Episode 37 – 12 November 2016
Trying to Control the Guava Moth Pest The Guava Moth is a small black and white speckled moth that lays its eggs on the surface of feijoa fruit. On hatching, the caterpillar bury their way into the...
View ArticleEpisode 38 – 19 November 2016
The Ongoing Search For a More Efficient Dairy Cow Since the 1980’s, the dairy industry has been selecting animals for breeding from those that are superior converters of pasture to milk solids. The...
View ArticleEpisode 39 – 26 November 2016
A Predator Free Peninsula In 2010 the Otago Peninsula Biodiversity Group was incorporated to protect the unique 10,000ha environment of the Otago Peninsula. A couple of years before this, conversations...
View ArticleEpisode 40 – 3 December 2016
Combating the Argentine Ant at Victoria University The Argentine Ant is a highly successful invasive pest that is a threat to the bee and horticulture industries. It was first identified in Auckland in...
View ArticleEpisode 1 – 18 March 2017
A Pig-Waste Bio-digester The management and disposal of waste is a major challenge in any large scale commercial piggery. Steve Lepper’s farrow-to-finish pig farm in Taranaki produces roughly 9,500...
View ArticleEpisode 2 – 25 March 2017
Barton Honey It has been estimated that beehive numbers in the North Island have increased by over 60 per cent in four years, to just over 420,000 in 2015. At a recent conference in Taranaki,...
View ArticleEpisode 3 – 1 April 2017
Land Farming Coastal country in South Taranaki is largely exposed sandy soil with patchy ground cover from which grazing livestock cannot gain much sustenance. “Land-farming” (also known as...
View ArticleEpisode 4 – 8 April 2017
Heat Ranger Frost Protection Bruce Koller is a former MAF adviser who has worked in horticulture for many decades. In 2006 he became involved in blackcurrant production in Canterbury but a series of...
View ArticleEpisode 5 – 15 April 2017
Untamed Tannery Sue and Steve Boot have developed their businesses, Untamed Tannery and Basically Bush, to take New Zealand’s number one pest and transform it into leather and fur products. They have...
View ArticleEpisode 6 – 22 April 2017
Tomato-Potato Psyllid Research Update In 2009, a new-to-science bacterium was discovered and the relationship between it and the tomato-potato psyllid confirmed. The bacterium (Candidatus Liberibacter...
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