Grape Days 2026: AI Adoption and Vineyard Research Insights
Generative AI in the workplace, trials in the field, and industry-relevant research took centre stage at this year’s Grape Days events in Central Otago, Hawke’s Bay and Marlborough.
A new task management system allows farmers and agricultural contractors to keep track of job and time records with an app, helping reduce mistakes and saving time.
FarmBackup’s app, called Task, allows users to ditch the paper job sheets they use to keep track of daily tasks and times worked.
The digital platform collects and collates data to provide the information needed for correct invoicing, machine analysis and calculation of salary. It integrates with the most commonly used accounting systems, says FarmBackup’s co-founder Anders Knudsen.
“As an administrator, you get a better overview of submitted job sheets and tasks planned for the future, instead of a pile of job sheets to look through and transfer.”
The system handles all registered work and payroll digitally, taking advantage of the already high digitalisation in farming and contracting, where everybody uses a smartphone and keeps it close to their side during the working day.
FarmBackup in 2018 launched a digital marketplace for agricultural services, making it more transparent who was offering combine harvesting, cultivating, drilling, etc. Many contractors and farmers across New Zealand have joined the marketplace, so the arrival of the Task app is sure to be of interest.
Development of the Task app saw the developers team up with a group of farmers and contractors who delivered valuable feedback during developing and testing.
FarmBackup will continue to develop the app to suit its users in the best ways possible and has already engaged with the first contractors in NZ.
An Auckland gelato shop and an established New Zealand ice cream maker have both been named Supreme Champions at the NZ Ice Cream & Gelato Awards 2026.
As the cost-of-living crisis continues to put pressure on household grocery budgets, new figures show pork remains one of the most affordable fresh meat options for New Zealand families.
OPINION: In politics, credibility is and should be big. It must surely rank higher than charisma, which is quite trite and superficial. Yet, voters nowadays are often wooed and influenced by how someone looks or talks at a superficial level. TV plays a huge role in this.
Farmers can spend less time on paperwork, thanks to a new data sharing agreement between DairyNZ’s DairyBase and LIC’s MINDA software.
Kaikōura families affected by July's severe storm have found a practical solution to a problem that's kept some children away from regular schooling for weeks: a washed-out section of Inland Kaikōura Road, which has stopped the local school bus from running its usual route.
Rural New Zealand is welcoming the Government’s recent package of rural healthcare initiatives.
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OPINION: With fuel prices soaring, one would have expected most farmers to be reclaiming excise duty on petrol.