THE Australian sheep meat industry has a challenge: How to deal with heavier carcases and therefore cuts as genetics and production systems push lambs to bigger weights, says NSW Department of Primary Industries senior principal research scientist David Hopkins.
“The average (lamb carcase) is up to 23 kilos, so we’re going to have a lot of lambs above 23kg,” he said.
These above-average lambs presented the challenge, mainly due to the large size of their standard cuts.
“The other thing that’s happening is lamb has to compete with other products. You can go and buy these ready-to-eat meals now, based on chicken and other things. You can go and buy two drumsticks and cook it up for $8 – cheap protein in comparison,” he said.
“A recent survey that was done in Australia indicated that of 1000 consumers, 44 per cent of them prefer chicken, 31pc prefer beef, 17pc lamb and 8pc pork.
“The other thing is consumers are showing a preference for smaller portions, particularly with innovative packaging.”
This all combines to create a challenge when the base product – lamb – is increasing in weight.
The program is a joint initiative between the Sheep Co-operative Research Centre and Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) to address the options for preparing heavy carcases into convenient retail-ready cuts.
Such cuts included the compact shoulder roast, which MLA butcher Doug Piper cut from a large carcase as part of his demonstration during Lambex, held at Albury recently. He cut a large shoulder down to a size that would suit three to four people. With a price of about $15 a kilogram, the new easy-to-prepare, one to 1.2 kilogram compact roast would cost about $20 or less at retail.
Other cuts in development were being aimed at Asian-style dishes to take the battle for plate space right into the traditional territory of pork and chicken, while other cuts were being developed for slow cooking, which made preparation for chefs easier.
MLA chef, Sam Burke, who demonstrated how to cook some of these new cuts, explained it was all about putting easy meal solutions in front of customers. His colleague, Mr Piper, said the new cuts allowed consumers to use lamb in new ways. In a large lamb leg, the individual muscles, such as the rump, were large enough to separate out as individual cuts to serve as a roast, but small enough to cook quickly (about 30 minutes) and to produce suitable portion sizes.
However, Dr Hopkins reminded producers it was only worth attempting these new cuts on the lean, heavy lambs because retail yield had to be kept in check.
