The 2023 LandWISE AGM will be held at the Havelock North Function Centre on Wednesday 24th May at 2:30 PM. All Full financial members are entitled to vote at the AGM. Please log into the website to check your membership status!
AGM Matters
The minutes are available to Full Members here
Financial Report
Key results were presented at the meeting – Full Members can download the Financial Report here
Chair’s Report
John thanked the Board for their involvement and contributions during the past year and thanked Sue for all her inputs while a Board Member. He noted that Alex had joined the LandWISE team as a staff member in addition to her Board role in which she will continue to serve her term. He wished Simon White a speedy recovery and hoped we would have him back on deck very soon.
John thanked Dan, Alex and Phillipa for their work over the year, and noted the start of the new Carbon Positive project and the partnership with the HB Future Farming Trust. He also gave thanks to the various sponsors of our projects and other activities, for which we are grateful.
Manager’s Report
Dan welcomed Alex to the staff and expressed gratitude for the impact she has already had, getting up to speed with projects quickly and taking on a lot of responsibility. Alex is the key contact for Carbon Positive operations, and also took on leadership of the Process Crop Nitrate trials and since February has been fully immersed in Cyclone Gabrielle site sampling work and coordinating efforts with AgResearch, Massey FLRC and Plant&Food. He also acknowledged Bridgette Haldane, the Callaghan Onnovation Summer Intern, and thanked her for her hard work especially helping out with the soil sampling for Carbon Positive and nitrate trials.
Dan summarised our various projects, noting all but one of the Process Crop Nitrate trial sites were wiped out by either Cyclone Hale or Cyclone Gabrielle despite three having been replaced. Carbon Positive has been a long time in gestation, and it is a relief to have the first season finally completed and the baselines set for the next 5+ of research. We were granted funding to pay for soil lab testing of a large number of sites affected by Cyclone Gabrielle, and have been active establishing sampling programmes in Hawke’s Bay, Gisborne and Northland. Dan explained that the contributions by many people and organisations has been overwhelming, but absolutely needed to support those so severely impacted.He aprticularly noted the work done by Alec MacKay and colleagues at AgResearch, Alan Palmer and colleagues from Massey’s FLRC, and the Gisborne District Council staff who sampled not only Gisborne, Tolaga Bay and Ruatoria, but also volunteered and sampled sites in Wairoa. LandWISE is part of a large consortium of CRIs, universities, councils, consultants, sector bodies and farmers working on studies to learn from this disaster. We hope to attract resourcing to enable a longitudinal study following the site we have baseline-measured to date, to develop revised best practice guidelines for anyone impacted by future events.
Board Positions
Sue Blackmore chose to step down due to an extremely high workload with events at Te Kupenga/EIT Hawke’s Bay. Sue nominated Chandré Honeth to replace her as the Research/Education Representative – seconded by Simon White.
Simon White was due to retire by rotation and offered himself for re-election. He was nominated by Simon Wilcox and seconded by John Evans
The two nominees equaled the number of vacancies as were thus duly appointed.
John Evans (Farmer – Chair), Simon Wilcox (Farmer), Chandre Honeth (Research/Education),
Simon White (Farmer) and Alex Dickson (Industry)
Subscriptions
The Board did not recommend a change to Annual Subscription rates, but did ask past members to register again. There has been a marked drop off in membership in the last two years, partly due to missing conferences and partly due to the new subscription system.
NOTE: Membership is now managed through the website where you can pay by card. The systems will remind you when your membership is due for renewal. If you haven’t yet paid, we’d appreciate your attention ASAP. If you experience problems, please let us know info@landwise.org.nz.
Chandré Honeth – New Board Member
Dr Chandré Honeth is Viticulture and Wine Science Lecturer at the Eastern Institute of Technology | Te Pūkenga (Hawke’s Bay). Chandré has a Doctorate in Viticulture from the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa. Her current responsibilities include the development and delivery of viticultural and research related courses, presented both in a “face to face” environment and online.
Her research career, focused by her interests in viticulture and the influence of terroir dynamics on berry characteristics, has included investigations into the impacts vineyard management practises, climatic factors and seasonal effects have on berry composition linking to wine organoleptic properties.
Industry collaborations include with the Hawkes Bay Vine group (part of New Zealand winegrowers), The Bragato Research Institute, Plant and Food, Thoughtful Viticulture and a number of local Hawkes Bay producers. Working in and collaborating with industry has given her broad practical experience in vineyard maintenance and management – ensuring optimal berry development and ripening and wine production.