VICTORIAN farmers Robert and Pam Sandlant have restored Victoria's reputation as the world's best region for producing high-quality wool.
A bale of superfine wool, from pedigreed sheep on their property at Lexton, north of Ballarat, has been judged the finest bale of superfine Merino fleece ever produced.
It has beaten the record set by Hillcrest stud in the NSW Southern Highlands.
Sample tests of the Sandlants' wool show this season's bale, shorn from 200 prize sheep during late December and early January, measured what wool experts say was an amazingly fine 11.4 microns.
They say that it will spin into what will be an extremely strong ultrafine yarn, the type keenly sought by the world's leading fashion houses.
Ted Wilson, the superfine wool specialist for woolbrokers Landmark-Jackson, said yesterday bidding for the 100kg bale next Wednesday was expected to be dominated by Italian and Indian mills.
While Mr Wilson would not tip what the bids might reach, he is certain they will better the record $259,000 for a bale, grown in 2008 in the NSW Southern Highlands.
Yesterday Mr Sandlant, a fourth-generation farmer at Pyrenees Park stud, said bringing off a very different world record was quite a thrill for a family business where the sheep are fitted with man-made coats and live indoors to protect their wool from being damaged by grass seeds.
The Sandlants will head to Melbourne today to see other bales go under the hammer at the Brooklyn wool sales.
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