Processor feedback to lamb producers has greatly improved in the past decade according to JBS Farm Assurance and supply chain manager Mark Inglis but he accepts there is still a way to go.
"What seems to be the most important line for a producer on a kill sheet? The line where it says how much the lambs made.... but if you look down the page there are a lot of columns and numbers that are not as clear as they could be," he said.
The guest speaker at last week's Mundulla Prime Lamb Competition presentation dinner urged producers to access Meat & Livestock Australia's online portal, Livestock Data Link.
Carcase data from seven years of lambs processed at JBS Bordertown's abattoir could be found there.
New consignments would soon include animal health information with nearly 20 conditions being monitored at the plant since February.
The installation of DEXA (Dual Energy X-ray absorptiometry) five years ago in Bordertown had given a 92 per cent accurate measure of lean meat yield on carcases which was valuable to both processors and producers but he said new technology being developed would provide even more data.
This could help producers make even better genetic and management decisions.
"What is the one thing the lamb industry currently doesn't have that the beef industry has? A measure for the quality of a carcase. In beef it's the MSA index," he said.
"We have a really good prototype now but the one thing missing is how we get intramuscular fat.
"Hopefully a hyperspectral camera currently at Murdoch University, (WA) and other objective measurements being tested by the ALMTECH (Advanced Livestock Measurement Technologies) will be able to deliver this if that is the way the industry wants to go."
But Mr Inglis said it was likely to still be at least five years before producers sold lambs on a grid which incentivised them for the MSA index of their lambs.
The biggest challenge with any new technology is ensuring it holds up to the highly variable conditions in an abattoir, he said.
An example of this was the hook tracking system which was installed in Bordertown about three years ago.
The chips attached to the hooks have not been durable enough to withstand continual washes and there has been difficulty reading the chips at the chain speed of 12-16 lambs a minute.
Mr Inglis said JBS was considering a specialist food block chain, Lumachain, for Bordertown, which would use cameras to track individual carcases from the slaughter floor to the boning room.
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