have been doing with Plant & Food Research. Now drawing to a close, the three year project has investigated ways to map crop variability at field scale and where variability originates.

The story began four years ago when we had a crop of onions at the MicroFarm. To get a good look at the crop LandWISE Manager, Dan Bloomer climbed up the irrigator.

“The view when you get 7m up in the air and look down is very different to what you see walking around, and I saw massive variability throughout the crop,” he said.

Wide variation within the area new to onions does not follow artificial rain or topographic drainage patterns.

“I could understand some of it but a lot more I couldn’t explain. A colleague was playing around with imaging and smart phones and he made an application where we could drive up and down the rows and map the percentage canopy cover.  I talked about it with  Onions NZ Research Manager Jane Adams who thought it would be quite useful and could lead to greater understanding of variability in onion crops.”

We then partnered with Plant and Food Research with support from Onions New Zealand and the Sustainable Farming Fund to do a project aimed at studying that variability.

Bruce Searle, crop scientist with Plant & Food Research, designed a research approach to get the data we needed to make some practical applications. 

“We wanted to figure out where the variability comes from and how much of it is something that a grower can control.  So we looked at the different factors that might influence variability and worked through the contribution of each to the overall variability,” he says.

“A lot of it comes down to individual plants growing at different rates – something that the grower can’t do a lot about.  However, factors that influence getting good crop establishment are critical to reducing variability, and once the crop is up you can look at poor performing areas within in the crop.   The tool that Dan has been working on captures that information so that you can map the field and make some decisions.”

Bruce showing Richard the Quick Test for Soil Nitrate

We have done items with Showdown Productions before and have enormous respect for their work. You can see the result of the onion interviews on Rural Delivery, TVNZ1.

 

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!

 

Agronomy, AgTech, Conference, Drainage, Precision Agriculture

Will Bignell

Will “DroneAg” Bignell is a farmer and agricultural scientist who has worked across a number of disciplines ranging from a PhD in enhancing omega-3 in sheep meat to flying drones commercially.

Will is a 7th generation farmer from Bothwell in Tasmania and the family farm is well known for pioneering and innovating a number of new and emerging Australian industries. He runs the farm with his parents and produce wool, poppies, lamb, venison and number of boutique specialty root vegetables. 240Ha of the farm is under irrigation and 150ha is under an intensive cropping rotation.

In his LandWISE 2018 presentation Will presented his own farm case study of precision drainage including the use of UAVs to collect terrain data, the tools used to design and implement drainage plans and the results following a heavy rainfall event.

DroneAg is the combination of  Will and Kyle Gardner who combine a unique mix of skills that places DroneAg in a very strong position to push the boundaries of just what drones can do for farm businesses.

Will’s attendance at LandWISE 2018 was supported by AGMARDT

 

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.

 

Agronomy, AgTech, Conference, Irrigation, LandWISE People, MicroFarm, Precision Agriculture, Projects, Research, Sensing, Soil, Water

Dan Bloomer

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Dan Bloomer is the Manager of LandWISE having been instrumental in our formation and evolution since 1999. He and partner Phillipa established the Centre for Land and Water in Hastings and host the LandWISE MicroFarm.

The 2018 conference sees the wrapping up of three years of Onions NZ research in partnership with Plant & Food, much of the activity being undertaken at the MicroFarm. LandWISE has captured numerous paddock scale images of the onions crops using satellites, UAVs, sensors and smartphones. This has given insights into which tools have strengths for what purposes at what crop growth stages.

Using algorithms proposed by Plant & Food, LandWISE developed the on-line tool SmartFarm which allows smartphone captured crop development data to identify different management action zones and give guidance to the degree of variability.

Dan is particularly interested in soil and water issues, how we can continue to benefit from farming while maintaining or enhancing profitability and environmental health.

Dan has developed many resources for irrigators to check their systems. He spent many years on the Board of Irrigation New Zealand, developed Codes of Practice for Performance Assessment and has run many training programmes.

In recent years his attention has been drawn to precision drainage technologies, and he uses OptiSurface to understand and quantify ponding and erosion risk in paddocks and to design solutions for surface drainage. 

Dan actively scouts people,  technologies and problems, identifying opportunities to bring them together to effect change on farm. As such, he has initiated LandWISE’s research and extension programmes including some new initiatives to be launched at LandWISE 2018.

Dan represents LandWISE on the Precision Agriculture Association of New Zealand Executive Committee and is a frequent presenter at conferences and seminars.

When not working for LandWISE, Dan is an independent consultant at Page Bloomer Associates.

 

Agronomy, AgTech, Automation, Conference, Data Analytics, LandWISE People, Precision Agriculture, Research, Robotics, Sensing, viticulture

Armin Werner

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Armin Werner has a background in crop production sciences and as director of an Institute on Land Use Systems at ZALF in Germany worked on enabling new technologies for sustainable development.

Since 2013 Armin has headed the Precision Agriculture Science group at Lincoln Agritech (LAL), a subsidiary of Lincoln University in New Zealand. This covers Precision Farming (arable crops, pastures), Precision Livestock Farming, Precision Horticulture, Precision Spraying as well as Agricultural (Outdoor) Robotics.

Armin’s work has led him to create strong linkages and collaboration projects between various scientific disciplines and sectors including academic institutions, researchers and farmers.

Current projects  include trans-disciplinary and technology-based research in NZ for various high-value crops; e.g. on fruitlet counting and sizing for apple crop load management. He manages also the Robotic Spearhead project of the National Science Challenge ‘Science for Technological Innovations’ that develops new knowledge for small, highly adaptable and flexible robots.

At LandWISE 2018 Armin will update delegates on the “Precision Grape Yield Analyser”, a research project on vineyard sensing and yield forecasting that Lincoln Agritech is undertaking.

Armin says,

“The ‘Precision Grape Yield Analyser’ is an ongoing interdisciplinary MBIE-project, supported by NZ Wine Growers and several vineyards. Grapevine yields can vary between seasons by a factor of 2 and New Zealand grape growers are keen to avoid unplanned high yields. To assess the expected yield on the block level very early in the season we develop sensing tools and computer models. AI-based sensor fusion combines data from optical and microwave ‘scanners’ and feed the results into a continuously learning, predictive computer model.

Listen to Armin and discuss his work with him and others at LandWISE 2018 in Havelock North on 23-24 May.

Conference, LandWISE People, Plant Health, Precision Agriculture, Research, Sensing

Taylor Welsh

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Taylor Welsh works at Plant & Food Research as part of it’s Biosecurity Research Group. Taylor’s work includes bee and pollination based research in Entomology and Embedded Systems .

Taylor is currently working towards a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering based at the University of Canterbury where he previously completed his BSc in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Taylor and colleagues from Plant & Food Research and the University of California have developed a way to automate insect trap checking. They measure the wingbeat of an insect as it enters a monitoring (pheromone) trap and are building a library of data for relevant insects for the Asia Pacific region. The technology will hopefully reduce the need to manually check the thousands of traps used for biosecurity.

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

 

 

AgTech, Conference, Data Analytics, LandWISE People, Precision Agriculture

Shane Wood

A LandWISE 2018 invited speaker, Shane Wood’s topic is “Information from grapevine to desk for timely decision making”. He will explain how apps and cloud systems can replace bits of paper and get information where it is needed in the most timely fashion.

Shane has always been passionate about harnessing the power of data to produce powerful information for better business insights.  For over 25 years his company, Information Power, has delivered software solutions for Healthcare, Education and Emergency Management sectors.

Information Power launched Vinea five years ago to provide growers in the Viticulture and Horticulture industry with software that dramatically simplifies the collection and management of data associated with resources (labour, equipment and consumables), crop measurements (qualitative and quantitative) and environment. In the last year processed over 3 million transactions through the Vinea Cloud saving growers time, eliminating paper and delivering new insights.

Aside from being a statistician and data scientist, Shane is also passionate about Argentine Tango and is preparing for LandWISE 2018 by spending two weeks dancing in Buenos Aires.

 

Agronomy, AgTech, Conference, LandWISE People, Plant Health, Precision Agriculture, Research, Sensing

Sarah Pethybridge

Assistant Prof Sarah Pethybridge‘s career spans from Tasmania, through Plant & Food Research in New Zealand to Cornell University in New York. She has a focus on vegetable disease management, and a goal to provide reliable information to vegetable growers and industry stakeholders to encourage adoption of durable management strategies and tactics.

A LandWISE keynote presenter, she described leading techniques and technologies to help optimise control tools and reduce the frequency of false positive or negative decisions.

Sarah told us, “We are now in the second year of our project with the center for imaging science at Rochester Institute of Technology looking at hyperspectral data to detect flowering in snap bean to optimize timing of fungicides, and using canopy density as a risk factor. We are also expanding this work into beets to detect and differentiate abiotic and biotic stress. In the digital agriculture arena, we recently released three apps on disease detection, quantification, and spatial analysis of epidemics using pixelated data.”

Sarah’s travel to New Zealand is supported by Cornell University,  McCain Foods, Heinz-Wattie and AGMARDT

 

              

Many thanks to AGMARDT, sponsors of our international presenters