John Evans (Canterbury Farmer, Strip-tiller, LandWISE Chair)
Allister Holmes, (Technology R&D Manager, FAR)
Charles (Merf) Merfield (BHU, Independent Cover Crops and Tillage Researcher)
If you’re interested to hear the panel members’ individual podcasts, plus one from Simon Lochhead, Strip-till farmer in Canterbury, follow these links:
Allister Holmes is the Technology Research & Extension Manager for FAR and has many years’ experience trialling new farming practices and cultivars and sharing that knowledge with arable farmers all over the country.
Allister joins the podcast to discuss cover cropping, and follows on from the general principles we heard from Charles Merfield earlier in the series.
Allister emphasizes that mixed species cover crops can reduce the risk of poor establishment and growth if environmental conditions are unpredictable. He also discusses the types of machinery making it easier and more cost effective to sow cover crops – either during the cash crop’s growth or immediately after harvest.
Find resources about cover cropping on FAR’s website.
The Live Panel Discussion with the Managing Herbicide Resistance guests was held on Tuesday 28th July after our presenters featured on the LandWISE Podcast. Guests included:
Associate Professor Kerry Harrington (Massey University)
Chris Buddenhagen (AgResearch)
Martin Espig (AgResearch)
Robyn Dynes (AgResearch)
John Evans & Kai Tegels (Arable Farmers)
The recording starts with the panel members introducing themselves, along with a quick synopsis of their topic content.
If you’re interested to hear the episodes from Kerry Harrington & Hossein Ghanizadeh, Chris Buddenhagen, Martin Espig & Robyn Dynes, and John Evans & Kai Tegels, you can listen to their individual podcast episodes here:
Our latest podcast episode is here. This July we’re focussing on Managing Herbicide Resistance – we’ll keep you posted with new episodes, and the panel discussion with our July guests coming soon.
Associate Professor Kerry Harrington and Dr. Hossein Ghanizadeh join us to talk about their work developing a quick test to identify herbicide resistance in weeds.
Associate Professor Kerry Harrington (left) has been lecturing and conducting research in Weed Science at Massey University since 1983, and research officer Dr Hossein Ghanizadeh (right) has been working on herbicide resistance at Massey since 2011.
Herbicide resistance occurs following the build-up of individual weeds that have an inherited ability to survive the application of herbicides that would kill normal plants of that species, such as fathen plants that have developed resistance to atrazine then later also dicamba in Waikato maize crops.
This differs from herbicide tolerance, where all individuals of a species have always survived a herbicide, such as white clover poorly controlled by glyphosate. Some herbicide resistance is target-site resistance, where the site in the plant where a herbicide normally acts has changed so that it is no longer affected by the herbicide.
Other types of resistance are non-target site, so-called because there hasn’t been a change at the site of action, but instead some other mechanism stops the herbicide getting to that site of action. This might be caused by reduced penetration into the weed, or perhaps reduced movement of the herbicide once inside the plant, as can occur with glyphosate resistance in ryegrass.
Resistant ryegrass in Marlborough vineyard
A quick test would enable faster identification of herbicide resistance allowing for faster response to a growing issue. However, Kerry stresses preventing resistance is the first defence, and has developed a series of guidelines for farmers and growers around rotating herbicides and varying herbicide groups for different growing scenarios.
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 pleased to announce the release of our Nutrient Budgeting Templates. Designed to support vegetable growers to budget fertiliser use according to good management practice guidelines the A4 pdf templates rely on nutrient recommendations from Reid & Morton (2019). Crop yield predictions and soil fertility testing are used to determine the optimum rate of Nitrogen and Phosphorus to apply, based on the best trial data NZ has for 12 different vegetable crops.
The LandWISE Nutrient Budget Templates bring together this resource along with FAR’s Nitrate Quick Test Mass Balance tool which allows growers to enter soil nitrate levels using the Nitrate Quick Test. This test can provide growers with soil nitrate levels in less than an hour for about $1. FAR’s tool reliably converts nitrate concentrations (ppm) into kg N/ha.
Nutrient budgets are becoming a necessary process to document the movement of nutrients on and off-farm, and justify fertiliser applications. Nutrient budgets can be used to develop a fertiliser plan, where each paddock or management unit has a clear strategy to maintain, build or mine soil nutrient levels.
The Nutrient Budget Templates have been developed as part of Future Proofing Vegetable Production, a three-year project funded by MPI’s Sustainable Farming Fund, Ballance, Horizons, Gisborne District Council, and Potatoes NZ.
We are keen to hear from those using the templates so please get in touch if you have any questions or feedback.
We had a good turn out at our Nitrate Quick Test and Alternative Application Technology Demonstrations in Gisborne on 4th February. Many thanks to Calvin Gedye and family for hosting the event.
Intended for Growers, Agronomists, and Fertiliser Reps, it was a chance to show and see some new technologies and talk about trials we are running in Gisborne and Levin. Attendees saw demonstrations of:
Alternative fertiliser application equipment: Y-Drops and Stream Bars
TeeJet fertiliser nozzle on left, Stream Bar on right
Managing plant available nitrogen in soil is critical to ensuring crop yield and quality targets are met, and the risk of losses is minimised. However Nitrate-N, the main source of N available to plants is highly variable spatially and over time. Regular soil testing can help growers make better decisions about fertiliser use. Quick-N tests are affordable, easy to use and can give results in less than half an hour.
Why liquid fertilisers? In order to sidedress N more frequently and match crop demand closely, application needs to be efficient, even and easy. Liquid fertiliser application technology is progressing, and many attachments are now available to fit spray booms, in a variety of different spread patterns. Specialised nozzles do not mist, but apply large droplets that run off leaves and minimise risk of burning.
The dropper systems apply liquid direct to the soil alongside the plants, where root activity is greatest.
Dropper systems apply liquid fertiliser direct to the soil. We are trying various types for different applications such as potatoes or sweetcorn
We began the day with Luke discussing soil sampling strategies to make sure samples are representative. This involves taking at least ten samples, more from large areas, and ensuring samples taken fairly represent the variation across the vegetable bed and across the whole block or paddock.
Luke leads discussion about soil sampling methods to get good results
Georgia presented the Quick Nitrate Test method and the kit that is avaiable to growers. We use the test frequently in our trials and to guide nitrogen fertiliser use at the MicroFarm. We find the shaking of soil in the test-tube is important if reliable results are to be obtained. You must allow the extract solution to access all the soil to release the nitrate.
Georgia presents the Quick Nitrate Test
Woodhaven agronomist, Karen talked about their experiences using the Quick N-Test. They paired the quick test with standard lab testing while they learned how results are affected by soil variations and soil moisture levels. They don’t take the exact quick test result numbers, but use them to guide adjustments to their fertiliser application rates.
We demonstrated three alternative methods for applying liquid fertilisers; TeeJet, Stream Bar and home made Y-Drops. We think liquid fertiliser can offer significant benefits by enabling easier splitting and more accurate applications and reducing the risk of leaching while helping maintain excellent crop nutrition.
Droppers split near ground level and apply streams of liquid fertiliser to the soil beside row crop plants. This type of application is an alternative to banding dry fertilisers
The Y-Drop system is suited to row crops such as corn, broccoli or other brassicas. It drags soft hoses along the plant rows applying a stream to either one or both sides, close to the plant where uptake is most efficient.
TeeJet nozzles (left) and Stream Bar (right) apply streams of coarse droplets that tend to run of plants and avoid risk of burning foliage. These are alternatives to broadcasting dry fertiliser
The TeeJet and Stream Bar systems replace standard spray nozzles, given a curtain of droplets along the boom. The TeeJet has diverging streams so application spacing can vary if the boom rises or falls. The Stream Bar tends to maintain a more uniform application. These systems are alternatives for crops such as baby leaf, baby beetroot and lettuces where dry fertilisers would be broadcast.
This field day was part of our Future Proofing Vegetable Production project and was held with support of Woodhaven Gardens, Pescini Bros and Vegetables New Zealand along with our major Project Sponsors.
The “Strip-Till and Cover Crops Panel” Panel Discussion was recorded in September following a series of earlier podcasts. Panellists included:
