Russell Mackay Email & Phone Number

I'm from a 560ha sheep and beef farm in Southland. It has been in our family just shy of 150 years. I had too much fun at Lincoln, but I still proudly put my B-Com Ag certificate on the fridge. I have tried all things agribusiness ever since.Initially, the farm required inexpensive manual labour. Following that, I had a role at Walter Peak Station where I entertained tourists coming off the Earnslaw. I was the bloke with a microphone and my dog, rounding up some ewes and giving one a pretty rough shear.Next, it was then time to do some real mahi. I worked as a high-country shepherd and fencer around Queenstown, keeping busy and fit with tenure review fencing contracts. One of the properties I mustered on had 3500 goats – what mongrels to get off the hill!Finally deciding to make use of my degree, I landed a job as a rural bank manager back in Gore. It was here that I realised most money in farming is made in the office. Fixing a fence is worth $30/hour, a meeting with an agronomist $300/hour, while doing long-term business structure planning $3,000/hour.Thrown in the mix has been two stints travelling, one of which was aimlessly driving a van around Europe, the other backpacking through Asia before my wife and I lived in Canada for 2 years. Here, I was building and doing harvests in the Summer, and dog sledding in the winter. We snuck home to the farm just before the spicy cough reared its' ugly head and ruined all the fun.I have since been with FarmIQ for two years, firstly as the Lower South Island Manager, now Head of Sales and Marketing. When I finished at Lincoln, there was no way I would have ever thought I would end up working for a software company! I'm more akin to callus than coding. But I bloody love my job and the business I work for. There is no better feeling than helping farmers overcome barriers, whether it is ticking off basic compliance for a mum and dad small farm or trying to squeeze every c/kgDM for the tech-savvy large operators.

Listed skills include Microsoft Office, Management, Microsoft Excel, Research, and 11 others.