European expert joins Lincoln-based team

Media Release
3 August 2012
- for immediate release

European expert joins Lincoln-based team for Precision Agriculture

Lincoln Ventures Ltd welcomes Dr Armin Werner to lead their research efforts in Precision Agriculture (PA)

Dr Werner has recently joined Lincoln Ventures Ltd from Germany where he previously headed up the Institute of Land Use Systems at the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research in Müncheberg. Lincoln Ventures CEO Peter Barrowclough says that “Now is the right time for precision agriculture in New Zealand. We have the convergence of the roll out of rural broadband and IT systems combining with a time when we need to grow more to pay our way in the world. However, growing more cannot come at any cost to the environment. We need to grow more with a smaller environmental footprint. Lincoln Ventures is ideally placed to develop this area of agriculture and we are very pleased to have Dr Werner joining the team to assist with this”.

Precision Agriculture is a farming management concept based on observing and responding to intra-field variation. It relies on new technologies such as crop sensing, information technology, and geospatial tools, and is aided by a farmer’s ability to locate their precise position in a field using satellite positioning system like GPS when applying farming inputs.

Dr Werner has substantial experience in PA research having led several collaborative R&D projects in Germany and for the European Union. In 2003 he organised the European conference on PA in Berlin which, for the first time, addressed research into precision livestock production systems. Dr Werner is excited about being in New Zealand to further his research and to apply his experience and his connections gained from his career in Europe; where they have faced significant challenges in balancing agricultural production with environmental needs. He is keen to use PA techniques in New Zealand to help achieve that balance here. One of Dr Werner’s drivers is to combine research with teaching and training, to drive the uptake and impact of research that he will conduct at Lincoln Ventures. As a result, he will work closely in the Lincoln/Massey University collaboration on PA with Professor Ian Yule from Massey University who has been at the forefront of PA research in New Zealand for some years. Lincoln Ventures Ltd and Massey University are also interested in working with farmers, private sector companies and other research providers in helping promote and implement Precision Agriculture in NZ

Peter Barrowclough says that “Dr Werner will be an integrator at Lincoln Ventures using his agricultural systems and PA knowledge to combine the research we already carry out in sensors and groundwater nutrient movement.”

Lincoln Ventures is a 100% subsidiary of Lincoln University with a proud history of providing innovative research and applications to agriculture, industry and the environment.

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