Now, Lindsay and Margaret Dempster have proved that reputation applies equally to merino.
The tussock hill country is clean with little dust.
Wool is typically high yielding, about 80%, with very little vegetable matter.
Mr and Mrs Dempster have been farming on their own account for the past four years.
They previously farmed in partnership with Mr Dempster's brother, Douglas.
The connection with merinos goes back to the breed's boom in the early 1990s, when Mrs Dempster's father, Tony O'Malley, introduced them on the Hummock in 1991 under guidance from Wrightson's noted Dunedin wool manager, the late Buck Gloag.
The sheep stayed and blossomed, culminating in this year winning the prestigious international merino wool quality award, the Ermenegildo Zegna trophy for unprotected wool.
The Dempsters had two of New Zealand's three entries in their section, the other belonged to Murray Elliot, of Waikora Station, in Hakataramea Valley.
Mr Dempster said his merinos could be traced back to Rockbank bloodlines, and he bought his rams from John and Susan Elliot, of Lammermoor Station, Paerau.
Other than running a separate flock of sheep selected on wool quality, Mr Dempster said he did little special.
All his merinos were belly crutched in April before the ram went out, which he said helped enhance its colour, reduced the percentage of pieces and made them easier to shear.
He said that one year 70 wethers missed crutching and there was a marked difference in wool quality, the result he believed of rain being retained in the fleece longer.
"It's a bit more costly, but the gains and benefits outweighed the costs in our country."
Managing fine as well as crossbred flocks meant doing everything twice - firstly with the crossbreds, then with the merinos, but Mrs Dempster said it provided them with income virtually all year round.
Late-maturing merino-cross lambs were sold to meat companies at about 12 months of age.
The Dempsters have managed to rid their merinos of health issues such as footrot, but have not yet got on top of low fertility.
Merino ewes scanned at more than 110%, but poor survivability meant they would wean only 85%, with lambs still dying three weeks after birth, at an age when crossbred lambs were normally hardy, Mr Dempster said.
"They get in lamb, but poor survivability seems to be the issue."
As well as those losses being a concern, they affected a merino's profitability.
For that reason, the Dempsters had decided to sell the last of their 300 merino wethers.
At one stage they ran a flock of 1700.
The Dempster's merino wool was fine: hogget wool is 16.2-16.3 micron but clips less than 3kg, ewes' 18 micron and clips about 3.5kg and wethers' 17.5 micron and clips about 4.5kg.
Being fine, their wool did not qualify for the active outdoor supply contracts and less than 10% of their wool was contracted.
As a result they had been subjected to wild price fluctuations due to the recession because the fine wool, used in the expensive suits, had been hit hard by the economic downturn, especially in Europe.
The Dempsters had been averaging $9.50-$10 a kg for adult wool, less than the $11 a kg they received 10 years ago and well short of the $15 a kg they needed to match income from crossbreds.
"We love merinos, but we can't farm them just because we love them."
However, the merinos did give them some flexibility and helped provide an almost year-round flow of income.
Poll merino rams from Nine Mile Station were mated to crossbred hoggets, and the resulting halfbred lambs had netted the Dempsters about $130 from $20 of wool and a 21kg-22kg carcass worth $110-$115 on winter and early spring markets.
Cull lambs were sold on the traditional seasonal market average 17kg and were worth $88 last season.
The Dempsters could also put composite rams over cull merino ewes to get lambs for the same markets.
Lambing crossbred hoggets had been especially successful, with last year 500 of the 570 flock getting in lamb and bearing 500 lambs.
Mrs Dempster said that crossbreeding was changing the way they viewed merinos, and although it added to the complexity of the business, they had eased that somewhat by buying a 140ha finishing farm at Flag Swamp which countered the Hummock's shorter growing season.
The home farm was described as semi-developed hill country, but it had reliable pasture growth.
Flag Swamp allowed them to take stock through to higher weights.
Works' lambs were grazed at Flag Swamp along with calves which were sold prime before their second winter.
The Hummock ranged in altitude from 250m above sea level to 730m, of which 800ha was cultivated and another 300ha developed out of tussock country by aerial spraying and oversowing initially in to crop for two years, then pasture.
Their plan to fertilise the hill blocks had been revisited, in part due to cost increases and returns not warranting that expense.
Mrs Dempster said the spray and oversowing at $580 a ha had proved a cost-effective way of developing country that was too steep for conventional tractor cultivation at $960 a ha.
Crossbred rams went out from mid to late April, late June for hoggets, and late May for merinos.
The crossbred ewes were shorn in mid June and lamb from mid September on cultivated paddocks.
The hoggets lambed in late October-early November.
Merinos were machine-shorn in late August-early September and lambed on saved paddocks or hill blocks from mid October.
Over winter, the crossbred ewes could spend up to six weeks on crops before set stocking for lambing.
Hoggets were also fed winter crop.
The Dempsters had started feeding barley to merino ewes, which they said had boosted their condition.
Deer were also fed barley over winter.
Mr Dempster said they aimed to quit 250 weaners as prime before their second winter, because their pasture growth patterns did not allow them to supply the chilled venison market.
Mr Dempster said they could carry more livestock but that would expose them to store stock markets, something they had avoided for all but one of the 30 years they had been farming in the district.
Looking ahead, they were starting to benchmark aspects of their business, in part due to rising costs but also with their son James, his wife Sarah and son Benji coming home and contributing to the business.
Their skills would see them responsible for benchmarking the business, but there was also an element of necessity due to rising costs.
Three years ago, it cost $250 a tonne to apply superphosphate, Mr Dempster said.
Today, it cost $400 a tonne.
"We are looking at all our costs and make sure everything performs to its potential," Mrs Dempster said.
Part of this interest includes participating in Beef for Profit Partnership, a Beef and Lamb New Zealand programme involving 15 Otago and Southland beef farmers who will analyse their beef businesses.
The facts
Lindsay and Margaret Dempster.
The Hummock, East Otago.
- 4320ha and 140ha finishing farm at Flag Swamp.
- 2200 merino ewes, 1500 hoggets, 300 wethers (being sold).
- 2300 composite crossbred ewes, 600 hoggets.
- 300 composite cows, 400 dry cattle.
- 300 Red hinds, 250 weaners.
- Winner 2010 Ermenegildo Zegna trophy for Merino wool.