FOR the first time in at least 15 years, the Mibus family of Glenara Merino stud, Dunkeld, have produced a bale of wool that has received the coveted top rating of 1PP.
An judging panel of five wool buyers evaluated the extra superfine wool as the best rating available in recognition of its traditional style and good characteristics of density, excellent bloom, evenness and excellent compression.
It was measured 14.7-micron, 77 millimetres in length and 50 Newtons per kilotex (Nkt) in strength. Despite being naturally grown, the wool had a Schlumberger dry yield of 75.1 per cent and vegetable matter of 0.1pc.
The 96-kilogram bale was sold for 4656 cents/kg (greasy weight) on Tuesday to New England Wool for Successori Reda SpA, one of the world's top mills based in Vallemosso, Italy.
Brothers Trevor and Peter Mibus have continued the Glenara Merino stud established by father Merv. Trevor, who came with his family to Melbourne to meet with the buyer (represented by New England Wool's Andrew Raeber), admitted a lot of work had gone into producing the bale.
He said superfine woolgrowers were now being encouraged to produce such exceptional bales with realistic contracts, which had been missing for many years.
"At shearing time, I class every fleece and then months and months after shearing, I roll the fleeces out again and pick the best of them. I go through hundreds of pieces and have to be extremely strict for the ones to include in the top bales," Mr Mibus said.
"I take the sides off and only do an hour or two of it at a time."
The family has a flock of about 7500 superine Merinos, that include a lot of their own bloodlines, as well as many of the top Saxon bloodlines from throughout Australia.
Mr Mibus said the transaction marked a historic relationship for the stud.
"Bruno DeMattia bought the highest priced bale we ever had in 1988, which he bought for 2100c/kg which was a record at the time; and now he is brokering this is the first 1PP bale he has sold."
