| 75 Mabey Contracting employee Jessica Bills has been named Rural Contractors New Zealand Trainee of the Year. RURAL SERVICES » Mabey Contracting The Rural Contractors New Zealand Trainee of the Year award is a new initiative developed last year to recognise trainee contactors who excel in the HanzonJobs mentoring initiative, which aims to support trainees in becoming skilled agricultural machinery operators while building a detailed record of their training and work experience. HanzonJobs founder Richard Houston says the awards not only recognise the trainee, but they also highlight the effort put in by their employer. Andrew Mabey says he and his wife Catherine, who runs the family dairy farm, could see the work Richard was doing was of huge benefit to the industry and they were supportive of it. “When we saw there was going to be a competition we thought Jess had a pretty good shot.” The win has been a bright spot in a pretty wet and gloomy year for Mabey Contracting and for New Zealand’s agricultural contracting industry at large. Pahiatua suffered from cyclone damage in February and the next couple of months were spent cleaning up not only their own run off block alongside the Manawatu River, but Mabey Contracting also headed up to the Hawke’s Bay to help clear silt. While rising interest rates and a falling milk payout have created another kind of storm for the dairy industry, Andrew and Catherine remain sanguine. “In times like these you look closely at your system to see which of your costs are for things that you need, and which are for things you like to have. I haven’t had to sharpen up my budget for a few years so we’ll cut back on a bit of capital expenditure over the course of three to five years and it will all even out. Yes it’s hard, but it’s part of the whole thing, and it’s not going to be forever.” Talk to us today or visit us at: www.mcia.co.nz Dannevirke: (06) 374 7059 Pahiatua: (06) 376 7476 we give you the time for the things you really want at MCI & Associates, Sam Ellingham Principal, Dip. AG., B.B.S., C.A. ( BORN TO BE ‘SLIGHTLY’ WILD ) Mabey Contracting
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