Category Archives: Uncategorized

Agronomy, AgTech, Automation, Uncategorized, Weeds, Workshop

Non-Herbicide Weed Management

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Dr Charles ‘Merf’ Merfield is running an updated version of his non-chemical weed management workshop. Merf is an international researcher on non-chemical weed management. He has 30 years practical and research experience in non-chemical weed management including inventing a range of weeding machinery.

Topics covered include: the context of weed management; essential weed biology and ecology; integrated weed management; plus detailed coverage of field operations and machinery. It will also cover the significant advances in electrothermal weeders that are a substitute for glyphosate, as well as robotic weeding which has been advancing at incredible speed.

The workshop will be at the Agrodome in Rotorua on Tuesday 26 July, from 9am to 5pm. Cost is NZ$450.00 excl. GST.

For more information including how to register, please click here>.

 

Agronomy, Conference, Research, Uncategorized, Weeds

Herbicide Resistance – Trevor James

Trevor James is a senior scientist with AgResearch and has been involved in researching weed management for more than 46 years. His work has covered weeds in pastoral, arable, horticultural and environmental situations.

Specific research areas include Herbicide resistance, soil weed seed bank and seed ecology, herbicide residues and persistence, border biosecurity and new incursions.

Trevor is a keen photographer of plants and with colleagues has published books on identification of weeds and their seeds.

At LandWISE 21 Conference, Trevor will report on progress being made in the MBIE funded project “Managing Herbicide Resistance”.  The goal is improved weed control and vegetation management to minimise future herbicide resistance.

Herbicide resistance occurs due to genetic mutation – in this case, when mutations help the plant to survive an application of herbicide to which they were once susceptible. “Target Site” resistance is related to a single gene, which alters the biding site so the herbicide no longer works. “Non-target site” resistance involves many genes, and alters the path to the binding site so the herbicide doesn’t reach it, metabolises (destroys) the herbicide or increases the number of binding sites.

Many thanks to our Sponsors!

Agronomy, AgTech, Automation, Conference, Controlled Traffic Systems, Cover crops, Drainage, Fertiliser, Innovation, Irrigation, Membership, MicroFarm, New Crops, Nutrients, Orchard, Plant Health, Precision Agriculture, Research, Soil, Uncategorized, Vegetables, Water, Weeds

Less $$ than a flat white a fortnight

A message to our members and friends

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!

Not a Member? JOIN HERE!

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
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!)

LandWISE People, Uncategorized

Farewell to our Coordinator

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As some of you may know, this week is Georgia’s final week with LandWISE as Project Coordinator. Since November of 2018, Georgia has been LandWISE’s project and extension coordinator – organising everything from field days, workshops and our conference, as well as writing and presenting technical resources on soils and nutrient management. Georgia recently took on the role of podcast host since our annual conference was disrupted by Covid-19, and has recorded some great interviews with a variety of lead researchers, technologists and farmers. Aside from resources and events, Georgia has also collected data from our on-farm trials – spending time in Gisborne and Levin doing Nitrate Quick Tests, and yield sampling.

Georgia is leaving us to work for LandVision in Whanganui, a land management consulting firm, and will enjoy working with farmers to enhance their land management and farm systems.

From Georgia:

“I am extremely grateful for my time at LandWISE, I have thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to meet and engage with all of our farmer members, and wider community. It’s been a great introduction to the Horticultural and Arable industry, and has given me a huge deal of respect for its growers and farmers. I have learnt so much and gained some fantastic experiences – from talking visual soil assessments with growers, to harvesting potato trials, and driving tractors around orchards the work has been varied and challenging (in a good way) from day one. I will miss the wonderful team here at LandWISE, and plan to stay in touch.”

Agronomy, Conference, events, Research, Uncategorized, Weeds

Managing Herbicide Resistance – Panel Discussion

LandWISE: Promoting Sustainable Crop Production
LandWISE: Promoting Sustainable Crop Production
Managing Herbicide Resistance - Panel Discussion
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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:

All Podcast Episodes here >

Subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest news from LandWISE including future panel webcasts, and podcast episodes.

Agronomy, Conference, events, LandWISE People, Membership, MicroFarm, Nutrients, Projects, Uncategorized, Vegetables

LandWISE AGM – Tuesday 21st July

Our 2020 Annual General Meeting was held on Tuesday 21st of July at the Green Shed in Hastings. After missing the annual conference catch-up, we were grateful to reconnect with existing members and meet some new ones!

We thank Ollie Knowles for his input as a Board member over the last three years. Ollie played a significant role in the review of our strategy and was a solid contributor with great knowledge of science extension. We look forward to continuing our relationship with Ollie.

We welcome Simon White to the Board following his appointment at the AGM. Simon runs the family’s Ludlow Farm at Otane in Hawke’s Bay. He is an experienced strip-tiller and no-tiller producing a range of arable, specialist seed and vegetable crops along with finishing beef and lamb. Simon is also co-founder and director of Kanapu Hemp Foods, growing, harvesting, processing and marketing a range of products.

AGM attendees heard LandWISE project updates from the past twelve months, and contributed to some great discussion around nutrient management and cover cropping.

Merf explaining cover crops and catch crops at the LandWISE AGM
Merf explaining cover crops and catch crops at the LandWISE AGM

This year we were joined by guest speaker, and longtime LandWISE member, Charles “Merf” Merfield. Merf presented on cover crops, their benefits and challenges for a variety of horticultural and arable systems. In case you missed it, you can view his presentation here.

LandWISE Staff presented on progress updates from our three major projects Future Proofing Vegetable Production, Smart Tools for Orchard Drainage, and Managing Herbicide Resistance:

Thank you again to all those that came, we look forward to seeing more of you at a field day, workshop, or on-farm sometime soon!

Conference, events, Projects, Research, Uncategorized, Weeds

Podcast: Identifying Instances of Resistance

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.

Identifying Instances of Resistance

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.

Listen here >

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.

These guidelines can be found here at the Plant Protection Society‘s website:

Herbicide Resistance Principles

Herbicide Modes of Action

Cases of Herbicide Resistance in New Zealand

Listen to Podcast Episodes online here ->

JULY: Managing Herbicide Resistance

Episode
Podcast
Release Date
6 Identifying Instances of Herbicide Resistances (Kerry Harrington & Hossein Ghanizadeh, Massey University) 3rd July 2020
7 Surveying Herbicide Resistance (Chris Buddenhagen, AgResearch) 10th July 2020
8 Drivers of Herbicide Use (Martin Espig & Robyn Dynes, AgResearch) 24th July 2020
9 The Herbicide Tool Box & On-Farm Biodiversity (John Evans & Kai Tegels, Tregynon Farms) 24th July 2020
10 LIVE PANEL DISCUSSION

Register here

 Tuesday 28th July

1:00pm
 
Agronomy, AgTech, Automation, Conference, Controlled Traffic Systems, Data Analytics, Drainage, events, Fertiliser, Innovation, Irrigation, LandWISE 2015, LandWISE People, Membership, MicroFarm, New Crops, Nutrients, Orchard, Orcharding, Plant Health, Planting, Precision Agriculture, Projects, Research, Robotics, Sensing, Soil, Tillage, Uncategorized, Vegetables, viticulture, Water, Weeds

Memberships Open for 2020-2021

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!

Sign up here >

Agronomy, Conference, events, Fertiliser, Nutrients, Soil, Uncategorized, Vegetables

Reducing Nitrogen Losses from Intensive Vegetable Production – Panel Discussion

LandWISE: Promoting Sustainable Crop Production
LandWISE: Promoting Sustainable Crop Production
Reducing Nitrogen Losses from Intensive Vegetable Production - Panel Discussion
/

Thank you to those who joined us for the Live Panel Discussion with June’s podcast guests. We were thrilled to get so many participants in our first live webcast, and appreciated the rich conversation as a result of the varied viewpoints from panel presenters and listeners.

For those of you who weren’t able to make it to the Live Panel on Reducing Nitrogen Losses from Intensive Vegetable Production we recorded the discussion and you can listen to it above.

The Panel Discussion was presented on June 30th, after our presenters each featured on the LandWISE Podcast. If you’re interested to hear more from Jay Clarke, Luke Posthuma, Georgia O’Brien or Charles (Merf) Merfield, you can listen to their podcast episodes here:

All Podcast Episodes here >

Subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest news from LandWISE including future panel webcasts, and podcast episodes.

Uncategorized

LandWISE AGM – Tuesday 21st July

We are pleased to announce that our Annual General Meeting will be held on Tuesday 21st of July at 1:00pm at the Green Shed (21 Ruahapia Road, Hastings). Our AGM is an opportunity for members to come together and hear what LandWISE has been working on for the past twelve months.

This year we will be joined by guest speaker, and longtime LandWISE member, Charles “Merf” Merfield. Merf will present on cover crops, their benefits and challenges for a variety of horticultural and arable systems.

LandWISE Staff will also present on progress updates from our three major projects Future Proofing Vegetable Production, Smart Tools for Orchard Drainage, and Managing Herbicide Resistance:

  • Dan Bloomer on Non-Herbicide Weed Control
  • Georgia O’Brien on Nutrient Budget Templates for Vegetable Growers
  • Luke Posthuma on Findings from Vegetable Trials

All members welcome to come and contribute, non-members also welcome to listen into presentations.


 

We look forward to seeing you there!