At Whenua Matua, a bright green light scans the rows from veraison (when the grapes start changing colour) through to harvest.
Standing like metal scarecrows in the vineyard, lasers are a new technology in viticulture.
When our Assistant Vineyard Manager, Mike Duffield, heard about crop farmers in Southland using lasers to repel birds, he was keen to give them a try.
A few years later, lasers have significantly reduced the cost of material, machinery, and labour involved in using plastic netting each season.
“The lasers are much cheaper and last longer than plastic netting, but the sustainability side is an added bonus.”
– Mike Duffield, Assistant Vineyard Manager at Whenua Matua
But there are many other benefits to this innovative method of bird control…
How lasers repel birds
Lasers are effective bird scarers because birds perceive the bright light (that looks green to us) as a predator chasing after them.
As humans, our world is a spectrum of red, yellow, and blue. But birds have tetrachromatic vision, able to see an additional plane of ultraviolet light.
A representation of human trichromatic vision vs. bird tetrachromatic vision.
(Of course we can’t accurately replicate what birds can see.)
Source
So just as a flock of tauhou, wax-eyes, are about to enjoy a delicious feast of ripe grapes, the laser triggers their prey instincts. They dodge and veer away, back to the safety of the gully.
With manufacturers reporting bird damage reduced up to 90%, lasers are proving to be just as effective as plastic netting, which is the standard method used in most vineyards.
But if the effectiveness is about the same, why switch?
The downsides of plastic bird netting
Bird netting is the standard for bird control in the wine industry – and we still use netting in some parts of our other vineyards!
But Mike explains that bird netting comes with downsides, especially for warm, moist climates like our Whenua Matua vineyard in Nelson.
“Putting nets on the vines is a huge and expensive job. You need at least four people and a tractor and it takes 2 days to take them on and off. Nets also trap moisture and limit our ability to spray when we need to.”
– Mike Duffield, Assistant Vineyard Manager at Whenua Matua
Nets aren’t totally bird-proof, either.
Smaller and more nimble birds like sparrows and wax-eyes can peck holes in the fruit through tiny windows in the netting.
Mike explains that these daintier dining habits are actually more devastating to the fruit.
“Waxeyes can get through the nets and poke holes in the grapes, which lets insects and botrytis in and rots the bunch. At least starlings just take the whole grape!”
— Mike Duffield, Assistant Vineyard Manager at Whenua Matua
Encouraging natural cycles
As well as small birds, Whenua Matua is home to many kāhu (NZ swamp harrier) and kārearea (NZ falcon) that hunt in the vineyards – but they used to get caught in the bird netting.
Replacing bird netting with lasers doesn’t completely eliminate the bird problem, but it makes it easier for natural predators to help us out.
Now, falcons and hawks can safely hunt between the rows. They don’t have the same ‘panic button’ that prey birds do, so the lasers aren’t a threat.
Left to right: Kārearea (NZ Falcon), Tauhou (Waxeye), Kāhu (NZ Swamp Harrier)
Any pest control method interrupts the ecosystem to some extent, but by removing such a physical barrier like bird netting, we’re allowing more of these natural cycles of predation to keep everything in balance.
That aligns well with our worldview as a Māori-owned wine business, where we’re trying to work with Papatuānuku, the earth mother, as much as we can.
Supporting well-timed harvests
When it rains it pours in the Upper Moutere, and the weather can change quickly.
With netting on the vines, the decision of when to harvest must accommodate at least a two-day buffer for removal. These logistics, plus the additional costs involved, add another layer of complexity to the harvest window.
Sunset at Whenua Matua vineyard
Vintage 2026 was a classic example of these weather patterns, with a very wet January making the team nervous. Thankfully, March was clear, and our team was able to harvest before the next rainfall.
At Whenua Matua, not having to take down the netting has made it easier to harvest at the perfect time – with exceptional results from previous vintages.
Grape quality was one of the many factors contributing to our 2025 Albariño and Chardonnay varieties, which picked up Gold at Decanter and the Colin Harrison Memorial Trophy respectively.
Switching to lasers at Whenua Matua is just one factor in the mix along with careful planning, hard work, and – let’s be honest – sheer luck that helps us make beautiful wine.
Across every decision, our aim is to produce wine that is a true expression of the land. In this case, of Whenua Matua, the “significant place” that was passed to us from our ancestors.
Innovations that save costs and work with the land
In Māori tradition, humans and birds have a shared whakapapa, ancestral and spiritual genealogy, that goes back to the god of the forest, Tāne-mahuta.
There isn’t really a word in te reo that means ‘pest’ in the English or Western sense. Instead of putting species in a ‘good vs. bad’ category, Māori were “observers and participants in ecosystems” with a pragmatic view of the roles played by different species.**
As Mike reminds us of the ecological role of birds in the vineyard…
“Remember that it’s the natural process of a grapevine to ripen for birds to eat so that it can spread. If you’re fighting against nature, there’s going to be challenges."
So while, of course, we have to protect our crop for future prosperity and award-winning wine, we’re always seeking practices that align with our values as a Māori-owned business.
With the lasers in place, we’re eliminating unnecessary waste and costs, encouraging natural cycles, and making it easier to harvest at the perfect time!
This is a huge win for hihiritanga, innovation, showing that we can find ways to succeed as a business while working with the land and its precious ecosystems as tiaki.
Tēnā rawa atu ki a Mike for sharing this story and for your amazing work managing the Whenua Matua vineyard!
** Research by O. Ripeka Mercier (Ngāti Porou), Symon Palmer (Ngāi Te Rangi), and Alan King-Hunt (Ngāti Hauā, Ngāi Te Rangi) published in September 2022 by The Polynesian Society from the University of Auckland in their Journal of the Polynesian Society (JPS). Read the full paper here.