Team

Jon grew up on a family farm on the Liverpool Plains in Northern NSW attending Farrer Ag High before completing an agricultural science degree at Charles Sturt University in the mid 1980s.

Following a few years in corporate farming he returned to Charles Sturt University’s Farrer Centre where, in the 1990s along with only handful of colleagues around Australia, he was at the forefront of the development of precision agriculture (PA). His early foundational work included the application of yield mapping, EM38 and airborne remote sensing to crop management.

In 2000 he established a spatial data consultancy and during its 19 years of operation (and 2,500 projects) across Australia and internationally, provided services to family and corporate farms, industry, research organisations and government agencies.

Dave has worked in precision agriculture for more than 25 years and has led more than 40 industry-funded R&D projects.

In the early 2000s he established the internationally renowned University of New England SMART Farm project and has completed numerous reviews of telecommunications challenges and opportunities for Australian agriculture. In addition to serving as an advisor on a number of agricultural sector-specific, technical innovation groups and communities of interest, Dave currently serves as Australian representative for the International Society for Precision Agriculture.

In 2016 Dave received the McClymont Distinguished Professorship (Research) at the University of New England in recognition of his ongoing service to agriculture innovation and research leadership. He holds adjunct and visiting professor appointments at Charles Sturt University, University of Technology Sydney and University of New England.

Allister was raised on his family's mixed cropping and livestock property at Finley, NSW. In 2018, he completed a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture (Honours) at Sydney University.

In addition to his role at the Global Digital Farm, Allister is currently completing his PhD studies with the Functional Grains Centre at Charles Sturt University. Allister’s research is a part of the Food Agility project, ‘Enhancing  Rice Provenance and Quality Prediction', which partnered with Australia’s leading rice processor and global retailer, SunRice. This research has applied a data-driven approach to predicting rice milling quality by collating in-season crop records with climate and satellite data to train predictive models using machine learning algorithms.

Nelson started his career in Information Technology, obtaining five years' experience in areas of hardware customisation, system integration and network administration. He later changed his focus to agricultural research by completing a Bachelor of Science degree at Charles Sturt University in 2020. His areas of studies were focused on plant science, spatial science, and remote sensing. He is also has experience in drone based remote sensing and is a CASA certified remote pilot.