World's finest fleece

A Canterbury company says it has produced the world's finest bale of wool.

The Escorial Company, with the CSIRO, Australia's Government science organisation, has produced a bale of processed fleece with fibre diameter of 12.7 microns.

The man who has built up the Escorial Company, Peter Radford, of Hawarden, North Canterbury, said:

"We've just processed the finest bale in the world by miles.

"Australia's proud of always having the finest wool in the world, and has spent hundreds of millions in pursuit of this holy grail.

"The finest bale up to now was 12.9 micron in raw fibre, which is nowhere near as fine as ours."

Mr Radford has built up a business supplying wool that makes fabric aimed at the top of the global luxury goods market.

Suits made by Europe's top fashion houses from Escorial wool sell for up to $20,000.

Escorial is a uniquely Australasian fibre from sheep descended from a North African flock kept in Madrid in the 16th century by King Philip II of Spain.

The bloodline died out in Europe, but survived in 100 sheep exported to Tasmania in 1828.

The fleece is produced only on farms in New Zealand and southern Australia. All sheep are registered, and the brand strongly protected.

Mr Radford said just over half of the bale came from New Zealand growers.

The ultrafine bale has been put together over four years from growers supplying their finest fleeces.

Most ultrafine merino wool is produced from sheep which are kept indoors and fed a restricted diet.

"Ours was 100 per cent naturally grown outdoors," Mr Radford said.

"This will probably never be beaten again, not in a naturally produced bale."

Canterbury grower Donald Burnett's 13.1 micron merino bale in 1999 fetched $120,000, so what is this bale worth?

"It's priceless. It'll probably go to the US and Europe," Mr Radford said.

Martin Prins, of CSIRO Textile and Fibre Technology, said: "We were delighted when the Laserscan readings gave us a top measurement of 12.7 microns, which mirrored the individual fleece readings in the sheds at shearing time.

"But it's not really about the micron size, it's about the quality of the suits and other garments that will result."

- NZPA