The Country
  • The Country home
  • Latest news
  • Audio & podcasts
  • Opinion
  • Dairy farming
  • Sheep & beef farming
  • Rural business
  • Rural technology
  • Rural life
  • Listen on iHeart radio

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • Coast & Country News
  • Opinion
  • Dairy farming
  • Sheep & beef farming
  • Horticulture
  • Animal health
  • Rural business
  • Rural technology
  • Rural life

Media

  • Podcasts
  • Video

Weather

  • Kaitaia
  • Whāngarei
  • Dargaville
  • Auckland
  • Thames
  • Tauranga
  • Hamilton
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Tokoroa
  • Te Kuiti
  • Taumurunui
  • Taupō
  • Gisborne
  • New Plymouth
  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Whanganui
  • Palmerston North
  • Levin
  • Paraparaumu
  • Masterton
  • Wellington
  • Motueka
  • Nelson
  • Blenheim
  • Westport
  • Reefton
  • Kaikōura
  • Greymouth
  • Hokitika
  • Christchurch
  • Ashburton
  • Timaru
  • Wānaka
  • Oamaru
  • Queenstown
  • Dunedin
  • Gore
  • Invercargill

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / The Country

Royal NZ Show: Where there's wool there's a way

Doug Laing
By Doug Laing
Multimedia Journalist·Hawkes Bay Today·
23 Oct, 2019 10:00 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Fleece judging competition winner Niamh Barnett, 17, an Iona College pupil from Akitio. Photo / Warren Buckland

Fleece judging competition winner Niamh Barnett, 17, an Iona College pupil from Akitio. Photo / Warren Buckland

New Zealand wool might not be the hottest thing on the market right now but it was certainly the talk of the day as the Royal New Zealand Show got under way in Hastings yesterday.

The passion for the natural fibre, once the backbone of the New Zealand economy, was there from young and old, from 17-year-old Iona College and Royal Agricultural Society Young Judge of the Year Fleece Niamh Barnett to Omakere farmer David Daunton who — "coming up 89" — won the Supreme Champion Fleece title for the first time at Hawke's Bay, after more than three decades trying.

But it didn't stop there, with shearing contractor-turned-corporates director Mavis Mullins immediately extolling the virtues and the potential for a huge market turnaround in her speech to the show's BWR Agri-Women's Luncheon, and show host Hawke's Bay A and P Society general manager Sally Jackson suggesting the show next year could have a Wool Expo.

Mullins said that, to witness the price of New Zealand crossbred wool at such a low level, "makes me feel ill".

She told her audience of about 80 female movers and shakers in the primary sector: "Be the influence, be the advocate. I'll walk over water to help. Wool does have a future ... and it's not at $2-whatever."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The hot property in the wool market is the fine wool of the merino, selling often per kilogram at 10 times the price.

On the phone from home property Te Kani, Daunton highlighted the plight of those farming the sheep and producing what they say is the most multi-faceted fibre around, saying: "We can very easily these days get a bill from our shearing contract which means we've run at a loss."

Of course, he doesn't blame the contractor, it being common knowledge globally that the fibre market is driven by the petroleum industry and its interest in synthetics.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Fire-proofing

Would fire-retardant wool insulation have saved the convention centre at SkyCity in Auckland? Certainly, that was the suggestion going around the Royal NZ Show. Photo / NZME
Would fire-retardant wool insulation have saved the convention centre at SkyCity in Auckland? Certainly, that was the suggestion going around the Royal NZ Show. Photo / NZME

The virtues of wool are many and varied, but highlighted this week has been its place as a fire-retardant fibre, and one suggestion around the show that had wool been used in insulation and other aspects of the New Zealand International Convention Centre in Auckland its roof would today look much the same as it did before the fire started on Tuesday afternoon.

CP Wool national wool manager Simon Averill makes the point in the marquee housing the 90-or-so fleeces at the show, with photographic evidence of a fire which razed a woolshed, but left its stock of wool barely scorched.

School student Barnett has grown up on Te Mangahuia Station near Akitio committed to the value of wool, and has been a recognisable feature of competitions around the fleeces since the age of 11 or 12. Her win was unique, part of a merino feature, with merino wool from Hawke's Bay, a rarity for competition in the North Island.

Discover more

Hawke's Bay A and P show: A kids show and a no-show

22 Oct 02:55 AM

Waimate Shears hailed as success

23 Oct 03:30 AM

It was valuable for more than just its price, for it won her a place in a New Zealand team for an Australasian judging competition at the show next year, being held in New Zealand for the first time in seven years.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from The Country

The Country

Storm-hit region faces 57-hour drenching; heavy rain to hit north of both islands

09 Jul 03:54 AM
The Country

David Seymour co-hosts The Country

09 Jul 02:22 AM
The Country

‘Clearly preventable’: Company, director sentenced over timber yard death

09 Jul 01:26 AM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from The Country

Storm-hit region faces 57-hour drenching; heavy rain to hit north of both islands

Storm-hit region faces 57-hour drenching; heavy rain to hit north of both islands

09 Jul 03:54 AM

Friday is expected to bring the worst of the heavy rain, which lingers into the weekend.

David Seymour co-hosts The Country

David Seymour co-hosts The Country

09 Jul 02:22 AM
‘Clearly preventable’: Company, director sentenced over timber yard death

‘Clearly preventable’: Company, director sentenced over timber yard death

09 Jul 01:26 AM
'David and Goliath': Australian gold mine company makes $25m Central Otago land deal

'David and Goliath': Australian gold mine company makes $25m Central Otago land deal

09 Jul 12:54 AM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP