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.

Past Chair of LandWISE, John Evans will discuss his farming career at “Soil Health for Profit” in May. Over more than four decades active farming, he’s seen a number of farming systems arrive and be replaced.

John was exposed to soil improvement at a young age as his parent’s developed half of the property from Gorse Broom Blackberry and Willows into a highly productive irrigated mixed system. After returning from Lincoln College and helping with the irrigation development the farm was sold, and another larger rundown property was purchased in Dorie.

Over the next 36 years John continued his soils interest and converted the property to intensive cropping with irrigation. Pivoting the operation and taking up the opportunities that came along, he finished with a highly productive arable livestock farm with a high quality, productive specialist seed operation.

He was and is always active in his own research and hosting and supporting Foundation for Arable Research (FAR) projects. Looking back, has asks, “Have I always been a regenerative farmer?”

Practical: Sprayer tune-up and calibration

Andy Mawley has spent his entire life working with spray application, from orchards to broadacre farming and large-scale cropping operations. He understands how important it is to maximise the effectiveness of the chemistry you’re using—and how often small, easily overlooked details can impact performance.

Andy brings practical experience and straightforward solutions to help improve outcomes across a wide range of operations. He travels extensively, working alongside growers and operators to identify opportunities for improvement, while also continuing to learn from each unique situation.

With this depth of experience and a fresh, outside perspective, Andy offers valuable insights to help refine spray coverage, improve application practices, and enhance overall efficiency. He’ll run a practical refresher during the Horizons Regional Council sponsored Field Event.

Richard has more than 25 years’ experience across orchard management, industry extension, consulting, and governance in New Zealand’s horticulture sector.

He completed an eight-year tenure as Regional Manager for Ngāi Tukairangi Trust in Hawke’s Bay, leading high value kiwifruit and pipfruit orchards through significant productivity and profitability gains, improved business resilience, and guided the transition to regenerative practices while maintaining strong commercial performance. Earlier roles with Zespri and AgFirst focused on orchard productivity, grower extension, and applied research, translating science and data into practical decision making at scale.

Richard is a Trustee of the Hawke’s Bay Future Farming Trust and operates Boost Horticulture, where regenerative practices are applied and tested in a commercial kiwifruit system, strengthening his focus on soils, and long-term orchard resilience.

Session synopsis:

Soil health is widely recognised as important, yet it is rarely treated as a primary measure of sustainability. Drawing on his Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme research, Richard explores why soil health continues to sit on the periphery of decision‑making, despite being central to long‑term orchard and farm performance.

Based on interviews with growers, researchers, industry bodies, and policy stakeholders, this session examines the key barriers limiting progress – including knowledge gaps, mindset, short‑term business pressures, and weak links between science, extension, and on‑orchard/farm practice.

Richard will discuss how soil health is currently measured (and mis‑measured), why growers often struggle to quantify benefits, and where low‑risk opportunities exist to improve soil function without compromising productivity.

The session focuses on practical insights from applied research and commercial experience, highlighting why healthy soils underpin resilience, profitability, and future‑proofing modern growing systems.

All three treatments were then disced twice. Since the ground was so hard and dry, the first pass with the discs was quite blocky, but after the second pass, there were plenty of fines for a seedbed.

The Conventional and Hybrid treatments were both planted with Moata ryegrass (25 kg/ha). The Regenerative treatment was planted with triticale (80 kg/ha) and vetch (50 kg/ha). Butternut residue made drilling tricky as long “ropes” of dried vine blocked equipment. The hard, dry, rubbly surface in areas such as wheel tracks left seed above the ideal soil mix. Normally we would aerate as the last autumn operation, leaving the soil fractured over winter and spring. We think the butternut residue will make that extremely difficult, so have postponed it. If the soil is still dry enough once residues have rotted, we can aerate in a couple of months.

Thank you to Mike Kettle Contracting for doing our groundwork and planting our cover crops.

Because the soil is so dry, and with no rain on the Hawke’s Bay horizon, we are applying 12 mm of irrigation to ensure good establishment. Once complete, we plan to apply bait as our slug populations are extremely high and past experience showed they have major effects on cover crops, especially the vetch we have planted.

A big thank you to all the Operation Advisory Group members who have attended our weekly field walks and helped make decisions for our cover crops.

Carbon Positive is a partnership between LandWISE, the HB Future Farming Trust, McCain Foods, Heinz-Wattie’s and Process Vegetables NZ.

See earlier posts:
Biodiversity Strips Update – LandWISE – Promoting sustainable land management

MicroFarm Biodiversity Update – LandWISE – Promoting sustainable land management

One of the new strips, which is located under the irrigator wire, includes alyssum, calendula, and native ground covers. The other strip which is along a fenceline has the A Lighter Touch annual flower strip mix, which includes alyssum, buckwheat, calendula, cornflower, and marigolds. We also added in a few sunflowers.

The first half of the strip under the irrigator wire has established really well, and both the alyssum and calendula are starting to flower. At the other end of the strip, it is a bit patchy and doesn’t have the same ground cover. Some of the native ground covers amongst the strip have dried out or have been eaten by rabbits, while others are thriving.

The strip along the fenceline consists mainly of buckwheat and sunflowers at the moment, as they were the first to germinate. However, there are patches where alyssum, marigolds, cornflower, and calendulas have also started to establish.

The two biostrips planted in 2024 were made up of 9 different flower mixes, first planted in spring and the second in the summer.

The spring 2024 sowings flowered in the summer but were taken over by grass and clover in the winter. We have mown the strip a couple of times to manage the grass and give the flowers a chance to grow. The alyssum, poppies, borage, and phacelia seemed to do the best in spring 2025 after being mown. Now the strip is mainly grass, clover and alyssum. We have mown it back down again and will track what happens.

The strip planted in summer 2024 and has continued to flower since it was established. Alyssum is the main flower species that has taken over and provided ground cover, but there are areas where there are still cornflowers and calendulas flowering.

There are plenty of insects in the strips and within our butternut crop, but we wanted to understand what insects are actually there and how far they are moving into the crop. To do this, we have set up sticky traps within the biostrips and at various distances into the crop. We will continue to monitor the sticky traps and will try to identify what insects are on them.

We will be holding a grower biodiversity event at the MicroFarm on March 19th. If you are interested in attending, please register here: https://a-lighter-touch.co.nz/biodiversity-grower-group-field-walks/

The butternuts in the Carbon Positive trial were planted on the 15th of November. Before the butternuts emerged, there was a high weed pressure in the conventional treatment. Therefore, it was sprayed with Buster, while the other two treatments were not.

Emergence

When the butternuts started to emerge, we noticed there was cutworm damage and found cutworms. Cutworms are one of the main insect pests in butternut crops. They chew through the butternut’s stem at ground level, killing the plant. Once we identified the problem, we sprayed Bestseller before the cutworms did too much damage.

Side Dressing

Before sidedressing, our fortnightly soil nitrate testing showed there was 80 kg N/ha in the Conventional treatment, 71 kg N/ha in the Hybrid, and 62 kg N/ha in the Regenerative treatment.

At sidedressing, the Conventional treatment received the ‘standard’ rate of YaraBela CAN (150 kg/ha). For the Hybrid treatment, the goal was to apply a half rate of YaraBela CAN (75 kg/ha), but the lowest the side dressing machine could be calibrated to was 113 kg/ha, so that is the rate we used. The Hybrid treatment also received a foliar application of seaweed. The Regenerative treatment only received a foliar application of seaweed, Megafol, and fulvic acid, as the soil nitrate results showed there was a sufficient level of Nitrate-N in the soil.

Weed Management

Standard weed management would use an inter-row cultivator before the butternuts start running. We felt there wasn’t a high enough weed pressure to do this, and that it could cause a weed strike if we disturb the uncultivated areas in the Hybrid and Regenerative treatments. All treatments were hand-weeded with a push hoe to remove any weeds before the butternuts started to run.

Operation Advisory Group

The Operation Avisory Group has met weekly, and they are happy with how the butternuts are growing, the low weed pressure and the disease pressure.

A big thank you to Andy for taking the time to side-dress our butternuts.

Carbon Positive is a partnership between LandWISE, the HB Future Farming Trust, McCain Foods, Heinz-Wattie’s and Process Vegetables NZ.