Alpego eyes electric power harrow
Distributed by OriginAg in New Zealand, Italian manufacturer Alpego recently showed its three metre Alysium electric power harrow at the Italian Eima Event, taking away an innovation award.
Commercial vegetable growers now have access to a new tech tool designed to support decision making and better management of common New Zealand plant diseases, including Downy Mildew.
The Vegetables New Zealand (VNZ) Weather & Disease Portal, launched in April, provides weather forecasts and easy-tounderstand information about disease risk. It does this by combining data from a nationwide network of weather stations with disease models from leading New Zealand researchers. The tool is available to all commercial vegetable growers via the ‘Weather & Disease’ button on the VNZ website, www.freshvegetables.co.nz.
“We are thrilled to be making this tool available to our growers. Weather plays a crucial role in the production of vegetables and having readily available, accurate information helps our growers make informed decisions around crop activities,” VNZ research, development & extension manager Daniel Sutton says.
One of the many growers who will benefit is Kirit Makan, who grows onions, potatoes, leeks, pumpkins and butternuts on his 50-hectare property in Pukekohe.
“I’ll be looking at it each week to get good weather information. It’s another great tool that will help us make good decisions around the weather and the disease pressures we are likely to face at different times of year,” Makan says.
The portal was developed in collaboration with kiwi agri-tech experts HortPlus – a company with 25 years of experience developing weather and disease platforms for agriculture.
“We’re excited at the potential the weather and disease portal offers and can’t wait to see the impact it has across New Zealand’s vegetable industry,” says HortPlus director Mike Barley.
The platform will be launching initially with weather and forecasting tools as the focus.
“However, there is potential to add more pest and disease models to further support the kinds of data-driven decisions that can reduce crop losses, increase productivity and drive positive sustainability outcomes through more targeted agrichemical use,” Barley adds.
He says Vegetables New Zealand serviced a diverse industry representing growers of more than 55 different crop types, so the potential for future crop-specific additions to the portal was “immense”.
The Metwatch Platform that powers the VNZ Weather & Disease Portal is also used by a range of other sectors, from kiwifruit, summer fruit, to apples and arable crops, with different tools and crop-specific pest and disease models for each.
Barley believes there are opportunities to enable integration between the Vegetables New Zealand portal and the weather and disease portals used by other industries such as Onions New Zealand and Foundation for Arable Research, recognising that many vegetable growers also grow other crops.
In addition to growers, the portals are also used by researchers and agronomists for more advanced modelling and data insight.
Through its new partnership with New Zealand Landcare Trust, Fonterra has committed to funding ten $25,000 grants for wetland restoration in communities across the country.
The chair of the Dairy Environmental Leaders (DEL) says the country's dairy farmers are at the forefront of environmental management.
On the edge of the hot, dry Takapau plains, Norm and Del Atkins have cultivated a small but exceptional herd of 60 Holstein Friesian cows within their mixed breed herd of 360 dairy cows.
The DairyNZ board and management are currently trying to determine whether, and to what degree, their farmer levy payers will support any increase in their levy contributions.
Milk production is up nationally, despite drought conditions beginning to bite in some districts, according to the latest update from Fonterra.
Dry conditions are widespread but worse in some places, with rain and drought affecting farms just a few kilometres away.
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