Gaining market share and increased consumer acceptance has long been the aim of every producer of prime lambs: and one way in which the industry as a whole is addressing that ambition is by breeding lambs with a known and consistent eating quality.
Being able to specifically breed terminal sires with proven and measurable traits recognised within an Index designed for those eating quality traits is currently being developed through research within the industry.
That point was made by Dr Andrew Swan, Principal Scientist - Animal Genetics and Breeding Unit (AGBU) when he addressed attendees during the annual Kingsvale Supremes ram sale conducted on behalf of Tony and John Manchester near Young.
There has been a lot of research during the past ten years sponsored by Sheep CRC and MLA, according to Dr Swan.
“They have set up what is called a Genomic Reference Population where ram breeders enter sires and generate progeny in research flocks,” he said.
“The progeny are then subjected to a meat science program, so we get data on their carcass performance, eating quality and those animals have also been genomic tested and we can relate the DNA to the carcass performance.”
For the breeder, that specific feedback means they can DNA test their flock and actually predict a breeding value for eating quality.
“The eating quality traits that we have are basically Intra-muscular fat (IMF) and shear force, where IMF is the marbling characteristic and shear force is the measurement of tenderness,” Dr Swan explained.
“We have the basic breeding values, and we have developed an index which combines them with the traditional traits.”
But therein lies a problem because yield and eating quality are actually antagonistically related so the traditional focus for terminal sire breeders has been on growth and meat yield.
As producers are aware when breeding for lean meat yield, increased yield leads to a reduction in eating quality.
“The way we would describe it is there is a negative genetic correlation between lean meat yield and IMF and shear force,” Dr Swan explained.
“This was a big part of the research to identify that relationship and develop the breeding values, but then also to develop an index to combine them appropriately to breeders can reach a compromise.
“The antagonism is not impossible to beat, but the way to beat it is by using an index which combines all of the production traits.”
Lack of feedback restricts reward
Dr Andrew Swan, Principal Scientist - Animal Genetics and Breeding Unit (AGBU) told prime lamb producers there are really good genetic tools for breeders of terminal sires to make the necessary changes in the direction of selecting sires with better eating quality.
“The missing ingredient at the moment is the lack of feedback up and down the supply chain back to commercial producers to actually reward them for producing good eating quality animals,” he said.
“So perhaps there has not been the incentive for the commercial producer to look for those kinds of rams even though ram breeders are focused on breeding them.”
Dr Swan noted there are a number of breeders of terminal sires who are making strategic decisions aiming for eating quality.
“They are making those deliberate selections even though it might not necessarily be what their clients actually need at the moment,” he said.
