Friday, 17 February 2023 11:25

New tech to monitor and manage 'Ghost Vines'

Written by  Staff Reporters
Cropsy’s head of product & innovation Dr Gareth Hill says the company’s current vision system can measure the current state of grapevines. Cropsy’s head of product & innovation Dr Gareth Hill says the company’s current vision system can measure the current state of grapevines.

New Zealand agritech start-up Cropsy Technologies is leading a $1.3 million SFF Futures/ AGMARDT co-funded project to help growers identify and replace grapevines that are missing, dead, dying or otherwise unproductive Ñ also known as 'Ghost Vines'.

"This project will develop tools to help growers understand the health and productivity of every vine in their vineyards in order to identify missing, dead, dying or otherwise unproductive grapevines,” says Cropsy’s head of product & innovation Dr Gareth Hill.

The company has been awarded a $534,000 project grant through the Ministry for Primary Industries’ (MPI’s) Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures (SFF Futures) fund and a $200,000 AGMARDT Agribusiness Innovation grant to lead a project titled, ‘You know I can’t harvest your Ghost Vines: Vineyard-scale monitoring of unproductive vines’.

“These vines receive all the labour, water, and other vineyard inputs that other vines do without contributing to the overall productivity of the vineyard. For all intents and purposes these vines are either missing or may as well be, which is why we call them ‘Ghost Vines’,” Hill explains.

“There are over 40,000 hectares of New Zealand vineyards with many tens-of-millions of vines, so ghost vines pose a hidden threat to the sustainability of the industry. This is both environmentally inefficient through land use and financially through lost production and avoidable vineyard expansion. Monitoring the health and productivity of this number of vines reliably right now is simply impossible.”

Cropsy’s current vision system can measure the current state of grapevines.

However, by also measuring and analysing the state of every vine and its neighbours over time, the Ghost Vines project will enable the diagnosis of declining productivity and disease at the earliest possible stage.

“We are building up a ‘patient history’ of all the vines in a vineyard,” Hill adds. “By putting each vine’s performance into context we’ll be able to make more accurate forecasts about its productivity and the future of the vineyard as a whole.”

The two-year project is a collaboration with prominent wine companies Pernod Ricard Winemakers, Indevin Group, and Cloudy Bay Vineyards and viticultural consultancy Fantail Consulting.

Pernod Ricard Winemakers believes the collaboration offers benefits for the whole industry.

“Improving the utilisation of resources such as land and water is something that would benefit the entire industry,” says David Allen, viticulture transformation manager. Indevin’s group technical viticulturist Rhys Hall believes the project will push the boundaries of agritech in New Zealand vineyards.

Cloudy Bay is also part of the project.

“It has the potential to provide us with the tools we need for decision making regarding longterm productivity and re-development,” says Cloudy Bay viticulturist John Flanagan.

MPI’s director of investment programmes Steve Penno claims this innovation is unprecedented in New Zealand vineyards.

“The technology-based and data-driven services developed through this project will enable the wine industry to manage their vineyards in a way that’s not currently possible and has the potential to lift productivity significantly – that’s a very exciting prospect.”

About Cropsy Technologies

Founded in 2019, Cropsy is a New Zealand-based start-up, unlocking the full potential of vineyards and orchards with a unique and scalable AI-enabled vision system.

Each of Cropsy’s hardware units attaches to an existing tractor. The system sees and understands every single plant while a grower runs their daily crop operations; profiling every leaf, fruit, shoot, cane, and trunk in real-time as the tractor passes by.

The result is a ‘digital twin’ of the vineyard or orchard; a map clearly showing areas of concern and patterns across the entire crop, so growers know precisely how their crop is performing and changing over time. With an initial focus on grapevines, the product development roadmap will see Cropsy branch into apples and oranges.

More like this

Rein 'Deere' spreads Christmas cheer

The Brandt Hastings team, joined by Rudolph the Red-Nose Rein ‘Deere’, spread holiday cheer this week at the Hawke’s Bay Hospital children’s ward.

LC70 - A no-nonsense work horse

As most vehicle manufacturers are designing, producing and delivering machines with features that would take us into the next decade, it seems like the Land Cruiser design team at Toyota are working to the adage, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.

GEA launches robotic milkers

Milking technology provider GEA Farm Technologies is introducing its first automatic milking system (AMS) in New Zealand.

A JAC for all trades

While the New Zealand ute market is dominated by three main players, “disruptors” are never too far away.

Compact design, more capabilities

Case IH has added to its telescopic loader range with the introduction of the Farmlift 626, said to offer a more compact design, reduced turning radius for greater manoeuvrability and lower overall height.

Featured

'Female warriors' to talk ag sector opportunities

The East Coast Farming Expo is playing host to a quad of ‘female warriors’ (wahine toa) who will give an in-depth insight into the opportunities and successes the primary industries offer women.

Dairy-beef offering potential for savings

Beef produced from cattle from New Zealand's dairy sector could provide reductions in greenhouse gas emissions of up to 48, compared to the average for beef cattle, a new study by AgResearch has found.

National

Machinery & Products

LC70 - A no-nonsense work horse

As most vehicle manufacturers are designing, producing and delivering machines with features that would take us into the next decade,…

GEA launches robotic milkers

Milking technology provider GEA Farm Technologies is introducing its first automatic milking system (AMS) in New Zealand.

More front hoppers

German seeding specialists Horsch have announced a new 1600- litre double-tank option that will join its current Partner FT single…

» Latest Print Issues Online

The Hound

Dark ages

OPINION: Before we all let The Green Party have at it with their 'bold' emissions reduction plan, the Hound thought…

Rhymes with?

OPINION: The Feds' latest banking survey shows that bankers are even less popular with farmers than they used to be,…

» Connect with Rural News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter