Havelock North Function Centre
24-25 May 2023
It has been two years since we gathered for the last LandWISE Conference. We were unsure in 2022 what Covid was doing and chose to not add to its possible spread. With that more controlled if not fully behind us, we were feeling hopeful of a return to normality. But. . .
We’ve had the wettest time in memory in Hawke’s Bay, and Tairawhiti and Northland feel the same. A wet winter, a horrible spring, and then summer: notably Cyclone Hale and the big slapper, Cyclone Gabrielle. Plans have been tossed in the air, churned by the river, and dumped unceremoniously in the bottom of the orchard. So now we wonder what to expect. What is the future normal?
Three key topics feature at LandWISE 23. We wrap up the five-year Herbicide Resistance Management project led by Trevor James. We introduce a new six-year project partnership with the HB Future Farming Trust investigating regenerative farming from an intensive process cropping perspective, and we consider how cropping farmers and growers are responding to flood inundation following Cyclone Gabrielle – in some cases maybe “generative farming” if deep deposits need to be turned into good quality land with a well-structured topsoil.