Our 2026 LandWISE Conference Opening Speaker, James Hunter, is a farmer with a surprising number of decades under his belt.

Rangitoto Station, farmed by Hunters since 1854, is named a local the Pa site that dates to some of the earliest times of NZ occupation. These attachments, mixed with time working for the Rural Bank in the 1980’s when government schemes (namely the Land Development Encouragement Loan) focused on clearing bush and wetlands – now described as biodiversity, and travel through South and Central America seeing first hand some of Natures wonders struggle with so-called progress reinforced for James that the little things that we have around us must be part of our future. He set out to lift farm performance while protecting all remnant native bush/scrub areas, creating wetlands and improving the quality of water leaving Rangitoto.

Time on QEII and NZ Farm Environment Trust boards strengthened the ethos that farming and looking after things natural are rewarding companions. James is currently questioning whether the “regenerative farming” description fully accounts for so much on Rangitoto Station “that is a buzz”. 

Photo from RNZ – see the full article

“http://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/570243/disaster-waiting-to-happen-fears-carbon-farming-increases-risk-of-wild-fire.

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Dr. Charlie White is a faculty member at Penn State University, specializing in soil nutrient behavior and management.

He has taught various courses, including Soil Nutrient Behavior and Management, Internship, Independent Studies, Thesis Research, and Supervised Experience in College Teaching.

His research focuses on sustainable agricultural systems, biogeochemical cycles, and nutrient management to promote productive and efficient nutrient use in cropping systems.

In this presentation, Charlie will share some of the key insights into managing cover crops for nutrient management and soil health that he has learned through twenty years of research, much of it conducted in partnership with farmers in the temperate, humid climate of the Mid-Atlantic USA.

These lessons include the importance of measuring and managing cover crop and soil organic matter carbon, nitrogen, and C:N ratios to balance nitrogen retention and supply; that a little bit of grass in a cover crop mixture goes a long way to reducing N leaching; and that a cover crop mixture with balanced species proportions will be the most multifunctional, but achieving evenness in the biomass is easier said than done.

Finally, Charlie will return to his roots in reflecting on the importance of mycorrhizal fungi to the phosphorus nutrition of crops, and why P stratification in no-till system may not be as much of a problem as we think because of these symbiotic organisms.

Session Synopsis

Growing multiple vegetable crops across a farming operation the size of Harvest Moon requires constant decision-making, careful timing and a deep understanding of what crops need at every stage of growth. In this session, Josh will walk through how Harvest Moon manages nutrient applications across more than a dozen crops using a combination of field experience, soil and sap testing, and modern data tools.

He will explain how the team schedules and calculates nutrient inputs throughout the season, how they identify inefficiencies in the system, and how these insights feed into broader Integrated Pest Management strategies. By continually measuring and refining what happens in the field, Harvest Moon is able to reduce risk, improve crop health and optimise yield.

The session offers practical, real-world insights for growers looking to sharpen their nutrient strategies, improve efficiency and get more value from the data already available in their farming systems.

We were delighted to host Vicky Bloomer from Drop Consulting to present the Irrigation New Zealand Performance Assessor training course at the Centre for Land and Water this week. And what a wet week it was, so we thank them for breaking the drought in this part of the country.

The course participants were out and about visiting Drumpeel Farms to assess a centre pivot, our neighbours YummyFruit to assess drip/micro system and an Oderings nursery to look at a solid set system. At the LandWISE MicroFarm, they assessed the linear move irrigator. LandWISE Project manager Olivia Webster is one of the course participants

The performance assessment course is based on the Irrigation New Zealand Piped Irrigation System Performance Assessment Code of Practice, initially developed by Dan Bloomer at Page Bloomer Associates. The concept of irrigation performance assessment was strongly promoted by Hugh Ritchie following his Nuffield scholar experiences in the USA and he was a key player in obtaining funding support to write the New Zealand codes in the first place.

The MicroFarm Linear

The LandWISE linear machine was donated by Hugh and Sharon Ritchie. It was converted to a low energy precision application system (LEPA) by WaterForce who have been excellent with anything water related we need. The machine began life as a 460m multi-span linear at Drumpeel, and when it was due for replacement, Hugh collected the best bits and rebuilt it to fit the LandWISE MicroFarm. In its early days, it was repeatedly measured as a test case while the Code of Practice was developed! It was also used in other SFF projects assessing impacts of application intensity of soil surface redistribution and consequent soil moisture uniformity.

Quinn Elstone at WaterForce deigned the LEPA system specifically for the MicroFarm layout, centring the outlets above each 2m bed. We run two parallel header pipes along the linear span, and we can split the sprinklers between them. We can use the sprinklers as rotators doing a wide overlapping ~12m spread to maximise uniformity and minimise application intensity. Or we can run them as sprays with a 5m spread, keeping application tighter to our 12m plots. A third option is changing the nozzles to tighter 2m splash plates that water each bed individually. Or we can turn individual nozzles off.

Images of irrigator showing 12m spread rotators on left, 2m splash plates in centre and 5m sprays at right

Why LEPA?

It gives us tremendous flexibility.

In the LEPA system the nozzles are very close to the ground, so we see very little effect in windier conditions. And because we generally run the irrigation during the day to take advantage of our solar electricity system for pumping, there is often a bit more breeze than at night. We haven’t converted the machine from diesel yet – that is on a long list!

We can tailor irrigation to treatments.

In our Carbon Positive trial, we’re running 6 beds per treatment plot, and sometimes we want to do different things to different treatments. When the nozzles are running as sprays, there is very little overpal of treatments.

The WaterForce LEPA system lets us turn one treatment plot off and irrigate the other two, or irrigate only one plot. We can run nutrient solution in one header and fresh water in the other and fertigate some plots and not others, even though we have three different treatments under the irrigator at any time. For us, the Drumpeel/WaterForce machine has been life changing because without flexible high-quality irrigation, our trial work is severely impacted.

We are tremendously grateful to the Ritchies for the generous donation, and to WaterForce for their supply and installation of the components. It is this kind of community support that characterises LandWISE and has allowed it to be a success.

Lessons for the management of highly productive land

Two years after Cyclone Gabrielle devastated the Hawke’s Bay and Tairawhiti regions, what have we learned about recovery?

Cyclone Gabrielle struck New Zealand in February 2023, causing widespread flooding that affected Hawke’s Bay, Gisborne/Tairawhiti, and Northland. In Hawke’s Bay and Tairawhiti, Cyclone Gabrielle was characterised by the enormous amount of sediment that was deposited on some of the county’s most highly productive land.

It was an extraordinarily difficult year characterised not by a single catastrophic event but by cumulative impacts from severe storms and several additional weather events including Cyclone Hale in January, Cyclone Gabrielle and Son of Gabrielle in February, and others that followed particularly in the Wairoa and Tairawhiti areas.

In November 2025, we co-hosted with FAR and Vegetable Research and Innovation, a symposium for researchers to share and compare findings from studies of Cyclone Gabrielle and recovery. Around 60 people gathered in Havelock North for two days. Thank you to all the organisations that sponsored the symposium, allowing it to be run with no fees for the participants.

A great deal of semi-coordinated activity followed in the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle. However, there was much incomplete work that would add value by helping enrich our understanding of the longer-term effects of different management responses in different scenarios. The symposium brought together those who investigated Cyclone Gabrielle’s impacts on highly productive land. They presented and discussed findings and observations to draw out lessons to aid land managers and policy makers in future events.

Among the questions were:

1. What are the lessons to pass on to those impacted by future events?
2. What are the lessons for policy makers?
3. What are the economic outcomes from different approaches?
4. How have sites responded to different management of cropping soils, given different sediment types and depths?
5. How have sites responded to the removal of sediment and any subsequent soil amelioration efforts?
6. Have permanent crops responded differently to different approaches applied in similar scenarios?
7. Are all soils recovering quickly? Will they return to previous productivity levels?

Twenty presentations covered historic storm events of note, the weather conditions before and during the cyclone, geological influences, immediate responses, food safety, and longer-term trials seeking to understand how best to return high value land to best production. We thank all the presenters for telling their stories, and all delegates for their contributions to the discussion.

At the end of the symposium, Dirk Wallace led a feedback session in which all delegates responded to a set of questions:

1. What elements aided recovery and what lessons can inform policy and sector planning?
2. What surprises and challenges emerged during recovery?
3. What key takeaways should guide future preparedness?
4. What information is still missing?

Across questions, several themes consistently emerged.

• Communication and collaboration were identified as critically important.
• Data and research surfaced as both a strength and a challenge.
• Infrastructure and preparedness were recurring concerns.
• On the technical front, soil and crop recovery exceeded expectations, with yields rebounding faster than anticipated.
• Finally, human and social dimensions were central to recovery success. Mental health support, patience, and direct communication with experienced peers were repeatedly stressed.

Participants agreed on several priority actions:

1. Establish a central information hub with regional portals to provide consistent, accessible guidance and data.
2. Commission targeted research on rainfall patterns, soil microbiology, contamination risks, and crop-specific recovery timelines, delivered in decision-ready formats.
3. Strengthen pre-event coordination through drills, contact lists, and local decision-making authority, alongside investment in backup infrastructure.
4. Embed human-first supports, including mental health services, peer advisory panels, and tailored financial relief for vulnerable growers.
5. Integrate disaster risk reduction and nature-based solutions (e.g., wetlands, “room for rivers”) into long-term land-use planning.

The symposium captured invaluable knowledge that will help communities and policymakers prepare for and respond to future events. Visit the Cyclone Gabrielle Research Symposium page to access all presentations, with videos coming soon.

Thanks everyone! Sally Anderson, Dirk Wallace and Dan Bloomer – Symposium Convenors

In November, we co-hosted a research symposium with Vegetable Research and Innovation and the Foundation for Arable Research. The symposium brought together those who had investigated Cyclone Gabrielle’s impacts on highly productive land to present and discuss findings and observations, and draw out lessons to aid land managers and policy makers in future events.

A great deal of semi-coordinated activity followed in the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle. However, there was much incomplete work that would add value by helping enrich our understanding of the longer-term effects of different management responses in different scenarios.

The symposium brought together researchers, advisors, farmers/growers and others involved in observing the impacts on productive land and the effects of different responses in the cases of Cyclone Gabrielle and previous similar events. More than 20 presentations covered historic events, the broader climate context of Cyclone Gabrielle, a range of land use types and many areas of research.

The convenors (Sally Anderson, Dirk Wallace and Dan Bloomer) are now in the process of collating the proceedings and preparing to load material on the conference web page. We’ll do posts as items are loaded with abstracts, summaries and presentation videos. From the outset, the response to the calamity that was Cyclone Gabrielle has been one of high support and collegiality from many, many quarters. The symposium was our attempt to get the best from all the work that was done and find the lessons for those impacted by future events.

We are most grateful for the support and enthusiastic involvement of all the presenters and delegates and the organisations that funded the event.

It is an annual competition that involves classifying different soil profiles through understanding and interpreting geology, landforms, and morphology of the soil and its surrounding landscape. Soil descriptions can then be used to determine best land use. I have competed in Marlborough, Darwin, Rotorua, and most recently Armidale, NSW. Soil judging has taught me the importance of how landscape influences soil capability, and has given me skills, learning, and connections that cannot be gained inside a classroom. Soil judging has introduced me to a community of passionate individuals who all appreciate soil as a valuable and vulnerable resource that needs to be looked after.

From my internship at LandWISE I look forward to meeting new people and learning more about horticultural systems unique to this beautiful region! What excites me about the Carbon Positive project is its comparison of different cropping systems from both an environmental and financial lens. The intersection between environmental and financial sustainability was a key idea that initially sparked my passion to pursue a career in agricultural science.

So far, I have been involved in weekly data collection to monitor soil moisture and canopy development, alongside fortnightly soil sampling to undertake nitrate quick testing across the plots. I have completed one round of soil infiltration rate testing using disc permeameters. The permeameters measure the rate at which water infiltrates the soil under different water tensions, which gives an indication into soil hydraulic conductivity and pore size distribution. This can indicate how soil structure and compaction vary between treatments.

Getting to Carbon Positive

Wednesday 21 – Thursday 22 May
Havelock North Function Centre

In 2025 we’re delighted to bring you a conference with focuses on regenerative crop production, carbon footprinting, and electrification. We’ll have new technologies to think about and see, we have speakers with proven track records, and we’re looking forward to catching up with old friends and new.

Do we know the footprint of our activities? How do international markets assess them and what will we need to report? We are proud to present Associate Professor Dr Pii-Tuulia Nikula to open the managing our footprints conversation. We’ve done the numbers on our Carbon Positive cropping treatments, and we’ve others talking about what they are doing to address their footprints too.

If we are going to get to Carbon Zero (or better) we need to think about both inputs and outputs from our systems. Can we soak up more than we lose? Which inputs have the greatest impact?

We will report on progress and lessons from another year of our regenerative cropping research and present some new tools for growers to assess nitrate levels and soil stability. We’ll have examples for viewing at the Horizons Regional Council Field Session. Others will update us about new technologies for pest and disease control and reintroducing insects to cyclone impacted orchards and discuss the use of bio-strips and insectaries to encourage beneficial insects.

We’ll need energy, of course, but how much can we generate on-site? Is electrification realistic now? Where to in the short to medium term? We are delighted to have Mike Casey of the Electric Cherry Orchard and CEO of Rewiring Aotearoa opening the discussion on electrification and alternative energy case studies. We’ll have electric vehicles for perusal.

Thanks to our Sponsors!

We look forward to seeing many of you again in 2025.

LandWISE 2025 Getting to Carbon Positive

Doing what we can to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions is not about meeting regulations, it is about meeting the expectations of our markets and others in our supply chains (and ourselves and the planet!). Most large companies must report on their own emissions and those of their suppliers and clients. We are part of their emissions profiles, and they want us to do our part.

What is it all about? What emissions are we talking about? Who is implementing changes to lower their impact? How do we start?

At LandWISE 2025: Getting to Carbon Positive, you’ll get these answers and more. You’ll hear and see examples, and hear that people are reaping benefits, because it isn’t all about adding costs, it can save money. And in another session, you’ll hear how it can even provide an alternative income stream.

The Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol applies the measurement of emissions across three scopes. These are Scope 1, which includes the direct emissions from sources that the organisation owns or controls, such as fuel use for farm-owned vehicles, natural gas used for heating buildings and greenhouses, fertilizer use, leaks in refrigeration and cooling processes, as well as emissions from soil management. Scope 2 includes indirect emissions from purchased energy. Scope 3 includes all other indirect emissions in the organisation’s value chain, such as emissions from freight/transportation of products, business travel, waste, and emissions from purchased goods and services.

Pii-Tuulia Nikula (PhD)

Greenhouse Gas Accounting: Scopes Solutions Target Setting

Pii-Tuulia Nikula is an Associate Professor in the School of Business at the Eastern Institute of Technology (Hawke’s Bay), where she teaches courses on Sustainable Organisations and Research Methods. Her research has explored emission trajectories and climate disclosures of New Zealand businesses. Pii-Tuulia will cover key questions that apply to the application of the GHG Protocol, such as common issues and challenges with data collection and practical solutions available for emissions reduction across all three scopes. Finally, she will discuss how organisations can use their emissions baseline to start thinking about their emissions reduction targets. 

Uttam Singh Floray

Reporting for primary producers, processors and exporters

Uttam Singh Floray is a seasoned Sustainability Consultant with extensive expertise in Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) frameworks, carbon accounting, and compliance solutions. As Team Lead – Account management (Government) at Toitū Envirocare, he has headed the implementation of the Carbon Neutral Government Programme and guided organisations toward achieving emissions compliance and sustainable development goals. Uttam has a lead role with Electrify Hawke’s Bay, a regional Rewiring Aotearoa group promoting adoption of low carbon alternative energy sources.

Ron McFetridge

Minimising emissions at WaterForce

One of three founders, Ron McFetridge is the Managing Director at WaterForce. Established in 2002, WaterForce has operations throughout New Zealand, with a large concentration on the South Island, and about 250 staff. Ron is working to reduce the emissions footprint of the company through careful management of energy including establishing rooftop solar and electrifying the vehicle fleet. He is speaking about the process, seeking suitable equipment and changing culture in an organisation.

Dan Bloomer (PhD)

Carbon Positive progress – relative footprints

Dan Bloomer is the LandWISE Manager and an independent consultant. He brings a diverse set of interests and extensive experience in field trials and extension to his role overseeing the LandWISE research portfolio. Together with Olivia Webster, he will present a study comparing the emissions from the three farm systems that form the Carbon Positive trial. What are the main drivers of emissions in an intensive process cropping scenraio?

Of course, knowing our emissions is only a starting point. We also want to know how we can minimise them. And that is the subject of the Electrification and Alternative energy case studies sessions!

The initial project captured data from 110 impacted sites across Hawke’s Bay, Wairoa, Gisborne/Tairawhiti and Northland. The project was extended, and we monitored a small subset of these initial sites in Hawke’s Bay, assessing short-medium term impacts. In 2024 and again in 2025 we have collected soil and crop data (where relevant), and captured management information from growers. We have focused on sites used for vegetable production.

We have been monitoring 14 sites, and now have data from 2023, 2024 and 2025 (still collecting 2025 data). Final reporting is due in June 2025. This data set is also being used by Alex Dickson for her masters thesis focused on soil recovery after Cyclone Gabrielle.

The impact to many growers was devasting. For those significantly impact it was initially anticipated that recovery would take 5+ year to get back to pre-cyclone production. Recovery has been faster than expected for many of the growers we have been working with, some have reported that they feel they are ‘back to normal’ after just 2 years.

There has been a range of other recovery projects completed by other organisation. We are working with these groups on how we can share the combined lessons in recovery. We has been working with Sally Anderson (Market Access Solutionz), Dirk Wallace (FAR), Stephen Trolove and Eduardo Dias de Oliveira (PFR), Alec Mackay (AgResearch), & others, on how to ensure the research completed and knowledge gained after Cyclone Gabrielle is made available, very quickly, next time a community is impacted by a flood of this magnitude.

You’ll find our 2023 baseline sampling report on the LandWISE website. You can hear more from Alex at her recent presentation at the 2024 NZARM conference.