Producing high-end wool exacting

The real buzz for Yvonne Payne was watching wool their sheep have produced end up in high-quality fabric.

The Paynes were reluctant to discuss the returns for their wool or their costs, saying while the top-priced bale was particularly valuable, the return reflected the high costs of production.

Below that top bale, values slipped sharply, with prices halving, the stronger edge of the clip selling below the cost of production, Mr Payne said.

Ultra-fine wool came at a production cost with ewes lambing at 70%, and wethers averaged just over 2kg of wool and ewes about 2.5kg.

"It's cost us a lot to provide sheep for the shed," he said.

Every day for 90 minutes in the morning and another 90 minutes at night, the wethers were fed a specific allocation of nuts.

Every couple of weeks they were taken to yards or the woolshed to be worked on, and Mr Payne said shepherds had to close gates behind them to stop the sheep returning to their pens as was their habit.

Experience has given them the knowledge and skills to manage the wethers, which were constantly checked and observed, with good appetite, skin colour and wool quality signs things were going well.

The death rate was 1%, far lower than stock in the paddocks.

The wethers wore covers or jackets, which were replaced every six weeks to stop contamination of the wool.

They were shorn each November, a process that took a month, with every fleece tested and sorted in an operation Mr Payne said was consuming and exacting.

"It's a long and involved process to get the result."

All the wool was sold to Italian luxury textile producer Loro Piana, ending up in men's suits, a contract that took the Paynes five years to secure.

 

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