Danielle Boyd was appointed PGG Wrightson’s Northland wool representative in August, a part time role she juggles with contract shearing.

Danielle has been around wool all her life. Some of her earliest memories are of being in various Northland wool sheds while her parents worked on shearing gangs, their two older siblings looking after Danielle and her younger brother.

“We always looked forward to smoko when we could join in with the shearers,” she says.

Danielle’s parents Kevin and Annette worked hard in the sheds, saving up for their first farm in 1991: 230 hectares in Arapohue, southeast of Dargaville, since then they have bought two additional blocks, building up to 520 hectares, running up to 5000 stock units of sheep and beef.

Through school there was never any doubt that Danielle would go farming.

“In February 2013 I bought a one way ticket to the South Island to spend time with Mum’s side of the family. My uncle teed up a woolhanding job with the local shearing contractor in Middlemach, Otago. Following that, another uncle introduced me to Andrew and Lynnore Templeton, owners of The Rocks Station in Middlemarch. I worked at The Rocks for almost three years as a shepherd general, and learnt so much from two amazing owners,” she says.

A 3200 hectare property that has won awards for environmental sustainability, at the time The Rocks was running up to 9000 stock units consisting of halfbred and Merino ewes and beef cattle, though has since upscaled to 5300 hectares, running 16,000 stock units.

For Danielle more shearing sheds followed: woolhandling and sheepo-ing, then a stint on the shearing trailers in England and north Wales, a Southland tailing crew, back to Northland for the main shear, then a return to the United Kingdom to give the lambing a go.

“I started doing the odd day shearing here and there, and loved it so started doing more and more over the last two years,” she says. She now contracts to several Northland farms, and has also had a crack at competitive shearing.

As a new and relatively young wool rep, Danielle might expect not to be taken seriously by farmers considerably older than her, though that is not how she has experienced it.

“I applied for this job because I’m passionate about wool and sheep. Being able to work with different farmers and learn another skill set, it’s a good challenge as I have a lot to learn and I’m determined to do the best I can.

“Since I grew up in Northland plenty of farmers around Dargaville know me. I turned up at one farm recently in the PGG Wrightson branded vehicle. They have known me since I was little, though hadn’t heard I’d started this job. When I explained, the farmer said: ‘That’s the best news I’ve heard in a long time,’ which was lovely to hear.

“As I’ve only been in the role a few months, I still have plenty to learn. I’m quite an interactive, hands-on person. Unfortunately, with the current covid restrictions, I’m finding it hard as I’m unable to go out and meet any of the clients I don’t know already.

“You have to be able to put a face to the name. You need to meet people in person if you are going to build relationships with them. If I’m working with them to help best understand how they operate and what they want, you have to do that face to face” she says.

It'll come.