How meat farmers can lift returns

This year's predicted pricing for lambs looks disappointing at best, so Craig Hickson's statement that farmers could earn NZ$20 more per lamb by killing on the day of arrival and by selecting sires with large eye muscle area, will be listened to by many.

Alliance has been yield grading for a good few years now and results of the Texel lamb competition show the industry does have superior yielding animals and farmers should be searching out these genes in an endeavour to improve the efficency of their flock.

Farmers have made tremendous gains in productivity over the last 20 years in growth rate and lambing percentage and investment in genes to improve the amount of meat produced per carcass should prove worthwhile.

Does your ram breeder supply meat yield data in sires for sale, and how important is this trait in your breeding goals?

Craig Hickson tells a story to illustrate how meat processors can short-change farmers more than $20 on each lamb they send to the works. He is talking to a Beef + Lamb NZ Farming For Profit field day reports The Dom Post. The 30 farmers have just watched one of his butchers cut up a lamb carcass, been shown each cut and told its destination.

The most expensive cuts are the tenderloins, which sell for $46 a kilogram, the most sought-after are the shanks, and the next big thing is the shoulder rack. As much as 84 per cent of the carcass is exported and the rest goes to pet food or is rendered. He explains how farmers can increase the value of their lambs by avoiding the dangers of averaging, used by many meat companies to buy mobs of lambs.

“There is no such thing as two identical lambs. When you receive an average price, it hides the variations and it hides the opportunity to improve.” An example is the differences in meat yield, which can vary from low to high 40s as a percentage of a carcass. “Do you know this when you are told your mob averaged 43 per cent? Have you thought about this in dollars?

“Does every processor trim the carcass to the same amount or do you assume the hot weight is the same if it goes to plant A or plant B? I can tell you, sadly it is not.” A 40kg lamb, if it comes in at the lowest yield of 39 per cent, has a 15.6kg carcass, he says. “But if you go to a plant that kills your animal properly, which means on the day of arrival, you get an extra 400 grams.”

However, if the lamb's yield is at the upper range of 47 per cent, and is killed on the day of arrival, the carcass weight can be as high as 19.2kg. “This is all from what you thought was the same animal.”The questions farmers had to ask when choosing their route to market were: “How can I improve the yield from the liveweight I grow, and do I need to associate with someone who can provide feedback and information so I can make management and genetic changes that can move me forward.”

The aim is to increase the meat in the high-value parts of the lamb - the racks and loins - and reduce the low-paying parts - the forequarters and hind legs.“If you're using a lamb breeder who scans the eye muscle area, that's part of that.” Yield is real, Hickson tells the farmers. “ It is based on value, and when you supply it you are paid on value that's market-driven.”