Red meat programme open to all

Many farmers spend a lot of time discussing the merits and advantages of the breeds they run, but forget it's the genes that matter, not the breed.

Technology has enabled science to identify genes that are not only production driven but consumer focused. Genes that influence meat taste, texture, colour, odour, and acidity, could  all be important to the consumer .

The three breeds linked to the companies involved have been created because those breeds have been looking how to involve the consumer into their breeding programmes for some time.

Other breed societies need to review their animal's qualities, and see how their attributes can contribute to enhancing a consumer focus.

The partners in a new plate-to-pasture red-meat programme say it is open to all animal breeds, even though they have financial links to Rissington and Kelso sheep and cattle genetics reports The ODT.

Silver Fern Farms (SFF) integrated category manager Grant Howie said the $151 million project, which included Primary Growth Partnership funding from the Government, linked consumer tastes and requirements for red meat with producers and had nothing to do with the breed of animal.

Project partners SFF, Landcorp and PGG Wrightson will establish a new independent entity, FarmIQ Systems, to manage the project and Mr Howie said its aim was to create a point of difference for meat products that was linked to what consumers wanted.

Some farmers have expressed concern that SFF's ownership of the logistics and marketing arm of Rissington, PGG Wrightson's ownership of the Kelso genetics company and Landcorp's genetic programme could influence the project.

"FarmIQ System is open to having a discussion with any genetic breeding organisation around improving sheep, cattle and deer genetics and making them relevant to consumers," he said.

That point of difference could be meat taste, texture, colour, odour, acidity or some other attribute, but Mr Howie said the key was to scientifically measure and quantify those claims, together with consumer input.

He said FarmIQ Systems would partner a group of farmers or breeders who believed their stock had special attributes, similar to the Certified Angus and Hereford Superbly Aged Beef programmes.

Mr Howie said farmers would need to supply scientific proof why their animals were superior, such as evidence of higher meat yields or better taste or texture. Many breeders already had some of that information from working with Sheep Improvement Ltd, Deer Improvement or using the CT scanner at AgResearch Invermay in their breeding programmes.