On Thursday 19 November a LandWISE field day started at 10am at NZ Fresh Cuts at Mangere, South Auckland.
Chris Butler described the adoption of a permanent bed system in their salad growing operation.

GPS use and Controlled Traffic Farming have evolved there, to the point where fuel savings of about 50% are being gained over conventional practices. A reduction in the number of cultivation operations has been made possible and this has the benefit of allowing more crops per season on this property.

The next challenge is in optimizing Nitrogen fertiliser efficiency, which will enhance their profitability dramatically.

The use of NDVI sensing will be explored as part of the LandWISE project at this site. This will be with the support of Agri Optics from Canterbury.

Lunchtime Presentations on the Advanced Farming Systems and Holding It Together projects were given by James Powrie- LandWISE and Paul Johnstone- Plant and Food Research at the Franklin Centre in Pukekohe.

In the afternoon about 20 visitors saw the AS Wilcox and Son permanent bed trial in Pukekawa. Wilcox’s are trialling controlled traffic and permanent beds in a 3 year trial in potatoes, onion and oats. They aim to gain in soil quality, efficiency and a reduction in harvest cost by reducing compaction. They also talked about their journey in adopting and now expanding the use of GPS in their cropping operation.

Thanks to Plant and Food Research, AS Wilcox and Sons and NZ Fresh Cuts.
For further information: Call James on 06 6504531 or 0272 757757, email james@landwise.org.nz or see www.landwise.org.nz for updates.