What has been happening over Winter? Things have been a little quiet over the last few months. We’ve had our usual regular monitoring tasks, tracking cover crop development with the Canopeo app and soil nitrate levels with the Nitrate Quick Test protocol, Nitrachek device and our conversions to kg/ha. Now we are focusing on getting…
Category: Projects
2026 Winter Cover Crops
By the time our summer crop butternuts were removed from the Carbon Positive plots, the vines had dried to rope. We disced and direct drilled cover crop seed but couldn’t run an aerator through without massive tangling. On 26 March, annual ryegrass was sown in both the Conventional and Hybrid plots, and a Triticale/Vetch mix…
Soil Health for Profit – James Hunter
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…
Soil Health for Profit – Charlie White
Lessons Learned from Twenty Years of Cover Crop and Soil Health Research and Extension 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…
Soil Health for Profit – Dan Bloomer
Making sense of carbon movements. History of strip-till. Co-founder and manager of LandWISE since 1999, Dan’s career is diverse, with a constant theme of sustainable use of land and water resources. His post-graduate studies included an MScTech in innovation Management and adoption in the primary sector, and a PhD investigating the potential of ultra-low energy…
Soil Health for Profit – Sally Anderson
Summary from the Cyclone Gabrielle Research Symposium Sponsored by Dr Sally Anderson is the Scientific Services Manager for Market Access Solutionz Ltd and is based in Wellington. Sally has over 15 years’ experience designing, managing, and implementing science research programmes for New Zealand’s horticultural sector. This includes co-ordinating the Vegetable Research & Innovation Board, managing…
Soil Health for Profit – Dirk Wallace
Cyclone Recovery: Best practice for cropping Dr Dirk Wallace is a Senior Researcher with the Foundation for Arable Research, bringing 15 years of experience investigating how on‑farm decision‑making shapes profitability and environmental performance. He is passionate about building great soils that work for growers and improving understanding of the relationships between soils, crops, and profit….
Soil Health for Profit – Simon White
Minimising cultivation impacts in broadacre cropping Simon White is a farmer and entrepreneur based in Otane, Hawke’s Bay. He and his wife, Lou, have built a diverse operation with soil health at its core. They have a mix of arable cropping and sheep and beef finishing across 1100 hectares which has been in their family…
Soil Health for Profit – Rene Van Tilberg
Strip-till and under-sowing cover crops in maize Rene Van Tilburg is the Senior Maize Researcher at FAR, leading the development of the maize research strategy and overseeing a range of trials. He focuses on identifying the constraints that limit yield and productivity, with a particular interest in moving beyond simple comparisons to understanding the mechanisms…
2026 Winter cover crops emerged
The winter cover crops in the Carbon Positive trial plots are well underway now. The last dull, wet, cold week slowed them down a little, but they still made good progress. The preparation and planting was covered in an earlier post that you can see here> To the left of the central irrigator strip, the…