What was it all about?

In May 2016, fourteen growers and two agronomists took part in a 10-day study tour of New Zealand’s north island, to take a closer look at the precision agriculture techniques and technologies being used. Precision agriculture is a farming management concept based on observing, measuring and responding to inter and intra-field variability in crops.

The tour was a chance for growers on both sides of the Tasman to share key information, experiences and troubleshooting when it comes to implementing precision agriculture.

Field demonstrations on the tour included the use of helicopters and tractor-mounted NDVI sensors - Normalized Difference Vegetation Index sensors – to assess the health of crops, as well as unmanned aerial vehicles (drones).

Growers also visited several properties to view EM38 soil mapping put to use (and shared their own troubles in getting the most accurate data to zone land this way); discussed the benefits of minimum tillage for soil health; and observed the payoffs of R&D through innovations such as robotic sorting technology, disease-resistant crop varieties and more.