ICT International Celebrates 40 Years of Business
and Opens Its Expanded Manufacturing Facility

40 Years of Innovation & Collaboration
in Soil and Plant Science

Dear customer,

We are delighted to share with you the recent celebration of our 40 years of business operation and the opening of our expanded manufacturing facility, in Armidale NSW Australia, to support the increasing global demand for our scientific quantitative monitoring technologies.

Customers from around Australia and SE Asia, NSW government representatives and scientific colleagues joined us to hear:

• an Opening Address by The Hon. Adam Marshall, Minister for Agriculture and Western NSW;
• the Keynote address by the NSW Chief Scientist Professor Hugh Durrant-Whyte;
• research presentations by Professor Alex McBratney, the Director Sydney Institute of Agriculture, Sydney University;
• Dr Michele Schiffer, Station Manager Daintree Rainforest Observatory, Cape Tribulation, James Cook University; and
• Dr Ben Umali, Applications Scientist, ICT International.

ICT International partnered with the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre for the opening, represented by Mr Michael Sharpe, National Director Industry.

We are delighted to share with you some kind words
from our presenters and colleagues

Minister Marshall – “ICT International is the future of Australian manufacturing. A family owned business employing over 20 people manufacturing and deploying world leading cutting edge technologies to over 55 countries around the globe. I want to pay tribute to Peter and Susan as they have been at the forefront of new breakthroughs in soil and plant science for decades now. The work being done at ICT International is literally helping farmers right across the globe to meet an ever-increasing food task and an ever-increasing market drive to produce more food of higher quality using less inputs and that critical input is water."

Professor Hugh Durrant-Whyte – “What a magnificent 40 years in terms of innovation, in sensing technologies, in computing and IoT. I really want to congratulate you both Peter and Susan for the impacts you have achieved globally and for the opening of this wonderful manufacturing facility.”

Dr Michele Schiffer – “The joyous celebration here today is on many levels: it’s the tenacity of Peter and Susan; the manufacturing of an awesome product; the collaboration between industry and science; and the launch of their new manufacturing facility.”

Dr Lou Conway Director, UNE SMART Region Incubator, University of New England – “What I love about collaborating with ICT International is that they are such an established company that’s shown people the pathway for success. What is exciting is to match them up with start-ups we have coming through with emerging technologies and then partnering and collaborating and then growing business right across the region.”

Professor Alex McBratney – “We’ve had a very successful relationship with Peter and Susan, but also, I think I am reflecting the scientific communities view of what they have achieved. They have constantly pushed the boundaries of the accepted scientific norm. The technologies that Peter has either brought into the country but has now developed allows us to be at the cutting edge, so they have always had the best technologies to achieve the best research and teaching."

"I’m here on behalf of the scientific community really to say thank you to the both of you for your 40-year dedication to advancing science and particularly soil science and plant science in Australia.”

Mr Michael Sharpe – "The future for our nation is to drive forward and export our great technologies around the world. And that’s happening here today at ICT International. A global success story who understand collaboration is the key driver but also disruption brings innovation and change across technology platforms."

An Extract from Peter’s presentation

ICT International’s success can be attributed to having product lines wedded in scientific fact and building a trusted business network.

The many years as an agronomist and consultant assisting farmers, especially cotton farmers, with irrigation decision making made me realise that it was really the plant we should be measuring with supportive information from the soil.

The plant is the ultimate transducer, it is on the supply side monitoring soil moisture & soil physical condition and on the demand side atmospheric demand and fruit load.

All I knew was that we had to measure the plant. I was an agronomist with a passion but with a solid comprehension of the science needed and the principles involved to directly monitor plant water use.

We needed to measure the plant water use and plant water stress. How to do this?

The solutions needed necessitated an understanding of water movement in the soil & plant from first principles so that solutions could be developed and built to suit the needs of agriculture and farmers such as my father. Hence off to University and necessarily a PhD to really come to grips with the understanding needed to develop solutions. The solutions needed a strong understanding of scientific principles and critical thinking. The principles of physics, chemistry & maths and how these applied to soil & plant science.

I travelled the world seeking scientists who had such potential solutions, found them and started collaborations to develop firstly sap flow and then the infinitely technically more difficult stem psychrometer.

Every day now our customers both scientists and farmers are developing new data, new knowledge and new management outcomes. They are the scientists and farmers that are ahead of the crowd whose drive for better understanding and better management outcomes are leading the way toward more efficient water use in agriculture and the environment.

With Kind Regards,

Peter & Susan Cull
ICT International Pty Ltd