Getting to Carbon Positive

Wednesday 21 – Thursday 22 May
Havelock North Function Centre

In 2025 we’re delighted to bring you a conference with focuses on regenerative crop production, carbon footprinting, and electrification. We’ll have new technologies to think about and see, we have speakers with proven track records, and we’re looking forward to catching up with old friends and new.

Do we know the footprint of our activities? How do international markets assess them and what will we need to report? We are proud to present Associate Professor Dr Pii-Tuulia Nikula to open the conversation. We’ve done the numbers on our Carbon Positive cropping treatments, and we’ve others talking about what they are doing to address their footprints too.

If we are going to get to Carbon Zero (or better) we need to think about both inputs and outputs from our systems. Can we soak up more than we lose? Which inputs have the greatest impact?

We’ll report on progress and lessons from another year of our regenerative cropping research and on cover cropping and bio-strips. We will present some new tools for growers to assess nitrate levels, soil stability and insect pressure and have examples for viewing at the Horizons Regional Council Field Session.

We’ll need energy, of course, but how much can we generate on-site? Is electrification realistic now? Where to in the short to medium term? We are delighted to have Mike Casey of the Electric Cherry Orchard and CEO of Rewiring Aotearoa opening that discussion. We’ll have electric vehicles for perusal.

Thanks to our Sponsors!

We look forward to seeing many of you again in 2025.

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The Carbon Positive programme continues. Our McCain Foods green bean crop has been successfully harvested and yield and quality data captured. Post-harvest, Alex and Oliva completed VSA tests in all the plots, and those and other data are being collated and processed.

All treatments achieved good yields, but we found significant differences between them. We harvested 1 m2 of crop from each of four sub-plots in each of our 12 plots. That gave us lots of beans which were then removed by hand, weighed and graded. We also got factory results from the different treatments. The box plot graph below shows the average yield (the Xs) and variability in each treatment as determined from our hand harvest plots.

The biggest cause of down-grading at the factory was pod damage associated with harvesting and transport. Other than that, we had a very clean crop.

So why the differences?

The regenerative plots had the biggest plants. This was seen throughout the season with the canopy ground cover always being ahead in the regenerative plots. Towards harvest, we found the conventional plots had two weeks when their growth appeared to be checked. We know it wasn’t soil moisture or nitrogen availability, but we can’t put a finger on a cause.

Both the conventional and hybrid areas were planted in process peas at the end of August. The soil was cold and wet and we noticed compaction from cultivation and machinery passes. The conventional plots were ploughed and disced, and the hybrid plots direct-drilled before the cover crop was mulched. The regenerative plots were kept in cover crop, which was mechanically terminated before a period of fallow.

All the plots were disc-ripped about three weeks before planting, then sprayed with glyphosate to achieve a stale seedbed before bean planting on 28 December. Both the conventional and hybrid plots received nitrogen fertiliser broadcast near full canopy. The regenerative plots did not receive solid fertiliser, but did get a foliar application as part of spraying for disease and caterpillars. The spray programmes were different from the pre-emergence herbicides through the crop protection programme.

We can’t say what made the differences to the yields that were achieved, because our trial is not set up that way. We are comparing the results of overall management policy over six years rather than assessing the effect of any single input.

So, we can’t say why. Maybe there was less disease pressure by missing peas? Maybe the better soil physical state by avoiding early cultivation and planting in the wet made a difference? Maybe the cover crop biomass was feeding the soil microbes or releasing nutrients?  Maybe all of these? Maybe something else…

The VSA assessments appear to show differences developing in the different treatments. We need to keep monitoring and see a longer-term trend, but for now, the regenerative plots are starting to score a little better. The soil appears somewhat darker, suggesting it may be building soil carbon levels (we’ll be lab-testing soon so keep an eye out for that) and it has fewer large soil lumps (in our case mainly showing compaction damage). It does suggest that working the soil and driving over it when cold and wet in August had impact.

We expect to drill the winter cover crops in the first week of April. With continuing dryness, we have applied irrigation to make the soil moist enough for drilling. Our intention is to aerate after drilling to avoid compacting the soil again. Then we’ll leave everything alone until spring to allow the soil to breathe, microbes to do their thing, and roots and earthworms to explore as easily as possible.

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LandWISE has three pilot projects being run with Te Ahikawariki, the Vegetable Industry Centre of Excellence based in Pukekohe. The projects include cover cropping, soil stability testing and use of a device to read nitrate test strips more accurately.

Te Ahikawariki/VICE is a government-funded project that is setting up a cutting-edge vegetable research farm in Pukekohe. The project is a collaboration between mana whenua and vegetable growers that aims to create a central location for research to support the entire vegetable industry and protect the land.

Cover crop options for vegetable growers – preliminary scoping study

Over the last few years, we have been posting reports of trials and tribulations with our cover cropping activities at the MicroFarm. Growing a cover crop is easy. Growing a cover crop that ticks boxes for maximum species diversity, non-herbicide termination, and allows the land to be ready for a crop on a certain date specified by processing companies is quite another thing. Our discussions with growers in Tairawhiti and Canterbury confirm we are not alone!

The Te Ahikawariki project involves us and regional contacts interviewing leading growers and industry people with experience in or desire to introduce cover cropping in vegetable production systems. By including five regions, Hastings, Pukekohe, Levin, Gisborne, and Canterbury, we are seeking to compile findings to give a national overview that identifies regional and sector specifics.

A summary from interviews, a resource inventory and literature review will identify where suitable information is available and where key gaps lie. This will provide a base on which to develop a longer-term research strategy and work programme for VICE. 

Farmer Friendly Nitrate Testing

Since 2018, we have been using and promoting the Nitrate Quick Test from the University of California Davis (Hartz, 2010). The method was tested for NZ conditions under a previous SFF project through FAR and Plant & Food Research. The Nitrate Quick Test has much potential to help growers identify required nitrogen base and side-dressing rates and to justify applications.

Our Te Ahikawariki project is comparing results from Nitrate Quick Test strips using the current visual concentration assessment and estimate of soil moisture bands with the Nitrachek concentration and moisture determined by microwave drying soil and with commercial laboratory mineral nitrogen tests. A key part of the project is engaging with growers to demonstrate and support valid paddock sampling and correct use of the test methods, thus ensuring the knowledge is held within each regional community.

In parts of Europe, farmers must have approved soil nitrate testing completed before nitrogen fertiliser applications may be made. One accepted European methodology uses the Nitrachek device to read the test strips, removing the human eye variable and providing much more accurate readings. It also includes drying test-soil so there is no need to estimate soil moisture.

SLAKES: a cost-effective measure of soil structural stability

Soils with stable aggregates are usually found to be more productive than soils with poor aggregate stability. They typically have more organic matter present in the soil, which acts as a glue holding aggregates together, retain more moisture and have higher infiltration rates, and plant roots can penetrate deeper into the soil which means crops will be more drought tolerant and have better productivity. During rain events, soils containing unstable aggregates will disperse filling pore spaces and making the soil susceptible to erosion and compaction. Eroded soil will remove nutrients with it reducing soil fertility, compaction can cause aeration reduction, water logging and root disease which will affect crop health.

Many different methods have been used to measure aggregate stability, including Cornell University’s wet aggregate stability, Yoder’s wet sieving and Landcare Research – Manaaki Whenua’s (LRMW) wet sieving. However, these methods are time consuming and costly. The Soil Health Institute recommends testing aggregate stability with a smartphone app called SLAKES which was developed by the University of Sydney (Soil Health Institute, 2024).

Our SLAKES project is comparing results from SLAKES with the LRMW wet-sieve aggregate stability test and looking for correlations with VSA scores, bulk density, and total soil carbon levels. In March and April, we are trialling SLAKES with selected growers in Pukekohe, Gisborne, Hastings, Palmerston North and Levin. This will give us a range of soil and crop types to see how the methods compare in our young New Zealand soils.

We will report on our progress at LandWISE 2025! See you there.

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Since Cyclone Gabrielle hit in February 2023, LandWISE has been capturing data from impacted sites. Our aim has been to increase knowledge of flood and sediment deposition on highly productive land (HPL), particularly the Land Use Capability (LUC) Class 1 – 3 land that dominates the Heretaunga Plains.

The initial project captured data from 110 impacted sites across Hawke’s Bay, Wairoa, Gisborne/Tairawhiti and Northland. The project was extended, and we monitored a small subset of these initial sites in Hawke’s Bay, assessing short-medium term impacts. In 2024 and again in 2025 we have collected soil and crop data (where relevant), and captured management information from growers. We have focused on sites used for vegetable production.

We have been monitoring 14 sites, and now have data from 2023, 2024 and 2025 (still collecting 2025 data). Final reporting is due in June 2025. This data set is also being used by Alex Dickson for her masters thesis focused on soil recovery after Cyclone Gabrielle.

The impact to many growers was devasting. For those significantly impact it was initially anticipated that recovery would take 5+ year to get back to pre-cyclone production. Recovery has been faster than expected for many of the growers we have been working with, some have reported that they feel they are ‘back to normal’ after just 2 years.

There has been a range of other recovery projects completed by other organisation. We are working with these groups on how we can share the combined lessons in recovery. We has been working with Sally Anderson (Market Access Solutionz), Dirk Wallace (FAR), Stephen Trolove and Eduardo Dias de Oliveira (PFR), Alec Mackay (AgResearch), & others, on how to ensure the research completed and knowledge gained after Cyclone Gabrielle is made available, very quickly, next time a community is impacted by a flood of this magnitude.

You’ll find our 2023 baseline sampling report on the LandWISE website. You can hear more from Alex at her recent presentation at the 2024 NZARM conference.

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After a fun couple of years, I am leaving LandWISE.

My partner Mitchell and I are taking a big leap and moving to the Netherlands to start the next chapter of our lives and careers. I spent a year studying in the Netherlands in 2016 and I am very excited to be heading back!

I have enjoyed my time working for LandWISE, particularly on the Carbon Positive and post-Cyclone Gabrielle projects. I am so grateful to the community of clever people who engage with these projects and have helped them succeed. I have had lots of opportunities to share our work at conferences and connect with so many interesting people over the last two years. I have loved learning more about vegetable production, and hope to continue learning and contributing more in the coming years.

Our house is rented, and our flights are booked. My last day with LandWISE will be the 11th of August. If you are driving past the MicroFarm in the next couple of weeks, please call in for a coffee!

I look forward to seeing you sometime in the future.

Bye for now!

Alex

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McCain Foods Green Beans

Planting

Dwarf green beans for McCain Foods were planted in all treatments on the 28th of December. All treatments were planted in beans, Conventional and Hybrid treatments ex. peas, and the Regen treatment ex. cover crop/fallow. All treatments were disc ripped and rolled one month before planting and regrowth sprayed out four days before planting.

We applied different rates of starter fertiliser to each treatment. In the Hybrid and Regen treatments we added a biological seed treatment. All treatments had the same bean variety planted at the same rate. We are grateful to our good friends at Nicolle Contracting for their patience when planting the trial.

As always, we are measuring lots of thing over the growing season. For the beans, we have been particularly interested in canopy cover, soil nitrogen availability, pest and disease pressure, yield and of course, gross margins.

Canopy Cover

We measure canopy cover percentage weekly using the Canopeo app. There was little difference in the treatments until early Feb when the Regen treatment took off, and canopy size increased at a faster rate. This treatment is visibly taller and ground cover is greater than the other two treatments.

The Hybrid treatment has lagged, probably due to some early slug damage. When the pea vine was disced, some residue remained on the surface, a perfect spot for slugs to hang out. We applied slug bait to all treatments to reduce further damage.

Disease Presence

The main disease issue we are worried about in beans is sclerotinia. We have so far applied one protectant fungicide to each treatment to protect against sclerotinia, as well as botrytis (different products depending on treatment).

Earlier in February we noted that there was young leaves wilting, most prominently in the Conventional and Hybrid treatments, however was apparent to a lesser degree in the Regen. A thorough inspection by Ben Prebble (McCain Foods) and Shelley Bath (Horticentre) concluded that we were starting to see signs of fusarium. Diagnosis was through the presence of brown/purple, woody lower stems. Phosphorus acid application is planned to treat the fusarium as soon as we have an appropriate spray window.

Pest Presence

A common pest insect in beans is looper caterpillar. Standard McCain Foods practice is to apply an insecticide to knock out caterpillars, when a fungicide is being applied. There are two active ingredients that can be used, neither of which are friendly to beneficial insects/natural enemies. Early in the month we saw some suspected signs of caterpillar chewing, however there are no threshold values to use to trigger spray applications. The Conventional treatment had an insecticide applied (Karate Zeon), however we held off in the other two treatments, as there were no clear signs of damage.

A leaf damage survey was completed following this, which understandably found more damage in the Regen & Hybrid than in Conventional, however still not visually a huge amount of damage. A few caterpillars have been found. We have been recommended a biological alternative, BioBit (Bacillus thuringiensis), which will kill caterpillars but not any eggs. We will likely need more than 1 application, to control the next hatched caterpillars. BioBit will be applied in the next spray window.

Nitrogen Management

We have been closely following nitrate nitrogen levels in the soil. The chart below shows nitrate-N in the top 30 cm from when the Conventional and Hybrid cover crops were sprayed out, through to mid Feb.

Nitrate-N in the Regen treatment has been increasing steadily since the cover crop was mulched in early October. The levels in the Hybrid treatment have been higher than the Conventional since harvest. This is likely due to most of the residue being baled and removed in the Conventional, vs retained and incorporated in the Hybrid.

A typical bean program includes a side dressing of fertiliser which includes nitrogen. A leaf test in early Feb found that nutrient levels were good in all treatments. In discussion with Mark Redshaw (Yara), we decided that because the canopy in the Conventional and Hybrid was less developed than the Regen, these treatments would receive a late application of nitrogen despite tests saying levels were satisfactory. The intent was to give these treatments a boost ahead of harvest.

The Conventional treatment had 200kg/ha of Nitrabor applied, the Hybrid a half rate of 100kg/ha. The Regen is to receive a foliar nutrient application of Croplift to maintain canopy health and this will also be applied to the Hybrid.

Application was completed via Airborne Solutions drone, to apply accurately over plots.

Next Steps

We are approx. 2 – 3 weeks away from harvest, with a target harvest date of 6th of March. Hand harvests will be completed to determine yield, followed by machine harvest.

The post February 2025 MicroFarm Update appeared first on LandWISE - Promoting sustainable land management.

Going to the Vegetables Big Day Out in Pukekohe was an amazing opportunity for me to meet people and to learn more about the research and innovation taking place in the vegetable industry.

Being able to see the biodiversity strips, native plant pods (insectaries), and cover crops that are a part of “A Lighter Touch”, then hearing about the differences they are seeing with all three working together was a highlight for me. LandWISE also has native insectaries and has planted biodiversity strips alongside our annual cover crops. It was interesting to hear Howe (Balle Brothers’ crop manager) talk about how he expected they would have to spray an insecticide due to an increased number of aphids. However, they left it for two weeks, and the aphid numbers dropped as the beneficial insects controlled the aphid population without the need for insecticides.

Water quality was a major topic of conversation in many courses I did at university. Therefore, it was very interesting to hear about the cultural indicator tool for water quality monitoring. It is used in evaluating the current state of waterways, as well as determining actions needed to improve the water quality. For me this talk also reinforced how important it is for Mātauranga Māori and science to be integrated.

I also enjoyed listening to the career session for students. It was interesting to hear how everyone ended up in horticulture and why they enjoy it. I particularly liked hearing about the experiences and successes of other young women in the industry.

Thank you, Vegetable Industry Centre of Excellence (VICE), for hosting the Vegetables Big Day Out. It was great to be able to attend such an insightful and interactive event. I would also like to say thank you for giving me a VICE internship, as part of which I will be doing Slakes aggregate stability testing and nitrate testing with a Nitrachek device.

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Peas were planted for McCain Foods on the 3rd of October as part of our Carbon Positive trial. This was a week after the target planting date due to wet soil conditions at the end of September.

Planting

• Conventional treatment: ploughed, disced x 2, power-harrowed, peas drilled, rolled
• Hybrid treatment: peas direct drilled, rolled
• Regenerative treatment: not planted in peas

Winter cover crops in both the Conventional and Hybrid treatments were sprayed out early, and the soil stayed wet. The Conventional treatment was encouraged to dry by cultivating to ‘open up’ the soil. The Hybrid, which was not cultivated, remained very wet, making the soil more vulnerable to compaction at planting. The soil was wet enough to leave defined drill lines, and in some places open slots.

We decided not to plant the Regen treatment in early peas. We wanted to avoid driving on wet soil with heavy machinery, minimising compaction, and retained the soil in a ‘restorative phase’ for longer, ahead of planting beans in late December.

Crop Monitoring

The impact of planting into wet soil in the Hybrid treatment was seen almost immediately. Establishment was slower, and the plant population significantly lower than the Conventional treatment.

We saw similar trends in canopy cover percentage, with the Hybrid treatment lower than the Conventional one. The Regenerative cover crop was mulched on the 1st of October to stop the radish component of the cover crop mix from flowering. The residue was later disced in to mix soil with the residue and speed up breakdown. That was not been sufficient to kill the oats in the multispecies cover crop, and the regrowth required ongoing management.

Both the Conventional and Hybrid treatments had one post-emergence herbicide application (Bruno + Quantum). No pre-emergence herbicide was applied due to lack of forecast rain early in the season.

The dry weather through November brought forward our harvesting date. A fungicide application was recommended, but we were too close to the 14 day pre-harvest interval so none was applied. Disease pressure was low so we had few issues.

The dry spring meant the irrigator has been consistently running. Between planting on the 3rd of September and harvest on the 27th November we received 46.7mm of rainfall. The irrigator made six passes and applied approximately 96mm of irrigation.

Harvest took place on the 26th of November, read more in our harvest article!

The post 2024 McCains Pea Production appeared first on LandWISE - Promoting sustainable land management.

Our McCain Foods peas were harvested on the 26th of November, one week ahead of schedule. The dry spring meant the peas were ready sooner than expected. You can read more about this year’s pea season here.

Ahead of the machine harvest, in each plot we hand harvested all of the pea vines from four 2 x 1m2 subplots. The plants were taken to the McCains mini-viner in Waipawa where the peas were separated from the pods and the vine, and weighed to determine yield.

A subsample of the peas was used to determine the Tenderness Rating (TR). TR is a key factor in determining the price paid for process peas. Generally, a higher price is paid for lower TR peas, as the yield is typically lower. Subsamples were also collected for laboratory analysis, and for drying to determine dry matter content.

Some results!

We are still processing samples and awaiting laboratory results, however we can share the following.

Our Conventional treatment on average produced a paid weight of 5.74 T/ha, and the Hybrid treatment 4.69 T/ha. This is not unsurprising considering the slow start the peas in the Hybrid treatment had (see previous post).

The average Tenderness Rating (TR) for the Conventional treatment was 104, and the Hybrid slightly lower at 96. This means that the Hybrid yielded a higher price per ton than the Conventional.

At this stage, the estimate of income received from the peas is approximately $4290.20 for the Conventional treatment and $3797.50 for the Hybrid. We are still finalising input costs, and will report on margins later in the year. The Hybrid treatment did have a lower cost of production than the Conventional, so it will be interesting to see final gross margins.

Next Steps

We are due to plant our beans on the 28th of December. We have completed our post-harvest operations, which has included baling the vine on the Conventional treatment followed by disc ripping. The Hybrid was disc ripped to incorporate the vine, with the aim of retaining nutrients, particularly nitrogen. The Regen treatment was also disc ripped to mechanically kill the oats which had regrown.

The aim of disc ripping is to attend to any compaction, bury any residues, and level the surface as much as possible ahead of planting beans.

A big thanks!

As always, we want to thank our dedicated operations advisory team for their input into our pea crop.

This includes Mike Flynn, Ben Prebble, Allan Machakaire, Scott Marillier and Renee (McCain Foods), Bruce Mackay (Kraft-Heinz Wattie’s), Gareth Holder (Redloh), Scott Lawson (True Earth), Phil Schofield (Reset Regenerate), Shelley Bath (Horticentre) and Mike Kettle (Mike Kettle Contracting). We would also like to thank Jonny Wilson for completing the disc ripping, and navigating our small plots with very long equipment!

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Earlier this year we learnt of an interesting project focusing on increasing biodiversity on vegetable farms. The aim of this joint project between A Lighter Touch, Vegetables NZ and Onions NZ is to reduce pest insects in crops by increasing the abundance of beneficial insects on vegetable farms, therefore reducing the need for insecticides.

Two suggested approaches for increasing biodiversity caught our attention. Over the last six months, we have been exploring their implementation at the MicroFarm. We are enormously grateful to Olivia Prouse for supporting our biodiversity journey so far. We are also grateful to Richard Mills from Summerfruit NZ for leading the way in Hawke’s Bay, and showing us the importance of just giving something a go! We also extend our gratitude to other growers engaging in this initiative, who have been sharing their experiences.

Mobile Insectaries

Mobile insectaries (moveable pods) aim to provide a source of shelter, nectar, alternative hosts and pollen (SNAP) for beneficial insects. The concentrated areas of SNAP support natural enemies, which can aid in pest control in vegetable crops. The moveable pods can be moved in and out of crops easily during the year.

Following the detailed ‘how to’ guide provided by ALT, with additional support from Olivia Prouse for plant selection, we built four moveable pods. Each pod has native five plants, all selected to flower at different times of the year. The species selected were mainly plants that had small flowers to provide habitat to small predatory wasps and other small insects which cannot feed on large flowers like commonly grown manuka.

We have been monitoring the pods to see what is flowering each month. While there is some maintenance required for weeding and watering, all plants survived the winter and are thriving this spring. We are excited to have species like Pimelea mimosa, which is a native daphne, naturally found only on Te Mata peak, and to have two species of Muehlenbeckia, which provides a food source for NZ native copper butterfly.

Annual Flower Strips

The aim adding annual flowering strips to a farm is to enhance above ground diversity. Again, this increases the diversity of natural pest insect enemies, providing additional pest control.

At the MicroFarm, we had two specific areas that made for good candidates for annual planting strips. The first is along our driveway, an area which is normally sprayed year-round for weeds. The second is under the irrigator guide cable, another area that gets sprayed, particularly in the spring and summer when the irrigator is running.

Using the ‘how to’ guide from ALT, we have planted a variety of annual flowers in these areas to see what might be suitable. In late September, we planted nine 10 m long plots of annual flowers, each with different combinations of species planted. The rest will planted by early December. We have been monitoring what is growing and what is flowering, and are excited to see insects present and a range of different colored flowers along the driveway.

What’s next?

We continue to monitor the moveable pods and annual flowering strips. We hope that our late plantings will persist through the summer and autumn. While not formally part of our main Carbon Positive project, it is a nice supplementary demonstration. We hope to showcase the ALT guides and provide some regional information about what may be suitable to grow (annuals and perennials) here in Hawke’s Bay. Read more about our journey in the latest A Lighter Touch newsletter here!

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