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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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.

In the last five years, he has conducted regenerative trials on kiwifruit orchards to scientifically demonstrate that adopting regenerative practices can improve soil health and increase biodiversity, while remaining profitable.

Pranoy will present some key findings of the regenerative trials over the years and identify the main barriers to the adoption of these practices by the kiwifruit growers.

The session offers practical, real-world insights for growers wanting to apply sustainable and regenerative practices on orchards and farms.

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?”

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 Summerfruit, Citrus and Onions R&D programmes.

Sally has a science background and holds a and PhD from the University of Auckland, with over 10 years of research experience in environmental ecology, molecular biology, and microbial ecology, with prior roles at NIWA (now Earth Sciences NZ) and the Wellington School of Medicine.

Leading the science services portfolio at MAS, Sally works to support clients with technical advice in plant health research, biosecurity, crop protection, export market access.

As the Vegetable Research & Innovation Board co-ordinator, Sally worked alongside industry stakeholders to secure funding from MPI NIWE fund to support the vegetable, fruit and arable sectors to carry out monitoring post-Cyclone Gabrielle to better understand how highly productive land recovers from these extreme weather events. These learnings and those from other agencies were showcased at the Cyclone Gabrielle Research Symposium, held on the 19-20^th November 2025. Sally will summarise the symposium and its findings.

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.

Katherine Martin is a consultant at Perrin Ag, working across agronomy, farm systems, and environmental planning to support growers in improving productivity and strengthening environmental outcomes. Her work spans vegetable and pastoral systems, with a strong focus on soil health and regenerative practices at the paddock scale, alongside translating research into practical, farm‑ready insights for growers.

Intensive vegetable systems often leave soil bare between crops leading to nitrogen leaching and soil erosion. Crop stacking offers an innovative approach keeping living ground cover in place for the months that would otherwise be fallow.

After harvest, a “sentinel” cover crop is established, once the cover crop is established, narrow planting strips are selectively sprayed to plant the commercial crop into. The cover crop is left in place during early commercial crop establishment; the cover crop is desiccated two to three weeks later to avoid it outcompeting the commercial crop.

This presentation shares findings from a three‑year programme (2023–2025) testing crop stacking in a commercial broccolini system in Pukekohe. Across multiple seasons, crop stacking consistently reduced the risk of nitrogen loss, by up to 31%, and resulted in lower levels of mineral nitrogen moving deep into the soil profile. Trials also showed strong early crop establishment, increased yields, and noticeably less soil erosion.  Together, the results show that crop stacking can deliver real environmental gains with the potential to increase productivity.