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: Research
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 – 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,…
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 – Olivia Webster
Carbon Positive Year 4 – financials, nitrogen & yields Olivia Webster is the Project Manager at LandWISE. She leads the Carbon Positive trial, a six-year project comparing different cropping systems, with a strong focus on improving soil health and building soil carbon. She oversees trial coordination, field operations, and data collection. Olivia completed a Bachelor…
Soil Health for Profit – John Evans
A career in cropping – soil health, strip-till and biodiversity 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…
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 – Rowland Tsimba
Current research in Strip-till and No-till maize in the Waikato Rowland Tsimba is the National Research & Agronomy Manager at Genetic Technologies Limited (Pioneer®), Hamilton. An agronomist with more than 25 years’ experience, he has worked across agricultural research, the seed industry, and on-farm extension in New Zealand. Rowland leads Pioneer’s national field research programmes,…