Discussion

From Grower Magazine November 2009 Precision Agriculture, or ‘information rich farming’, is a rapidly increasing part of New Zealand crop production.   Precision Agriculture is allowing growers to be more efficient with inputs and lift their profitability while making their farming more sustainable. Sustainable profitability is why many ... READ MORE

On Monday 16 November 2009, a field walk was held in conjunction with FAR, at John and Jack Evan’s farm in Dorie. This is an Advanced Farming Systems Project farm and includes a strip tillage trial. James Powrie and Dan Bloomer spoke about the LandWISE Advanced Farming Systems project, what the various farmers are achieving with Precision Ag ... READ MORE

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 ... READ MORE

On Tuesday 24 November 2009 an Advanced Farming Systems and Holding It Together Project update was given by James Powrie- LandWISE and Paul Johnstone- Plant and Food Research. The update was held at Levin RSA following on from a HIT project team meeting. In the afternoon this was followed by a field walk to Woodhaven Gardens where Antonia Glaria ... READ MORE

On 1 December about 20 visitors walked the paddocks at Opou Station, Manutuke, near Gisborne. This field walk was courtesy of David Clark and gave local farmers and industry people a chance to view his Precision Agriculture program in maize. 8 seasons of controlled traffic have benefited soil structure, biology and profitability at this site ... READ MORE

On 3 December 2009 FAR held their Combinable Crops Field Day at their arable trial site in Chertsey in Canterbury. 420 attended and saw presentations on technology, cropping, water and Precision Ag. Speakers included Carolyn Hedley from Landcare Research on Precision Irrigation, Ian Yule from NZ Centre for Precision Ag, along with FAR presenters ... READ MORE

On 4 December FAR and LandWISE hosted a field walk at the farm of Craige and Ros Mackenzie in Methven. Jim Wilson spoke on Precision Ag and Crop sensors and the application of this technology in his native Scotland. The session was a general exploration of what Craige has been doing with PA. A demonstration was given of the Weedseeker sensor. ... READ MORE

On 8 December FAR and LandWISE co-hosted a Precision Agriculture and Advanced Farming Systems session at the Centre for Land and Water. Jim Wilson from Soil Essentials in the UK, gave a presentation on crop sensors and variable rate management to a group of 28 farmers and industry representatives. Case IH sponsored lunch for the group at the ... READ MORE

Jim Wilson is a farmer and also runs Soil Essentials, which is a Precision Ag and agronomy consulting company in Scotland. He came to NZ this month to speak at FAR Combinable Crops day and has been hosted by FAR and LandWISE to speak at numerous field walks and events while here. The FAR Combinable Crops day is an annual event, and is a great ... READ MORE

By Dr Craig Ross, Landcare Research, Palmerston North These are my observations on re-contouring sand dunes to improve crop and irrigation management on the sand dune country of the Dalrymples’ Waitatapia Station, Bulls. Hew and Roger Dalrymple have recently started levelling low sand dunes for farm improvement. Paddocks in sand dune country ... READ MORE