Standing in a paddock beside a Waikato farmer in his seventies, Brett Wallace knew better than to tell him what good pasture looked like.
The farmer had spent a lifetime judging pasture by eye and wasn’t about to take new technology at face value. Before Brett completed each AIMER pasture scan, he asked the farmer to estimate the pasture cover himself.
“The scan was right bang smack between what the farmer had said, and he went, ‘Okay, next paddock,’” Brett says. “He got more and more excited as he saw how accurate it was.”
That pretty much sums up how Brett approaches his role as Aimer Farming’s Business Development Manager. He understands that technology needs to prove its value on farm, earn farmers’ trust and should support farmers’ knowledge, not try to replace it.
“I’d rather farmers sense-check the technology,” he says. “Go out with a plate meter and compare it with your eye. Once you’ve done that a few times and seen the numbers stack up, you can trust what it’s telling you.”
Farming in his blood
Brett joined Aimer Farming in April 2026, after three years as a Farm Source technical sales representative supporting around 160 dairy farms. It was during that time that he became familiar with the company’s pasture intelligence platform and recommended AIMER to several farmers.
“I saw AIMER as a really practical tool that could solve a problem every pastoral farmer has and make life easier,” he says. “So, when this role popped up, I jumped at it.”
Brett grew up on dairy farms in the Waikato. His parents worked as contract milkers and sharemilkers near Morrinsville before buying a farm against the Kaimai Ranges, between Matamata and Te Aroha.
After leaving school, he spent five years farming full-time around the Waikato. That practical farming background, combined with his experience advising farmers through Farm Source, means he understands both the realities of farming and the wider range of decisions farmers need to make.
His Farm Source role covered cropping, pasture and spray recommendations, animal health, nutrition and dairy hygiene. However, it was pasture management that interested him most.
“I love pasture and I love numbers,” Brett says. “I’m just a real nerd when it comes to that stuff.”
Making pasture management easier
Working closely with farmers showed Brett how much time many were spending gathering and interpreting pasture information.
“I’d be on farm with them at lunchtime or one or two o’clock in the afternoon, and they’d say, ‘Sorry, I need to cut this meeting short. I’ve got to go out and pick tonight’s paddock.’
“Some of these farmers were spending half an hour each day going out and picking the paddock of the day.”
That experience showed Brett why a tool like AIMER could make the process easier and give farmers more time back in their day. Today, he works with farmers, rural professionals and industry partners to demonstrate AIMER, support customers and help people understand how the technology could work within their farming businesses.
His experience also helps him see its potential for rural professionals. In his Farm Source role, Brett could spend up to two hours driving around a farm identifying potential cropping paddocks.
“With AIMER, you can see which are the lowest-performing paddocks and go directly to them,” he says. “You can look at how they’ve performed over time and have a more informed conversation with the farmer about which paddocks could be the best candidates for cropping.”
People, puppies and plenty of energy
Brett lives in Hamilton with his wife and their two sons and has spent around 20 years supporting young people through his local church. His own youth leaders were important mentors, inspiring him to do the same for others.
“They gave me real direction in my life, which I’m hugely grateful for. So I wanted to see if I could help young people too.”
Brett and his family also raise detector-dog puppies for the Ministry for Primary Industries. Their first was a black Labrador named Kermit, followed by a beagle named Vera, and now Woody has joined the Wallace family.
Handing them back is difficult, but Brett says his family understands the purpose.
“We knew right from the get-go that we were signing up to support the programme, not to have a free puppy at the end!”
A former Ironman and marathon runner, Brett always brings plenty of energy and enthusiasm to everything he takes on. Safe to say, he’s in his happy place talking farming and hearing directly from farmers about what is happening in their patch.
“I love it and I’m always up for a chat!”
