Discussion

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

If you are into CTF, you will know your paddock has two distinctly different soil conditions – loose and friable for growing crops, and hard and compacted for driving on. You will also realise that each area requires different management. A successful CTF system is more than just getting the wheels in the right place. To a large extent, your ... READ MORE

LandWISE, FAR and the Sustainable Farming Fund, invite you to attend the following events: Monday 16 November 2009 FAR and LandWISE Precision Agriculture and Advanced Farming Systems Field Day Canterbury (2.00pm – 4.30pm) Location: Courtesy John Evans, Tregynon, 1723 Mainwarings Road, RD11, Dorie near Rakaia, Canterbury. Sign posted from Dorie ... READ MORE

If PA adoption was a hurdle race, the gun went off a few years ago and the first hurdle was guidance. Guidance was successfully developed, quickly followed by auto-steer. We can pretty much say that all entrants cleared the first two hurdles. The third hurdle was yield mapping, and here we saw the first crash out because the software was very ... READ MORE