Samasz XDF Front Mowers launched for NZ's tough terrain
Samasz distributor FarmShop has introduced the new XDF Series Front Mowers, said to be refined for local conditions and to improve cutting precision and wear resistance.
NZ agritech company Hectre and its Spectre app are delivering fruit size and colour data to US packers and growers earlier than ever before.
Having faced the same issue for many years, fruit packers and growers have been unable to gain early access to quick and accurate fruit size and colour information at harvest time. It was finding a solution to this type of problem that led NZ entrepreneur Matty Blomfield to co-found Hectre in 2016 and launch Spectre for Apples in 2020.
Spectre is a computer vision AI solution, developed as part of the Hectre app on iPhone and iPad. It sees fruit such as apples just like the human eye would see them. Using proprietary technology, Hectre has taught the computer how to detect pieces of fruit, how to size those pieces of fruit, and for apples, to assess the colour.
Growers can use Spectre in their orchards as soon as the fruit is picked, gaining early size data, which they can share with their packhouses to inform sales plans.
“For fruit packhouses, huge value is gained with Spectre, with quick and easy capture of size data and colour estimation reducing the incidence and negative impacts of incorrect storage, packing line resets, and wasted labour and fruit,” Blomfield explains.
He adds that with a commitment to “clever simplicity”, the Spectre technology is easy to use, requiring users to only stand and raise an iPad or iPhone over a bin of fruit and take a photo. Within seconds, fruit size distribution graphs are served up, delivering massive increases in sample sizes, without the need for more expensive equipment.
Fruit growers and packers across 11 countries are now using Hectre’s orchard technologies, including First Fresh NZ, Rockit, BC Tree Fruits and fruit leaders Washington Fruit & Produce.
“The more we know about the size profile of a particular grower’s crop in advance of it being brought into the packhouse, the better we can plan our sales programs,” says Ian Albers, managing director First Fresh NZ.
Spectre currently sizes apples, oranges, lemons, and mandarins; while in response to demand from the cherry industry, a Spectre for Cherries pilot is now underway with cherry packers in Washington state.
Two butcheries have claimed victory at the 100% New Zealand Bacon & Ham Awards for 2025.
A Taupiri farming company has been convicted and fined $52,500 in the Hamilton District Court for the unlawful discharge of dairy effluent into the environment.
The Climate Change Commission’s 2025 emissions reduction monitoring report reveals steady progress on the reduction of New Zealand’s climate pollution.
Another milestone has been reached in the fight against Mycoplasma bovis with the compensation assistance service being wound up after helping more than 1300 farmers.
The Government’s directive for state farmer Landcorp Farming (trading as Pamu) to lifts its performance is yielding results.
The move to bring bovine TB testing in-house at Ospri officially started this month, as a team of 37 skilled and experienced technicians begin work with the disease eradication agency.
OPINION: Spare a thought for the arable farmer, squeezed on one side by soft global prices and on the other…
OPINION: Labour leader Chris 'Chippy' Hipkins is carrying on the world-class gaslighting of the nation that he and his cohorts…