Dave has been advising
farming clients for 12 and a half years, though only the
last four here in Western Australia. He ran his own
client base in Zimbabwe. This included a wide range of areas
- 48 farmers with diverse crops such as intensive
greenhouse produced roses, tobacco, maize, cotton, soyabeans,
citrus, coffee, mangoes and small scale vegetable production
(tomatoes, cucurbits, beans). This also happened to be the
last 4 years of agricultural existence there, and at this time were
producing their own flowers for the Dutch export summer flower
market. This production was along side as seed sunflowers,
soyabeans and maize on a 200acre leasehold, 25km west of
Harare. Unfortunately, they became a statistic in September 2004
when they were frogmarched off the property and the honeymoon
with Africa was over!
Since emigrating to Australia, he has worked with Landmark doing agronomy for the Central Wheatbelt regions incorporating Kellerberrin, Quairading, Meckering, York and Northam. In February this year he decided to again form a base of 35 of his own clients, and he does this under the Farmanco umbrella - specifically focussing on agronomy.
Dave's professional qualifications are a Diploma in Agriculture (TTI, Blackfordby Farm, Zim, 1993) and a Diploma in Rural Business Management (Tocal Ag College, NSW, 2006). From a computing perspective Dave mostly utilises NuLogic and BackPaddock software for his advisory service.
Highlights of his career so far include dealing with a diverse range of farm focussed clientele, and implementing a cotton/sorghum scheme in Pandamatenga, Botswana - where the main incidental pests to cropping were elephants! Dave loves working within the challenges presented by Mother Nature on a daily basis.
Dave is happily married with 3 young children and now resides in York. Interests include family, anything to do with sport (a cricket loving tragic) and if there's time left over, enjoys fishing, walks through the countryside and more recently, the sea!
