SFF and NZMerino combine to market meat

The marketing of sheep meats on their breed, is a new innovation that could increase the value of some of our products.

Experienced farmers have often commented about the better flavour of Merino wethers often bought for homekill at saleyards.

Now a partnership of NZ Merino and Silver Fern Farms are keen to expose these flavours and tastes to its customers.

The merino brand has been expertly created and reinforced in that breeds wool products, and now they seek to replicate that success in the marketing of meat.

The Texel and Rissington breedlines are others that have tried to quantify their advantages to the meat marketers,and  it will be interesting to see if other breeds follow.

Wool marketer NZ Merino and meat company Silver Fern Farms are forming a joint venture to market and promote merino branded sheep meat and by-products reports The ODT. The initial three-year agreement will see Silver Fern Farms (SFF) process the fine- and mid-micron woolled sheep sourced from New Zealand Merino clients, with meat, offal, leather and lanolin products marketed under a new brand by the still un-named joint venture company.

Growers will be offered three-year supply contracts with annual incremental price increases. Backers have set a first-year goal of attracting half a million sheep. Products will be marketed in the same way that NZM has marketed its merino wool, using the providence of the New Zealand high country, its people and farming systems.

The two parties say the deal was the result of SFF, PGG Wrightson and Landcorp Farming successfully securing Government Primary Growth Partnership (PGP) co-funding. They intend to add value to meat products by establishing a plate-to-pasture structure for meat. SFF chief executive Keith Cooper said the joint industry and Government Primary Growth Partnership funding will allow them to consumer-test the quality attributes of merino meat and assist breeders and growers to produce animals with attributes desired by consumers.

Much was known about the wool attributes of merino sheep, but little about their meat, and Mr Brakenridge said this latest venture was part of a bigger push to make the breed a multipurpose animal. He said many merino farmers consider 2-year-old sheep the best tasting, but under the present meat grading system farmers receive a discounted price for older animals, so sheep are killed younger.