Superfine wool can easily be grown and produced commercially in the Mediterranean environment so long as management practices can be applied to give tensile strength in excess of 33 NKt and VM less than 1%. Superfine wool has the best outlook of wool in the industry because it intrinsically has the sensuous, soft, luxuriousness that wool can carry.
Edale has pursued marketing superfine wool directly into the wool value chain, historically being financially involved with a company attempting to source elite wool, Quality Softwools Australia Limited, and a company seeking to manufacture silky soft knitted garments and fabric, Merino Gold Limited. Merino Gold Limited used Edale superfine wool in 1997 but there was no useful resulting performance measure.
Edale's difficulty in recent and unusually harsh seasonal years where the winter grazed stocking rate has exceeded 10DSE/WGHa has been to achieve tensile strengths in excess of 33 NKt. However, with seasonal conditions having improved over the past 12 months, and a lower stocking rate of 8.5-9.5 DSE/WGHa we are in a better position to test the tensile strength performance.
To date, Edale superfine wool has not achieved any State record prices. The test is coming up over the next two years.
