From banking to cow genetics

Gill Haenga is at home on Taranaki’s rural roads.

Over the past 12 years, as a rural account manager for ASB Bank in New Plymouth, she travelled extensively around Taranaki region meeting farmers.

As CRV Ambreed’s newly appointed field consultant for coastal Taranaki/Manaia, Haenga will again be traversing some of those same rural roads, turning up farm driveways to meet and talk with farmers.

The area encompasses Okato to Manaia, and the coastal side of Mt Taranaki.

Building relationships is something Haenga enjoys, and she’ll bring that passion to her new role at CRV Ambreed.

‘‘I love getting out on the road and meeting farmers,’’ she said. ‘‘You get to know people well, and their families and farm business. You see their children grow up, and that’s a special thing.’’

Haenga was born and bred on a dairy farm at Okaiawa, in south Taranaki. ‘‘My father had a mediumsized dairy farm with around 300 cows, which is about the average herd size for Taranaki.’’

She began working in banking at 20 with TSB in Taranaki, spending three or four years as a lending consultant. Haenga then moved to Hamilton to work with ASB, where she worked in rural banking for a few years as a Farmline relationships manager.

In 2006 she moved to New Plymouth with ASB, where she worked as a rural account manager for 12 years until leaving to join CRV Ambreed in mid-October.

‘‘I loved working in rural banking but wanted a new challenge,’’ Haenga said. ‘‘I wanted to stay in the rural sector because that’s where my passion lies.’’

Her rural banking career gave her a good understanding of the issues affecting farmers, particularly those in the Taranaki region.

‘‘As a region, Taranaki has a lot of smaller family-owned farms – some of which have been in the same family for generations – so it’s different to some other parts of the country in that respect – with fewer largescale 2000-plus cow operations.’’

Like other farmers throughout the country, Haenga said Taranaki farmers worked hard but were under pressure, especially in terms of compliance demands from regional councils.

‘‘Compliance is a huge issue for Taranaki farmers,’’ she said. ‘‘It’s an ongoing headache. From talking to farmers I know that some are under financial pressure, and that is due to everything from pay-out (for milk solids) to inclement weather conditions.’’

In the new year, when the busy AI period is over, Haenga is looking forward to getting out and meeting existing and potential new CRV Ambreed clients around the Taranaki region.

CRV Ambreed’s sales and marketing manager Matt Macfie said he was delighted to welcome Haenga to the company.

‘‘Gill has a strong background in rural banking in the Taranaki region and understands the needs of local farmers well, and the issues affecting them‘‘ he said.

Haenga is married to Darin and they have two children, Benjamin, four, and Maia, 20 months. In her free time she enjoys sports and keeping fit.