2023 Spray Days Speakers

Dr David Manktelow is a familiar speaker at NZ wine industry events – David is a plant pathologist with a history in developing disease warning systems. David holds a PhD in spray application (there are not many of those in the world) and has a passionate interest in sustainable crop production systems.  He has been closely involved with the NZW Sustainable Winegrowing NZ programme since its inception way back in the 1990’s and also works closely with sister programmes in the NZ apple, kiwifruit and avocado sectors. He also works internationally in this space and is a co-author of a free 2001 e-book on air assisted fruit crop spraying. 

Andrew Blakeman is a horticultural consultant, who has over 30 years’ experience in horticulture, 20 of those years in the wine sector. His work has included managing large scale multi orchard and vineyard operations, conducting trial work for private companies and industry bodies, and providing technology transfer. Andrew has a passion for helping growers to improve outcomes through the application of research findings.

Jon Peet is the national ‘Technical Specialist for Viticulture’ at Fruitfed Supplies. He is responsible for a wide range of technical activities with Fruitfed’s customers, including extension, external training & conducting R&D trials to name but a few.

He has over 20 years’ experience in the NZ winegrowing industry; as a grower, a wine producer, a lecturer, and a Viticulturist.

A soil scientist by trade, Jon has worked in different parts of the world as an agronomist and R&D consultant in both agriculture & horticulture, specialising in understanding how plants respond to differing environmental conditions.

Vaughn Bell is a Senior Scientist working for The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research in Hawke’s Bay. Since 2004, he has studied sap-feeding mealybugs in vineyards, with an emphasis on their ecology, biology, and behaviour. Being responsible for the spread of grapevine leafroll virus and the growth of black sooty mould, mealybug management that is effective is important. Vaughn will report on recent evaluations of the mealybug insecticide programme – identifying and remedying common application errors and options to improve insecticide effectiveness.​

Andy Mawley has spent all his life working with and applying agrichemicals. This is Andy's fourth year presenting at Spray Days, and he brings a real and practical element to application and machinery practices. Andy delivers Growsafe courses from the far North to the bottom of the South and is working on new projects to help improve application practices and foremost improve application results in industry sectors.

Dr Trevor James is a senior scientist with AgResearch and has been involved in researching weed management for more than 47 years. His work has covered weeds in pastoral, arable, horticultural and environmental situations. Specific research areas include herbicide resistance, soil weed seed bank and seed ecology, herbicide residues and persistence, border biosecurity and new incursions. Trevor is a keen photographer of plants and with colleagues has published books on identification of weeds and their seeds.

Sophie Badland is the Biosecurity & Emergency Response Manager for NZ Winegrowers. Sophie started her career in biosecurity with MPI as a Quarantine Officer working at the border, clearing passengers, air and sea cargo, planes, cruise ships and other vessels of biosecurity risks as they arrived from international destinations. She also worked as a detector dog handler at Wellington Airport and CentrePort, before moving to Marlborough and becoming the inaugural Biosecurity Advisor for New Zealand Winegrowers. In her current role as the Biosecurity & Emergency Response Manager, Sophie and her team are responsible for the implementation of the wine industry’s Biosecurity Action Plan and for coordinating the industry association’s response to emergency events impacting winegrowers in New Zealand.