PRODUCING the finest wool in the world is earning Victorian farmers David and Susan Rowbottom a tidy golden nest-egg.
The Orford couple, who run a specialised flock of Merinos selected to produce ultrafine wool, have won the Zegna Vellus Aureum trophy for the second consecutive year.
The win, announced in Melbourne last Thursday night, earned the Rowbottoms 500 grams of pure gold ingots, worth about $27,000. It adds to the 750 grams they won last year.
The competition, run by Zegna, an Italian manufacturer of prestige clothing, is designed to find the finest and best fleece in the world.
The couple's winning fleece measured 10.1 microns and weighed 850 grams, even finer than the 10.8 micron, 1100 gram fleece with which they won last year.
Fleeces are judged on a combination of micron measurement, weight and other characteristics.
"We entered some heavier fleeces that were not as fine - I thought a heavier fleece might win," Mr Rowbottom said.
The wool is produced from a flock of about 300 sheep which are housed in a shed, clad in coats and fed a tightly controlled diet to control wool growth.
Sheep kept under paddock conditions produce thicker wool fibres and the measurement varies as conditions change.
Zegna uses wool of this quality to make the finest men's suits.
The Rowbottoms run the ultrafine operation alongside a much larger mainstream finewool enterprise.
It has become as much a hobby as a money-making project.
Wool of this calibre sold for about $3000 per kilogram before the global financial crisis. The Rowbottoms started breeding toward the project at that time but were not ready to go into ultrafine production until four years ago. By that time the price had fallen to about $40 a kilogram, which was not profitable.
The market has started to recover and the enterprise is beginning to make a profit.
However, the primary motivation is the challenge and satisfaction of producing the finest wool in the world. The Rowbottoms placed second in the Zegna competition in their first and second years and have won in their third and fourth years.
Mr Rowbottom is aiming to win again next year, but to do so with a fleece of less than 10 microns.
"We had a few fleeces under 10 microns this year but they were not heavy enough for the competition."
"That's what we now have to work on."
Wool of this quality is a high specialised niche market.
"The total world market is only about six bales a year," Mr Rowbottom said.
