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…
Category: regenerative agriculture
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 – Josh Wing
Josh Wing is a Senior Agronomist with Harvest Moon in Tasmania, bringing more than 30 years of agricultural experience to vegetable production. Raised on a mixed family farm conducting dairy, beef, potatoes and raspberry production, Josh developed a deep respect for the land and the environment from an early age. Reflecting this connection to nature,…
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…
Soil Health for Profit – Pranoy Pal
Pranoy Pal (PhD), along with colleague Gordon Skipage, was the joint winner of the Hort NZ Sustainable Innovation Award 2025. Pranoy is the Kiwifruit Technical Manager at Trevelyan Pack and Cool – the largest single-site kiwifruit and avocado packhouse in New Zealand. Across the regions, he provides science-based advice and support to kiwifruit growers to…
Soil Health for Profit
LandWISE Conference 2026 Havelock North Function Centre27 – 28 May 2026 Our “Soil Health for Profit” theme in 2026 is, in some ways, a return to the past. LandWISE arose out of work to combat soil erosion through use of minimum tillage and we’re returning to strip-till in 2026. A lot has been learned in…
Winter Cover Crops
After the 2025-2026 butternut crop was harvested, the Regenerative treatment received Omya Calciprills (150 kg/ha), Sulphur (30 kg/ha), Boron (10 kg/ha), and Humates (5 kg/ha). This mix has been applied annually to stimulate soil microbes for good soil health. Thanks to Websters Hydrated Lime for supplying the micronutrients again. All three treatments were then disced…
Butternut Harvest Data
Heniz-Wattie’s was unable to process our butternut through the factory due to a lack of demand, so we had to find an alternative outlet. A local grower ended up harvesting the butternuts on the 13th of March, which was a month earlier than our target harvest date with Heniz- Wattie’s. Our butternut hand harvest of…
A Lighter Touch Biodiversity Field Walk
If you’re a grower or someone interested in biodiversity planting to support pest management, we’re hosting one of the A Lighter Touch (New Zealand) Biodiversity Grower Group Field Walks at the LandWISE MicroFarm on the 19th of March from 10-12 pm. We’ll look at our bio-strips which are made up of different mixes, were planted…
Butternut Harvest
Our butternut hand harvesting to collect research data was completed on the 9th and 10th of March. Our hand harvest samples were taken from 3 m × 2 m areas within each of the four subplots of each plot; 16 per treatment, 48 in all. All butternuts within the sample area were cut from the…