LandWISE 2024 – Rebuilding Our Soils

Havelock North – 15-16 May 2024

We are looking forward to our annual conference in May, only about 10 weeks away.
We will report on our current work with industry, researchers and growers
seeking out and trialing best ways to rebuild soil.
Our invited speakers will present alternative practices and novel ideas,
some perhaps fringe, but all looking to be mainstream, on a range of topics.

The key topics in 2024 are:

Carbon Positive – Regenerative Cropping
Alternative Pest Management
A year on – Cyclone impacts
Data capture to understanding
New Zealand Agritech
Novel Technologies

We welcome presenters old and new and are most excited by
the breadth and depth of knowledge they offer on many topics.
We also have a great range of practical demonstrations lined up for
viewing at the MicroFarm.

The draft programme is available now, and registrations have opened.

Draft Programme

Our Presenters

Registration

We are delighted that Apatu Group is continuing their sponsorship
to allow secondary students free conference attendance, and that
for 2024 they have been joined by Vegetables NZ and Onions NZ
so an even larger cohort can attend.

We view this as a vital element, as such students are indeed the future of our industry,
and feedback from previous years has been very positive.

Discount for our Financial Members = second day free. See you there!

Thanks to BASF Crop Protection and Hawke’s Bay Regional Council for continuing their Platinum Sponsorships. Both are long-tern, loyal supporters and we are most grateful. Our other loyal supporters are also back with us, so please take time to look and give them your support in return.

The post Rebuilding Our Soils appeared first on LandWISE - Promoting sustainable land management.

Revitalise Te Taiao is one of the Our Land and Water projects, involving place-based research to develop evidence-based examples of how agribusinesses and communities can make enduring changes in land use, management, value chains, and market focus to revitalise our natural world, te Taiao. Containing the land, water, climate and living beings, te Taiao refers to the interconnection of people and nature.

If you would like to understand more, come to the LandWISE Conference in Havelock North on 15-16 May 2024 where Clare Bradley will outline the process and lessons from the project. The research involved pilots in three locations, working alongside agribusinesses and communities as they progressed land-use change, worked with value chains and connected with markets to revitalise te Taiao.

• Wānaka-based project Knowledge into Action for Te Taiao, led by WAI Wānaka, had research goals that include expanding traditional farm plans beyond tools of regulation, to enhance the vitality of te Taiao.
• Taranaki-based Te Kāhui Rau, led by Ngāti Tāwhirikura, aimed to revitalise hapū whenua and whānau.
• Based in the Bay of Plenty and Waikato, Rere ki Uta, Rere ki Tai tested farming methods that aim to enhance the mana and mauri of the soil across 10 dairy farms, led by AgriSea New Zealand.

The project involved AgResearch | AgriSea NZ Seaweed | Heather Collins Consulting | Kia Ora Media Marketing & PR | Mārama | Ngāti Tāwhirikura Hapū Trust | Paemi Ltd | Pahemata Ltd | Rautāpatu Ltd | Simon Stokes Consulting | WAI Wānaka

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In the summer of 2023-2024, the LandWISE MicroFarm grew process tomatoes for Heinz-Wattie’s using three alternative management systems: conventional, regenerative, and a hybrid taking from each. One of the principles for a regenerative system is to build natural resilience rather than rely only on a chemical-based crop protection regime. Nothing new, of course, we’ve had IPM programmes for decades.

How can we apply these concepts in an intensive process vegetable crop production system? What are the elements we need to consider, and how do we bring them together? There are tried and proven approaches, there are ongoing developments, and there are new ways that are being explored. Come to the LandWISE Conference “Rebuilding Our Soils” and hear what experts have to say!

Bruce Mackay, Heinz Wattie’s agricultural manager, has been an agronomist for a long time and has seen and tried different growing philosophies in a commercial context. As a key partner in Carbon Positive, Wattie’s has been deeply involved since Day Zero, and doubly so through the 2023-24 cropping season as we’ve worked to integrate regenerative agriculture principles into an intensive crop programme. Why is Kraft-Heinz interested at a global level? Why is Heinz-Wattie’s investing in local research?

Tika Schellevis started working on assessment of regen ag practices in Canada as part of her master’s degree in climate studies at Wageningen University. Over the last two years, Tika has been part of McCain Foods’ Regen Ag journey. Since October 2023, Tika has been working with the McCain Foods agronomy team in Timaru. Tike will outline how the Environmental Impact Quotient, EIQ, can help understand the relative impacts of different agrichemical options, and help select an optimal programme.

Jessica Vereijssen will discuss integrated pest management, using our crops as examples, but presenting transferable principles. She leads the Insect Dynamics, Ecology, and Sustainability team at Plant & Food Research in Lincoln. Jessica specialises in Integrated Pest Management and sustainable management programmes, considering the biology, behaviour, and ecology of pests. Her current research delves into (invasive) insect vectors such as psyllids and aphids, as well as the potential transmission of plant pathogenic organisms, leveraging her dual background in entomology and plant pathology. 

Chris Thompson will describe the use of predatory insects. He is a seasoned professional in the biotechnology industry, and Managing Director of Bioforce, where he leads the development of sustainable agricultural products and environmentally friendly solutions for various industries. When we received a “bag of bugs” to help control Tomato Potato Psyllid, he’s who we rang with twenty questions. Where do we put them? What agrichemicals might be OK? Which ones should we avoid at all costs? etc.

Since we began the Carbon positive project, we’ve been introduced to a huge range of products described variously as crop elicitors, bioactives, biostimulants, natural protectors and more. Tony Reglinski is a Senior Research Scientist at Plant and Food Research where he investigates the use of plant defence inducers to enhance natural resistance against pathogen attack. His research has covered a broad range of crops including, cereal, radiata pine, wine grapes and kiwifruit. His aim is to is to improve our understanding of the benefits and potential limitations of inducers in order to facilitate their practical implementation as crop protectants.

Come along and hear these experts as they lay out options to increase our resilience and reduce reliance on single approaches to crop protection. The principles and concepts apply broadly, so there wil be gold nuggets regardless of your crop interests!

The post Alternatives for Crop Protection appeared first on LandWISE - Promoting sustainable land management.

Sustainable production through technology has been one of the key themes through the history of LandWISE Inc. We started with minimum tillage and strip tillage equipment, then rapidly adopted RTK GPS and autosteer, which we saw unlocked many opportunities for financial and environmental gains. We’ve looked a precision viticulture, canopy monitoring, crop mapping, soil sensing and more. We investigated agricultural robotics and options for management software. So much stuff to keep up with!

The 2024 LandWISE Conference has three components dedicated to agritech: an innovation panel discussing the experience of taking an idea to commercial reality, a group presenting technologies that automate data collection and help make sense of it all to support management decision making, and a practical in-paddock session where equipment will be demonstrated.

In the session, “Commercialising New Technology”, Andrew Cameron will chair a discussion between Tim Neale from Data Farming, Matt Flowerday from Landkind, Clare Bradley from Agrisea NZ, Hamish Penny from Croptide, and Richard Beaumont from AGOVOR. Different people, different technologies, different growth paths and different insights.

“Data Capture and Understanding” builds on the agritech theme, presenting technologies to capture data remotely and turn it into information to assist management. Tim Neale’s DataFarming platform presents satellite data and interpretations, Matt Flowerday capture aerial imagery and has a platform to plan farm management spatially, Hamish Penny and Croptide have a “smartwatch” for plants, collecting internal water status information and sending it straight to your phone, and Lia Willis helps clients pull different layers of data together.

The Horizons Regional Council Practical Session at the MicroFarm will display technologies and give opportunity to discuss details with the people with answers. Look for drones and robots from Airborne Solutions, AGOVOR and Robomate, cover crops and roller crimpers, pest predators with Bioforce and new irrigation technology from WaterForce!

The post Focus on Agritech appeared first on LandWISE - Promoting sustainable land management.

Hand Harvest

Yield was measured by both hand-harvesting sub-samples, and machine harvesting each plot individually. The hand measurements were taken from four 0.5 m x 2 m (1 m²) sub-plots in each plot. In all, over 650kg of tomatoes were picked by hand, graded into different colours (red, breakers, green, rots, vine) and weighed. Paid weight of fruit includes both the red and breaker fruit (anything that has a bit of colour in between green and red). Green and rotten fruit is considered out of spec and is not paid for. A team of eight people helped pick and grade tomatoes in the field, and we are most grateful for their support!

Machine Harvest

Once the hand sampling was completed, the Heinz-Wattie’s crew harvested each plot into its own gondola, which was tipped into its own bin (or two bins) and trucked to the factory to have factory quality assessment completed. The talented harvest crew carefully managed the task of coordinating the in-field harvest and the factory intake. Each bin entering the factory had a quality assessment completed. A sample is collected from the load, using a mechanical arm. The sample is sorted on reducing scales, taking off dirt, extraneous vegetative material (EVM), green fruit, rotten or damaged fruit, breakers and finally red fruit. This process determines what a grower will be paid per tonne after deductions. Plots had between 10.91MT and 16.39MT nett weight harvested (each plot is 0.108ha). After deductions, paid weight was between 92.32MT/ha and 142.66MT/ha, which is a great result.

Results

The hand harvest data found that the Conventional Treatment yielded 140.63T/ha on average, the Hybrid 148.98T/ha, and the Regenerative 93.42T/ha. There was no statistically significant difference between yield for the Conventional and Hybrid treatment, however there is a significant difference between these treatments and the Regenerative treatment.

The factory yields were slightly different to the hand harvest assessments. This is not unexpected, because hand-harvests measure only a very small part of the total paddock, and the machine harvester is unable to pick up all fruit, whereas hand harvests did. The factory quality sampling is also from a small random sample which has “errors”, although these even out over a whole commercial paddock. Average factory paid yield for the Conventional treatment was 134.6 MT/ha, Hybrid 129.3 MT/ha, and the Regenerative 95.1 MT/ha. One difference is that the factory quality assessments found a lot of soil clumps in a hybrid sample which added to the deductions. Note that the hand harvest data showed the Hybrid had the highest average yield, but in the machine harvest the Conventional came out on top, but both were “not significantly different”. You can see in the charts that both overlap in each case, so we are not confident the slightly different yields actually represent a true effect of our treatments. This is why we use statistics!!

As well as yield weights and fruit grading, samples were collected and analysed for brix, dry matter, Hill laboratory analysis (nitrogen percentage and carbon percentage) for both fruit and vine, and pesticide residues. Brix is a measure of dissolved solids in a liquid and is used to determine dissolved sugar levels. Heinz-Wattie’s analysed four subsamples per plot to determine Brix, finding the average for the Conventional Treatment was 4.88, Hybrid 4.89 and Regenerative 5.41. The brix level in the Regenerative treatment was significantly higher than the other two treatments. Higher brix levels correlate with higher dry matter, which for the Conventional treatment was 6.4%, Hybrid 6.5% and Regenerative 7.1%.

We have a lot more analysis of our tomato data yet to complete. We’ll be giving a rundown at the LandWISE Conference in Havelock North in May.

What’s Next

The tomato harvester finely chopped all the crop residues, which Mike Kettle buried using a set of heavy discs used to break up the beds after harvest. Gareth Holder followed up with a lighter set of discs to create an even surface. Mike’s team drilled the winter cover crops on the 22^nd of March. The Conventional treatment has been planted in an annual ryegrass, which will be grazed over the winter. The Hybrid and Regenerative treatments, which will not be grazed, have been planted in a diverse cover crop mix containing oats, vetch, crimson clover, tillage radish, sunflowers and buckwheat. Patrick Nicolle did the final operation on 25^th March, soil aerating to about 400 mm to try and shatter the tillage pan present across all treatments (more prominent in the Hybrid) and Cambridge rolling to reconsolidate the seed bed. We then applied 5 mm of irrigation to help the cover crops establish quickly. The Conventional and Hybrid treatments will be planted in peas for McCain Foods in early spring. All three treatments will be planted in beans for McCain Foods in December.

We have planted an extra area, outside the main trial, in cover crops so we can gain experience with cover crop termination in spring. We would like to avoid herbicides in the Regenerative treatment wherever possible, so our aim is to crimper roll and retain residues as a mulch. We think we can plant beans through the mulch but are unsure the crimping will fully kill the cover crops. The extra area will allow us to test options, including crimper rolling timing and the difference with and without chemical termination. Getting the timing right for a single species is one thing; getting it right for a five species mix is another thing entirely!

Carbon Positive is a partnership project between LandWISE and the Hawke’s Bay Future Farming Trust, with Heinz-Wattie’s, McCain Foods heavily engaged. Funding is from MPI via the SFFF fund, Hawke’s Bay Regional Council, Heinz-Wattie’s, McCain Foods, BASF Crop Protection, and Hill Laboratories.

The post Carbon Positive March 2024 Update appeared first on LandWISE - Promoting sustainable land management.

It has been over a year since Cyclone Gabrielle caused devastation to many parts of the North Island, however the impact of the flood is still being felt by many, as people rebuild homes and businesses.

As the water subsided, a group of us began a baseline study, sampling soil and sediment across Hawke’s Bay, Tairawhiti, and Northland, aiming to build on studies completed after previous flood events such as the 2004 Southern North Island storm, which focused on returning to pastoral production. The focus after Cyclone Gabrielle, and of the baseline sampling project, was to better understand sediment characteristics deposited across the landscape, capture information that could help growers make decisions, and help in the recovery of highly productive land and elite, versatile soils, which grow a range of high value fruit, vegetable and arable crops. This LandWISE project was funded by the Ministry for Primary Industries, and work was completed alongside a large group of organisations including AgResearch, Massey University, Hawke’s Bay Regional Council, Gisborne District Council, Plant and Food Research, Vegetable Research & Innovation Board, and Vegetables NZ.

As part of the baseline sampling project 155 samples were collected from 116 sites. Over 70 farmers and growers engaged with the project. Data was collected along a 50 m transect, with 3 sampling points along the transect. Data collected included:

• Sediment Depth
• Soil nutrient analysis (fertility)
• Visual Soil Assessment (VSA)
• Bulk Density
• Sediment Texture
• Earthworm abundance and species
• Contaminants (select few sites)

Results from the baseline sampling are available in the full report, available on the LandWISE website.

Repeat Sampling

With support from MPI and the Vegetable Research and Innovation Board, we have been able to develop a study to revisit and resample a select few sites around Hawke’s Bay. The aim of this study is to understand the impact of sediment deposition and different management decisions on the soil, and impact on crop production the following season.

These sites have been paired by location, sediment texture and sediment depth, but have been managed differently (e.g. sediment incorporated vs sediment left on the surface). 10 sites were revisited in the spring, 6-months after the flood, with soil or sediment analysis completed in the same way as the initial baseline testing. This autumn, 12 months after the cyclone, we are revisiting these 10 sites and six others. Eight of the selected sites have been planted in vegetables, and crop yield and quality data are being collected in addition to the soil measurements.

We have revisited nine sites so far this autumn. Hand harvests were completed in two blocks in sweetcorn and one of tomatoes. The remaining sites were planted in grass. We will report on this work at the LandWISE Conference in May.

The post Soil Recovery After Cyclone Gabrielle “Building Back Better” appeared first on LandWISE - Promoting sustainable land management.

Canopy Development Week 2 – 13

Pest Management

In mid-January we started to see holes appearing in tomatoes, caused by corn ear worm/tomato fruit worm. The first insecticide application we used (Benevia) is registered for chewing insects, so caterpillars were targeted early in the season. However, subsequent insecticides have predominantly targeted sucking insects (psyllid/thrips/aphids/whitefly). We applied Uphold (spinetoram) across all treatments to control fruit worm. The crop was inspected five days after application, and found no active caterpillars. Additionally, we still haven’t seen any psyllid on the sticky traps in the field, which is positive!

Nutrient Management

We have been regularly monitoring soil nitrate levels using the Nitrate Quick Test method. Nitrate levels have been declining since side dressing, which indicates that plant demand is exceeding supply of nitrogen. Fruit set has been good and we want to ensure there is enough energy in the canopy to increase fruit size (and yield).

Additionally, we have been doing monthly leaf tests to look at nutrient levels in the tomato leaves. There have been signs of leaf rolling, and purpling along the leaf margins in all treatments in January. This was more distinct in the Regen treatment. This is an indication of low phosphorus or potassium causing plant stress.

Leaf tests showed lower than optimum Nitrogen percentages in the leaf for this stage in the season, as well as low P and K percentages (graph below showing N%). The Operations Advisory Group decided to apply a late application of fertiliser across all treatments. The Regenerative treatment has appeared stressed compared to the other treatments in recent weeks. There has been concern as to whether the canopy is big enough to size the fruit already set. The OAG used the information available to make a justified ‘grower decision’ to address the apparent nutrient deficiencies.

Nitrogen concentrations in the leaf were lower in the Regen treatment than the other two treatments, so we decided to apply a higher rate of N, to support the plants to harvest. The OAG decided to apply YaraRega 9-0-27.5. The Conventional and Hybrid treatment had 9kg N and 27.5kg K applied (100kg/ha). The Regen treatment had 18kg N and 55kg K applied (200kg/ha). This is somewhat counter intuitive for the Regen treatment, however all of the treatments have now received the same amount of N, around 90kgN/ha. Even with this application the Regen plots have had much less potassium applied compared to the other two treatments.

Drone Application

Fertiliser applied late in the season is normally done using a tractor mounted spreader. However, because our plots are 12m wide, we are unable to get the desired spread width this way. We worked with Airborne Solutions to apply the fertiliser with their drone, to be more targeted with our application, plus avoids damaging the plants by driving over with a ground spreader. The spread of the product was uniform and spread to the 12m width of our plots. The drone carries 40kg of product so was a quick job to get done on our 1.5ha.

The post January 2024 Tomato Update appeared first on LandWISE - Promoting sustainable land management.

Thursday 1st Feb 2024

Our good friends from live2give in Palmerston North are hosting a summer field day to discuss mulch systems for commercial vegetable production. The field day will include a demonstration of the MulchTec-Planter in action. You may remember the MulchTec-Planter from our conference demonstration day last year. We had planned to use to transplant tomato seedlings into the Regenerative Treatment of our Carbon Positive trial. We are working on other opportunities to use the planter in the next four years of the trial, to experiment with direct mulch planting ourselves.

Live2give are in their third year of a Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures (SFFF) project investigating “opportunities mulch direct planting systems hold for New Zealand vegetable growers and for our environment”.

Venue

Conference Centre‘Two36‘, 236 Broadway Avenue, Palmerston North 4414.

Thursday 1st February: 9.30 am – 5.00 pm

Field tour (starting at 1.30pm) will be held at live2give Organic Farm, 538 Aokautere Drive, Palmerston North 4471.

The cost is $40, due to co funding by MPI (SFFF fund ) and live2give. Regular price : $175 (incl. lunch and printed resources).

Please register by email before Friday, 26 January including names and business details: farm@live2give.nz

For more information about live2give Organics visit their website. Sign up to their mailing list to keep in touch with what they’re up to.

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Please register at Eventbrite

Once again, we are opening the gates and doors to the public for a Carbon Positive at the MicroFarm field walk to view and discuss the Heinz-Wattie’s process tomato crop.

We’ve been making nutrient, irrigation and crop protection decisions – come along and discuss our strategies and apparent effectiveness!

Please register at Eventbrite

The post Carbon Positive at the MicroFarm – February 2024 Field Walk appeared first on LandWISE - Promoting sustainable land management.

Compare these images with last month’s post here>

Operations

Summary

The below table provides an overview of the three treatments and the main management decisions to date.  

Weed control

Due to continued wet weather we missed the window for our second Sencor (herbicide) application. Watties mechanically weeded with their Rototiller on the 1^st of December, which supressed weed growth in the interrow ahead of side dressing. Andy Lysaght then weeded between the double row of tomatoes with one of his mechanical weeders. This was completed across all treatments.

The Badalini (multi-row rototiller) came through at side dressing, completing a shallow cultivation in the interrow and incorporated a pre-emerge herbicide to supress weeds. The operations team decided we would exclude the pre-emerge herbicide from the regen treatment, with the view that we can mechanically weed again if weeds do get out of control.

Disease management

The weather has generally been cooler and overcast through the early part of the season, perfect conditions for late blight and bacterial speck in tomatoes. Our the spray programmes for the Conventional and Hybrid treatments have been the same and have included regular applications of Kocide Opti (copper) to protect against disease. These treatments have also had two Ridomil Gold MZ applications (protectant fungicide for blight). We are trying to exclude copper applications from the Regen treatment, replacing the coppers with Aureo Gold, a bio-bactericide to control disease (mostly used in kiwifruit). Only one Ridomil application has been applied to the Regen treatment as the canopy was smaller early on and had better air movement around the plants.

Insect pest management

All treatments have had one application of Benevia insecticide. A second application is planned for the Conventional and Hybrid treatments later this week. This is mainly to protect plants against Tomato Potato Psyllid (TPP), however also controls aphids and thrips. Some Biological Control Agents (BCAs) have been released in the trial area to help control insect pests (more detail on this in subsequent post).

Nutrient management

Fertiliser decisions are made by the operations group, along with Mark Redshaw from Yara. A high rate of YaraMila Complex (full N, P, K, S, Mg, B, Fe, Mn, Zn) was applied to the Conventional treatment, with a slightly lower rate of Complex applied to the Hybrid treatment. As the background fertility of the plots is in theory high enough to support a crop of tomatoes, it was decided that the Regen treatment would have an application of nitrogen only, so had YaraLiva Nitrabor applied (N, Ca, B). We have been monitoring Nitrate-N levels using the Nitrate Quick Test every two weeks. Results for the top 15cm is displayed below.

Side-dressing

Fertiliser was applied in bands at side dressing through the Badalini (single pass with herbicide application), and worked into the interrow, close to the rows of tomatoes. The Hybrid treatment interrow surface was particularly hard and had two passes with the rototiller to break up the surface.

Foliar nutrition

All treatments had foliar nutrition with YaraVita Bud Builder applied in early November. Regular foliar applications to both the Hybrid and the Regen treatments are planned and bio-stimulants in the mix have been advised. Caution is being when these products are included with other sprays to minimise the risk of burn. In some cases, crop protection and foliar nutrition products are being applied separately.

Irrigation

Management

Irrigation has started with a 15mm application on 16 December that, after the heat and evapotranspiration over the weekend, barely changed soil moisture in the top 200mm where most of our root activity is currently. A second 15mm application was made immediately after the first, and a third is due.

Bucket test

We did an IRRIG8 bucket test and found a DU = 0.88 which is good.

We will make minor changes to the sprinklers on each end and expect an improvement as a result. At the inlet end, a 180 sprinkler is over-applying (orange line) and at the far end a sprinkler is underapplying.

Now is a great time to check irrigation using the bucket test – it is easy to do, it doesn’t take long, and it costs very little. Have a look at the guidance in our Irrigation Management online learning resource. You will need to login – it is free although we welcome paying members to help run the organisation!

“Carbon Positive” is a project running in partnership with the Hawke’s Bay Future Farming Trust. It is funded by the Ministry for Primary Industries, Hawke’s Bay Regional Council, Kraft Heinz Watties, McCain Foods, and BASF Crop Protection with in-kind support from many others.

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