AG Services Ltd was established In May 2014. It is an agricultural consultancy company based in Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand.
Its Managing Director is Andre Geelen.
He began undertaking field testing of agrichemicals in 1974 and over the following 40 years and was personally responsible for over 2500 individual trials on all manner of fruit, vegetable, broadacre and cereal crops and pasture throughout New Zealand investigating all types of agrichemicals (and organic products), including fungicides, insecticides, herbicides, growth regulators and to a lesser extent fertilisers from Kerikeri in the north of the North Island to the bottom of the South Island.
After spending six years with Ispray Ltd (now Nufarm NZ) in Nelson, from 1974 to 1980, he moved to the research section of Watties in Hastings doing agronomy trials in fruit and vegetables until 1986.
He then set up his own contract research company (Geelen Research) concentrating on agrichemical research investigating both product efficacy and residue testing. The company established a 4 hectare research station in Havelock North, Hawke’s Bay. Trial work was conducted throughout both islands for primarily multi-national chemical companies as well as various primary industry groups.
In 2002 the Company was the first NZ Company to obtain GLP accreditation for field testing of agrichemicals. In 2007 the company formed a joint venture company (Agrivet Services Ltd) with Agrisearch Services of Australia and he continued on as Managing Director until 2014. Whilst with Agrivet expertise was broadened with the setting up of an Animal health sector and helping with the formation of the company’s Animal Ethics Committee, of which he was Chairman throughout his seven years. He was also involved in a number of sheep, cattle and deer trials evaluating both effectiveness against various pests and diseases as well as residue trials, including several milk residue studies. Andre is a member of NZ Institute of Agricultural Science, NZ Society of Horticultural Science (and served as Secretary for two years).