A Western District wool growing family has achieved the first and the second 1PP bales to be offered for sale in Victoria this year.
The Linke family of Glenholme at Tarrington, near Hamilton, have achieved the highest possible type for two bales of their superfine wool.
The two bales are from pure Glenara blood, two year-old wethers, run on a native block near Dunkeld. The first bale, catalogued as lot 21 at of Elders’ offering at Melbourne today, weighed 99 kilograms and measured 15.5 micron, 0.1 vegetable matter (VM), 71.4 per cent yield, 74 millimetres staple length and 44 Newtons per kilotex (Nkt).
It sold for 3570 cents/kg greasy.
The second bale, lot 22, weighed 113kg and measured 15.7M, 0.1VM, 81mm length, 50Nkt, and sold for 3501c/kg greasy.
Matthew Linke said those price were quite above the bales’ appraisal.
Andrew Raeber, New England Wool, purchased both bales on contract, as part of the Italian wool mill Reda’s 150PP project, which is seeking 150 certified 1PP bales to celebrate its 150th year in 2015.
Mr Raeber said the project, which had so far secured some 130 bales, had put the emphasis on back on bale preparation by providing a significant premium to sell wool to this project.
He said the wool will be made into upmarket, classic Italian men’s suits.
The Linke family sold two 1PP bales into the project two years ago.
A broker can nominate wool to be considered for a 1PP type to the Australian Wool Exchange (AWEX). A bale then needs to get a majority of votes from a panel of five individual buyers from different companies who inspect the wool separately and submit their opinion to the AWEX.
Mr Raeber said one of the Linkes’ bales this year got unanimous votes for the 1PP type.
“The system works very well, it’s independent,” Mr Raeber said.
Matthew explained the judges looks for evenness of style and staple length, as well as cleanness and other factors.
The Linkes take great care to prepare the entire clip. Everard does the shearing and Matthew does the full double skirting.
“We don’t press a single bale until shearing is finished,” Everard said.
The father and son team goes through wool in bins, and start off with the bales of the highest specification wool, of the same type, and then work through the clip.
“Only way to get good, even classing is to take time,” Everard said.
Mr Raeber purchased another four of their bales today for another Italian luxury textile maker, Vitale Barberis Canonico’s Wool Excellence Club contract, which stipulates a more Saxon or compression style.
Everard said it was particularly pleasing to achieve two 1PP bales because it was grown during a tough season.
“This wool has come from a fairly tough season last year, we had no spring and a very late autumn, so we had quite a lot of dust to contend with and it’s come up very well considering the season we’ve had,” Everard said.
He is hopeful for the quality of wool growing this year.
“This season should be good for this type of wool because we’ve had a late spring and early autumn, meaning good grass cover and little dust.”
