The Hawke’s Bay farmer has become an office-holder for the first time at the age of 88.
“I wasn’t expecting to be asked but they approached me down there and I didn’t know quite what to say.
“I had to think about it for a minute but was happy to accept.
“I wasn’t knocking anyone else off their perch and someone has to do it.”
The patron’s role as a figure-head for the association doesn’t match his own status on the farm . . . he still classes all the wool at shearing time.
He now just occasionally travels the 45 minutes from his home in Havelock North to the farm near the coast at Waipawa he’s had for many years and which is now farmed by his grandson.
There are typically 3500 to 4000 sheep to be shorn each year. The main shear is in November after weaning but he expects to be in the shed this week while some ewes are shorn.
“I don’t go there very often now and I don’t do much physical work these days but when it comes to the shearing I watch everything.
“I look closely when there’s a breakage or a colour issue to sort out.”
His farmer-classer stencil registration allows him to class his own wool but not to work on other farms.
His work won him the North Island Merit Award in the crossbred section at this year’s association annual meeting in Christchurch in early May.
“My stencil goes on our bales of wool and on to the catalogues at the wool sales. It’s there beside our brand. It gives buyers some indication that you’re watching the shearing and shed-handling work that’s being done.
“When you’re keeping track of it yourself that has an impact on the buyers and it helps sell your wool.”
The shearers and handling staff also know how Daunton wants to see the sheep and wool handled.
“I met a shed hand recently who had worked in our shed but who I hadn’t seen for quite a time and she said to me that when they came to my place they always knew they had to do it right.”
Daunton did some shearing in his early days before buying the farm at Waipawa and has won a few show ribbons for his fleeces over the years.
He’s disappointed about the lack of status for crossbred wool in the world market and the impact on pricing and believes its advantages over synthetics, especially in fire resistance, needs to be promoted.
He’d also like the sheep farming industry to put more effort into wool preparation at shearing time.
“Not enough people are putting in enough time to ensure it is top class but I think a few more are starting to realise this now.”
Daunton’s not 100% sure what is expected of him as patron.
“I think they just expect me to be interested in things, which I am. I’ve been a registered classer for 35 years and have paid my subs all that time so I’m interested for sure.”
Daunton succeeds the late Dave MacPherson as patron.
MacPherson was one of the first New Zealanders to sign up for a wool classing stencil, having the number 3.
He spent his working life in the wool industry in the North Island with the highlight being as a judge at the Easter Show in Sydney as well as judging the Golden Shears. He worked until his death in early March at the age of 84.
