Accompanying his father to stock sales in Lorneville and Winton, he would arrive home armed with a blue notebook — a Wrightson hallmark — and run around slapping his hand like an auctioneer and talking gibberish, his mother later told him.
Exactly 45 years ago this month, a nervous Mr Duffy, who was brought up on a farm in Central Southland, started work in the Invercargill office of Wrightson. The busy office was a daunting place for the 16-year-old.
He had scored an interview during the August school holidays and was offered a job as a trainee livestock agent, appeasing his parents who were keen for him to stay at school another year.
Of his tenure, half that time was spent as an agent in Southland before he moved to Alexandra 23 years ago, as Central Otago livestock manager.
A later restructure resulted in North Otago, Coastal Otago and Central Otago being combined into one area and, for the past 10 years, Mr Duffy has been PGG Wrightson’s Otago regional livestock manager.
He recently stepped down from the role, replaced by Paul Edwards, but said he would remain in the livestock team in a key account role, working three days a week and would happily step in as a back-up auctioneer.
While people questioned how he could stay working for the one company for 45 years, Mr Duffy said he moved around a lot and took promotions when they were offered to him.
The variety of work in Central Otago had been "outstanding" and it was a great industry for someone who liked teamwork — and he loved sport, and was looking forward to playing tennis and golf in his less all-consuming role.
The livestock industry was a "real people’s game" and success was based on long-term relationships.
"You get a real thrill out of putting deals together and seeing satisfied vendors and purchasers."
After expressing an interest in auctioneering, he was told to observe the good auctioneers at sales and he was also given training, including from legendary auctioneer Pat Cooper.
Auctioneering required a lot of homework before the actual sale but there was a thrill when it went well. He recalled some of the stag sales during the deer boom, some massive clearing sales in Southland due to dairy conversions and the big two-tooth ewe fairs that used to be held at Lorneville.
The recent change in fortunes in the sheep industry needed to happen. Prior to that, it brought back memories for Mr Duffy of the 1980s and early 1990s which were "just a disaster".
There were meat industry strikes, farmers could not get stock killed and banks were selling farmers up. For stock agents, the worst thing was going on to farm where banks had told their clients they had to get out.
"We had to go in and secure and count and sell stock. It was horrible," he recalled.
It was a role in which you rode the highs and lows of your clients and during drought years, agents became very close to some of their clients.
He always encouraged them to do something outside the farm during those difficult years, even if it was just going for a drive.
Some of the biggest changes he had seen in the industry were the genetic gains in sheep, deer and cattle in the past 25 years and he did not think enough stud breeders gave themselves a pat on the back for that.
New Zealand farmers were very progressive and, as new technologies came along, the industry’s leaders embraced them.
The single-biggest positive change for agents had been the advent of cellphones, a far cry from the early days when 6pm to 10pm was spent stuck on the phone.
Now one call could reach a farmer during the day, instead of potentially three calls at night, while laptops had also removed much of the paperwork.
In recent years, online livestock selling system Bidr had been a "game-changer", along with scales installed at saleyards which meant cattle could be sold on a weight basis rather than the "eye-o-meter".
After all those years as a manager, in what was a 24/7 role — the only time he could get away from it totally was if he was overseas — he was looking forward to doing his job and spending time with clients, but without that responsibility.
He felt very fortunate to have the company’s current leadership and he believed the company was in great heart.
