Speaker Information

Keynote Speaker: Jim Willwerth, PhD
Title: Protecting vineyards using large data sets:  VineAlert and monitoring cold tolerance in grapevines
Abstract:
Freeze injury is a major threat for the grape and tender fruit industry.  In 2010, the Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute (CCOVI) at Brock University began a province-wide grapevine cold hardiness monitoring program and created an interactive online database called VineAlert.  The information contained on this webpage provides grape growers with comparative levels of bud hardiness for cultivars at different locations throughout the dormant period. Monitoring bud cold hardiness throughout the dormant period is an invaluable tool to assist grape growers in managing winter injury. The information provided from this database allows growers and researchers to see how cold-hardy grapevines are within a specific area. Cold hardiness is not static but varies throughout the dormant period and is determined through the grapevine’s genetic potential and environmental conditions. Therefore, grapevine species and cultivars vary in terms of their cold hardiness. Bud sampling and testing occurs throughout the entire dormant season to monitor cold hardiness through the acclimation, maximum hardiness, and deacclimation periods. This ever-changing bud hardiness data has been helpful in determining when wind machine use or other freeze avoidance methods are warranted to protect the vines from winter injury.  Growers can customize the data they would like to receive from the VineAlert system and are notified when new data is available or alerted when critical temperatures are likely going to be reached.  This program has been extremely successful in mitigating cold injury in grapevines since its launch.  Over 250 grape growers are subscribed to VineAlert and the website has users across Canada, North America and worldwide.  Future work includes using temperature and cold hardiness ratings for modelling grapevine cold hardiness for Canadian vines as well as establishing new collaborations with the tender fruit industry to develop similar programs.

Bio:
Jim Willwerth is a Senior Staff Scientist in Viticulture at the Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute (CCOVI).  His responsibilities are to perform research and outreach services in the field of viticulture with emphasis on grapevine winter hardiness and the priorities of the Canadian grape and wine industry.  He currently has multiple projects investigating ways to optimize cold hardiness in V. vinifera through management practices. His main outreach activities are CCOVI’s VineAlert Regional Grapevine Cold Hardiness Program and the Grapevine Preharvest Monitoring program for the Ontario grape and wine Industry.  He has his Doctorate from Brock University where his research focused on elucidation of Riesling terroirs that impact wine varietal character in vineyards throughout the Niagara Peninsula and validation of sub-appellations in terms of Riesling fruit composition and wine sensory profiles.  His expertise includes vine physiology, cold hardiness, viticulture practices, soil/irrigation management, and water relations in grapevines.  

Short Talk Speaker: David Colville 
Title: What Will Grow Where? : Mapping the Meteorological Landscape of Southwestern Nova Scotia
Abstract:
For more than a decade the Applied Geomatics Research Group (AGRG) has been monitoring the meteorological conditions of the Annapolis Valley, and more recently this work has been expanded to all of southwestern Nova Scotia.  AGRG uses a network of 75 weather stations, as well as satellite imagery and other mapped landscape data, to map and evaluate the agricultural potential of the area.  This presentation will highlight this work and some of the findings to date.

Bio:
David Colville is a Research Scientist with the Applied Geomatics Research Group (AGRG) at the Annapolis Valley Campus of the NSCC.  He has over 25 years of experience teaching and applying geomatics technology.  David also holds an adjunct professor position with Acadia University and is an active co-supervisor in the MSc Applied Geomatics program (a joint Masters program offered by Acadia University and the NSCC).  David is the principal investigator on a number of in-situ sensing, meteorological monitoring, and landscape-level studies in southwestern Nova Scotia.  

Short Talk Speaker: Angus Ells
Title: Developing a QGIS-based pest monitoring system for wild blueberries
Abstract:
Decision making in wild blueberry pest management has become more critical in recent years due to increasing yield potential and, at the same time, the appearance of new pests. To deal with the volume of data generated a new pest monitoring system is being developed linking QGIS-mapped scouting data ,that is recorded via a smartphone app, to real-time reports on farm operations managers' computers.

Bio:
Angus Ells is the manager of carrot operations for Bragg Lumber Company which is the Canadian farming division of the Oxford Food Group. The Oxford Food Group is the largest global grower and processor of wild blueberries.

Short Talk Speaker: Colin Bell
Title: Grape Crown Gall in N.S.
Abstract:
The bacterial disease, Crown Gall, is a serious problem in grape-growing regions around the world.  To determine the extent of the problem in Nova Scotia, members of the Grape Growers Association of N.S. were asked to report the amount of the disease in their vineyards in 2012.  Survey data on 8 simple parameters enabled the percent infection across individual vineyards to be calculated.  Five vineyards had infection rates ≥ 10% indicating that the disease is established in the province and growers need to be diligent.  The susceptibility/resistance of grape varieties commonly grown here were also determined.  Analyses revealed 7 varieties which were always infected.  The effects of age of the vines, root type, and whether the stock came from nurseries were also determined.  It appears that diseased vines do not always cause a reduction in grape yield and not all growers are treating diseased vines.  9 varieties are not showing any infection so far.  This data should allow growers of grapes in Nova Scotia to better react to this important disease.

Bio:
Colin Bell runs Windermere Hills Farm & Vineyard, a small farm south of Berwick.  He has been raising purebred Icelandic sheep and establishing a small vineyard since retiring from Acadia University in 2011.  His research specialty was in environmental microbiology focusing on bacteria in various eco-systems.  At Acadia he participated in numerous applied projects in collaboration with the Kentville Agricultural Centre one of which explored Crown Gall disease in grapes.  He is presently serving on the board of directors of the Kings County Federation of Agriculture to learn as much as possible about farming in the Valley to help bring the worlds of agriculture and research closer together.


Short Talk Speaker: Dr. Sean Myles
Title: Data-driven apple breeding in the Annapolis Valley
Abstract:
Coming Soon

Bio:
Dr Sean Myles is from Fredericton, New Brunswick, where he received his BA at Saint Thomas University. He completed his Masters in Human Biology at Oxford University and his PhD in Human Evolutionary Genetics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany. He turned to plants during his postdoc at Cornell where he worked on grape genomics. He also spent time as a postdoc at Stanford University before starting his current position in the Faculty of Agriculture at Dalhousie University as the Canada Research Chair in Agricultural Genetic Diversity in the summer of 2011. His research focusses on figuring out how to use genomics to more efficiently breed improved fruit that requires less chemical input to grow.