THE lamb industry needs to get "even better" at producing lambs to specifications, according to JBS Southern farm assurance and supply chain manager Mark Inglis.
In a butchering demonstration he highlighted the wastage on a fat score five lamb - trimming an extra two kilograms of fat - compared to a fat score three carcase, even though both weighed 28kg carcaseweight. The other carcase needed only 1.6kg trimmed off, already being close to the five to 10 millimetres of fat acceptable to consumers.
"If we paid $5.50/kg for that carcase, we can only get about 20c/kg for those kilograms of fat we cut off so it is a big difference," Mr Inglis said. "The biggest input cost to an abattoir is labour and it takes time to trim fat."
He said the majority of Australian lambs had early maturing genetics and once they reached reached 24-26kgcw they stopped laying down red meat and only laid down fat.
"We are still seeing farmers trying to put more weight into lambs, when that last 3-4kg is fat that is just trimmed off."
He said lean meat yields could be pushed slightly higher but the industry needed to be careful it did not do this at the expense of intramuscular fat - with 4-6 per cent needed.
New Zealand producers were doing a much better job at hitting narrower specifications although he acknowledged their high rainfall environment made this easier.
The 18-32kg carcase grid offering by most processors ensured they filled their "hooks", but in a "value-chain" Mr Inglis said there was no room for 32kg-plus carcases.
"We supply a lot of markets but we are seeing from the consumer there is buyer pushback everywhere on the big heavy lambs. People aren't interested and can't afford to buy $80 legs and if they see it in a supermarket or butcher shop will go to other proteins so we have to be careful," he said.
