Rebuilding Our Soils – Presenters

Clare Bradley

Clare is CEO of Agrisea NZ Seaweed Ltd, a Maori-owned intergenerational Seaweed Innovation company, also chairs the Aotearoa NZ Seaweed Association. In 2019, she claimed the supreme title at the Rural Women New Zealand Business Awards for her focus on value enhancement throughout the supply chain with AgriSea. Honored with the 2023 AgriTech NZ Robin Davidson Memorial Award, Clare is recognized as a champion for the industry and a generous role model. Her current work in the Our Land and Water National Science Challenge involves integrating Matauranga Maori, farming, and scientific knowledge to promote soil health in the Rere Ki Uta Rere Ki Tai project. Clare spent several years deep in the Amazon Rainforest, living without power and water while collaborating with the Pavacachi community. Clare and her husband Tane (Ngāti Maniapoto) have been together since their 20s, and have three children.

Tim Neale

Tim, named Australian Rural Consultant of the year in 2018, Australia’s best Agritech 2023, and numerous other awards, has over 25 years’ experience across Australia and internationally, 20 of which was spent running his own business. Co-founder of DataFarming, which services over 35,000 (FY2023) farms across 50 countries with satellite imagery every 5 days, his strong ag tech focus has been driven by an evolution from CTF (controlled traffic farming), sustainable farming systems, auto-steer guidance technology, elevation mapping and water drainage planning, yield mapping, variable rate, soil mapping, spatial landscape assessment, GIS, and satellite imagery. He is president and a foundational member of the Australian Agritech Association, has served on the CRCSI (program 4) board, Society for Precision Ag Australia (SPAA) committee, and the National Positioning Infrastructure (NPI) advisory board.

Bruce Mackay

^{Photo credit Baybuzz, Florence Charvin}

Bruce is the Agricultural Manager at Heinz Wattie’s in Hastings where he has been employed since 2001, after experience in orchard consultancy, development and management. He has a keen interest in Resource Management and Sustainability, and has been actively involved in projects looking to produce more with less, and creating pathways for this to happen. A focus has been the regulatory environment and the changes happening there, always with an eye to what our horticultural industry may be looking like in five or ten years time. Conscious of the concept that most of the big wins have been adopted, he considers that future wins are to be gained in fine tuning and efficiencies, with a multitude of small gains contributing to noticeable improvements in overall results.

Alex Dickson

Alex is the LandWISE Project Manager for Sustainable Systems, and responsible for the daily operations of our research programme. Alex is heavily involved in the Carbon Positive regenerative cropping research running at our MicroFarm, ensuring all the operations and research tasks get completed correctly and on time. Since February 2023 she has been coordinating efforts to understand the impacts of Cyclone Gabrielle flooding and sediment in Hawke’s Bay, Tairawhiti and Northland. Previously a nutrient specialist providing recommendations to growers, she moved to LandWISE in 2022 initially as a Board member before taking on the project manager role. Alex is completing post-graduate study at Massey University with a focus on her work monitoring site and soil recovery after Cyclone Gabrielle.

Dan Bloomer

Dan serves as the LandWISE Manager and works independently as a consultant in water, irrigation, soil and land management, and agritechnology. He brings a diverse set of interests and extensive experience in field trials and extension to his role overseeing the LandWISE research portfolio. Alongside Alex, he contributes to the Carbon Positive regenerative intensive cropping project and the Cyclone Gabrielle sediment study. His past roles include board positions with Irrigation NZ, Precision Agriculture NZ, and Agritech NZ, as well as being part of the Sprout Advisory team. Currently, he is engaged in research focused on the very low energy electrocution of weeds as an alternative to chemical herbicide controls.

Tika Schellevis 

Over the last two years, Tika has been part of McCain Foods’ Regen Ag journey. Tika started working on establishing a baseline assessment for regen ag practices in Canada through a grower survey as part of her master’s degree in climate studies at Wageningen University & Research (The Netherlands). Afterwards, Tika joined McCain Foods in The Netherlands where she worked in a team designing a program for growers and supporting them in the transition to regen ag practices. This included financial and technical support, as well as setting up a regen ag network. Since October 2023, Tika has been working with the McCain Foods agronomy team in Timaru to further enhance her potato agronomy knowledge and build strategies to continue progressing McCain Foods’ regen ag strategies and practices.

Jessica Vereijssen

Jessica leads the Insect Dynamics, Ecology, and Sustainability team at Plant & Food Research in Lincoln. Trained as an entomologist and plant pathologist at Wageningen University in The Netherlands, she earned her PhD in Plant Pathology. With over 20 years of expertise in crop protection, Jessica specializes 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. Jessica’s research has encompassed sugar beet, vegetables, potatoes, pastures, and wine grapes. As the Theme Leader for Surveillance & Response within the Better Border Biosecurity (B3) research collaboration, she is also dedicated to advancing biosecurity efforts.

Chris Thompson

Chris Thompson is a seasoned professional in the biotechnology industry and Managing Director of Bioforce. As the Managing Director of Bioforce, Chris is responsible for shaping the strategic direction of the company, overseeing its operations, and ensuring the delivery of cutting-edge biotechnology solutions. Under his leadership, Bioforce has emerged as a trailblazer in the development of sustainable agricultural products and environmentally friendly solutions for various industries. Chris is actively involved in mentoring aspiring entrepreneurs and advocating for STEM education initiatives. He believes in the power of education to inspire the next generation of innovators and is dedicated to fostering a culture of scientific curiosity and exploration.

Tony Reglinski

Tony is a Senior Research Scientist at Plant and Food Research. He has over 30 years’ experience investigating 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. Most recently Tony has focused on understanding biochemical and molecular mechanisms associated with the induction of resistance to bacterial canker caused by Pseudomonas syringae (Psa) in kiwifruit. This includes the use of commercially available inducer (Actigard®) and a range of other inducers and biological control agents (BCAs). These fundamental studies on defence induction are complemented by on-orchard investigations to validate efficacy and to examine the effects of inducer application on resource allocation and potential consequences for growth and yield. The ultimate aim of Tonys’ research is to improve our understanding of the benefits and potential limitations of inducers in order to facilitate their practical implementation as crop protectants.

Andrew Cameron

Andrew Cameron has joint roles at Callaghan Innovation and Victoria University. Andrew is known to many in the New Zealand agritech sector through his role in the Agritech Support Explorer, which was launched to help agritech businesses navigate the ever-evolving landscape of government funding and capability support. He has led many delegations to grow relationships and deepen understanding of agritech globally, including EVOKE in Australia and trips to the Biological Summit and the FIRA Robotics show in California.

Andrew chaired our “Commercialising New Technology” Panel.

Matt Flowerday

Matt is the managing director of GPS-it, a company he founded 20 years ago, to provide GPS, GIS and UAV specialised mapping solutions to the primary sector. Growing up on a dairy farm, agriculture has been in Matt’s blood since an early age. He holds a master’s degree in agricultural engineering and a shareholder and director of High Fives Orchard Ltd which grows over 50 ha of kiwifruit. Over 85% of the kiwifruit industry now has a GPS-it map, and over 9000 farms have been through the Supply Fonterra Waterway Mapping Program which GPS-it operates, winning a “this is Fonterra” award in 2014. Recently invited to the USA to talk about GPS-it’s experience to 2500 other software developers, Matt is proud that GPS-it is also one of the few Part 102 UAV operators in New Zealand with a fleet of 15 drones and 6 certified pilots conducting in excess of 500 flights per year.

Richard Beaumont

A long-time nursery man at Ardmore who identified a need for robotic helpers, Richard is a founder and director of Agovor Ltd, developers of the GOVOR robot, a powerful lightweight electric tractor designed to automate outdoor manual labour tasks for row-based growers. Built on a scalable technology platform, GOVOR uses IoT connectivity and GPS waypoints to autonomously tow and activate Smart Trailer Attachments. Small, light and low impact – the more you deploy the higher your throughput.

Hamish Penny

Hamish is the co-founder and CEO of Croptide, a Hawke’s Bay based agritech start-up developing technology to ‘translate the language of plants’. Croptide utilises a sensor that plugs directly into the stem of permanent crops such as apples, wine and kiwifruit to directly measure insights such as water status in real time. Now active with growers such as T&G, Rockit, Zespri, Villa Maria, Cloudy Bay, Pernod Ricard and Yealands, Croptide aims to allow irrigation decisions to be driven directly from the plant – reducing complexity for managers, optimising productivity and minimising environmental impact. Hamish is passionate about providing revolutionary technology that can help growers to cope with the numerous challenges they face – particularly challenges related to fresh water that are being exacerbated by climate change.

Dirk Wallace

Dirk is a senior researcher with the Foundation for Arable Research. He has 15 years of experience in researching how on farm management decisions impact environmental and economic outcomes. Dirk is passionate about building great soil that works for growers and increasing understanding of the relationship between soils, crops and profit.  His background and research interests have led to his involvement in supporting the recovery of annual cropping following Cyclone Gabrielle. This work has been funded by MPI, VR&I and FAR and has utilised local experts Alan Kale and Diana Mathers in Hawke’s Bay and Elliot Calendar and Melanie Briant in Tairawhiti to support and learn from growers as they navigate the path to recovery. The project has aimed to document hindsight and provide future growers with a resource that explains the impact of the flooding, what challenges were encountered and what management decisions worked (and which ones didn’t) to get the ground back into production.

Eduardo Dias de Oliveira

Eduardo is a scientist at Plant & Food Research, based in Hawke’s Bay. He has a background in crop ecophysiology, ecosystem ecology and global changes. Before joining Plant & Food Research in 2022, he worked with a variety of crop species and systems in a range of climate types across Australia, Brazil and the United States. Eduardo is interested in the mechanisms of plant responses and adaptation to global changes, plant resistance to abiotic stresses, and the way a plant might respond or develop differently in response to different environmental conditions. He has also worked on natural and farming systems, and horticulture in urban and controlled environments. He is leading the Plant and Food project investigating how different species and seed types establish and perform when planted into sediment such as that left behind by Cyclone Gabrielle.

Lisa Arnold

Lisa is a Primary Industries Consultant – Horticulture & Environmental at WSP in New Zealand. As part of her study towards a Postgraduate Diploma in Horticultural Science, she undertook a review of the impact of Cyclone Gabrielle and other events on orchards in Hawke’s Bay, with a particular focus on the summerfruit sector. This work identified a number of factors that contributed to outcomes, including poor drainage, blocked drains and other issues that contributed to prolonged soil wetness and tree decline.

Lia Willis

Lia is the Agri Insights Manager at Vantage NZ where she is responsible for leading the precision agronomy side of the business. Lia is involved in implementing precision ag data for decision making for clients across the lower South Island, right from yield data and variable rate maps to soil surveying and soil moisture monitoring. Previously Lia was a seed production agronomist contracting and providing recommendations to growers. She moved to Vantage NZ in June of last year to align her passions of agronomy and precision agricultural solutions to help people make strategic decisions.

Scott Horgan

XAG P100 Heavy Lift Aerial Drone
XAG R150 Ground Vehicle

Founded in 2021 Airborne Solutions is at the forefront of the agricultural industry, revolutionizing traditional farming practices through cutting-edge drone technology. With a commitment to efficiency, sustainability, and precision, Airborne Solutions delivers tailored spraying and spreading solutions to farmers and growers through-out New Zealand. Airborne Solutions directors come from a long background in manned aerial application. This experience flows through into our current venture, spraying and spreading using the latest drone technology available to us. We combine innovation with practicality to address the evolving needs of modern agriculture. Through continuous research and development, Airborne Solutions remains at the forefront of technological advancement in agricultural drone spraying and spreading. Our commitment to excellence drives us to constantly innovate, ensuring that our clients receive the most efficient and effective solutions for their operational needs.

Quinn Elstone

LEPA Irrigation technology
Nelson A3030 sprinkler/bubbler

Quinn Elstone, Valley sales and strategic business development manager at Valley NZ for the WaterForce group, will demonstrate the new LEPA system fitted with Valley and WaterForce support to the Drumpeel Farms sponsored irrigator at the LandWISE MicroFarm. As a sales and design engineer Quinn’s past roles have encompassed senior irrigation design and sales encompassing all areas including hydraulic design of complex irrigation systems from 30ha- 500ha in size, project management of infield irrigation developments, and product specification. He is responsible for Valley Centre Pivot and Linear technical support: Electrical and Engineering, and in house support for pumping including centrifugal, submersible, and turbine.

Richard Beaumont

GOVOR robot

Presented by Richard Beaumont and Simon Carroll of Agovor Ltd. The GOVOR robot is a powerful lightweight electric tractor designed to automate outdoor manual labour tasks for row-based growers. Built on a scalable technology platform, GOVOR uses IoT connectivity and GPS waypoints to autonomously tow and activate Smart Trailer Attachments. Small, light and low impact – the more you deploy the higher your throughput.

Derek Slade

Mammotion Luba

Presented by Derek Slade from Robomate, the Luba is a member of the Luba robotic mower range with wire-free installation and AWD traction that can cope with slopes up to 80%. Most robot mowers require a perimeter wire laid around the edge of the lawn to identify where to mow.  This is the main reason why robot mowers aren’t currently widely used in NZ as installation is difficult and the wires often get cut by the mower itself.  RTK mowers know where they are and are set up by driving the mower around the edge of the lawn with a remote control.  This allows them to cut in straight lines and you can control exactly when and how it mows.

Alex Dickson

Carbon Positive cover crop options

LandWISE Project Manager of sustainable systems, Alex Dickson, will lead you through the different cover crop options drilled at the MicroFarm, how we chose them, and how we aim to terminate them in spring! Cover cropping is seen to be a key component of a regenerative cropping system such as we are researching, but proving tricky to manage when a specific planting date is specified by the processing companies.

Will crimper rolling work? Is a knock-down herbicide better or worse than cultivation? How can we fit cover crops into our system?

Dave Forward

Crimper Roller

Dave Forward from TRS will have a crimper roller on-site. Terminating cover crops using a roller crimper has been suggested for the regenerative treatment in the Carbon Positive trial, to minimise the use of herbicides. In a cropping scenario we would be aiming to have no regrowth of the cover crop, which can be achieved by applying more weight to the implement. How much would we need on a 2-metre+ wide machine? We tried terminating our oat/lupin/vetch cover crop by mulching, which result in a number of oat plants being pushed over and laid flat by the mulcher body. It wasn’t a total success, but maybe a crimping roller will do a better job.