Italian award for Kiwi farmers

Merino fleece grown by a South Canterbury couple has been judged New Zealand's best for the fourth year running by the world's biggest buyer of fine wools.

South Canterbury merino farmers Barrie and Yvonne Payne won the Loro Piana Record Bale Award, for the highest price paid for a single bale of super-fine graded wool last year.

Italian weaving company Loro Piana paid $2950 per kilogram of 11.8-micron clean merino wool, which would produce enough wool to make about 50 suits.

"It's quite humbling to be judged the best in New Zealand four years in a row," Yvonne Payne said.

The Paynes had travelled to Beijing, where they would receive their award.

The couple ran more than 3000 merino sheep on their 177ha farm, Visulea, at Maungati, South Canterbury. About 1000 of the flock are wethers, or wool-producing castrated males.

The couple, who started farming perendales 38 years ago, switched to merinos about 20 years ago and have produced some of New Zealand's finest wool .

A micron is just one thousandth of a millimetre making Visulea's merino barely visible to the human eye: an average human hair measures 60 microns in diameter.

The Paynes' merinos live in a purpose-built light, airy shelter designed to reduce the chill to which the sheep are exposed without them having to be kept indoors, and the animals are hand fed twice a day.

- NZPA