Last month, Sheep Producers Australia highlighted the need for lean meat yield and eating quality, through uptake of DEXA and IMF technology, to be measured at chain speed during processing.
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DEXA is a form of technology to measure lean meat yield (LMY) in processors while IMF (intramuscular fat) is a measure of eating quality, indicating juiciness and flavour.
This is to ensure consumers are guaranteed a quality product; producers can adjust their ram selection for a balance between yield and eating quality in lambs produced; and processors can optimise boning, target specific markets and potentially reward producers.
Effective and efficient industry systems are needed to support this measurement capacity and SPA believes Meat Standards Australia (MSA) and Livestock Data Link (LDL) are well positioned to assist producers.
MSA for lamb has been in Australia since 1998.
The system starts in the paddock with producers who are dedicated to following MSA recommendations to maintain the best production, welfare, handling and transport practices.
There is strict criteria for MSA product to ensure it meets consumer expectations for eating quality and is labelled according to recommended cooking method.
MSA grading currently covers only a limited proportion of Australian lamb.
In the future, MSA will need DEXA LMY and IMF measures to taken on the processing chain to calculate a grading for the carcase on eating quality.
If these measures could be taken and used to calculate the ultimate prize of excellent eating quality, how would this information get back to producers, or be used by processors to target the best market for that product?
In the current National Livestock Identification System (NLIS), most of the lambs across Australia are identified simply as part of a mob.
However, the question remains whether a mob-based system, rather than individual identification, is sufficient to justify the expense involved in the carcase measures that industry is developing.
At some stage in the near future, the sheep industry will need to address this question.
LDL is another important system capable of providing major benefit to producers.
It was launched in 2015 and allows feedback to producers on the carcase merit of their lambs.
Seamless feedback on-farm is essential for producers to be able to understand what profit levers they can influence, in terms of genetics, management and feed sources used.
If DEXA and IMF measures were implemented at chain speed at processors, it would greatly improve the value of the information that could be accessed, however the number of processors involved in LDL will need to be greatly increased for industry to realise the benefits.
SPA believes the key is transparent measurement around yield and eating quality with payment systems that will help align goals around consumers' needs.
It is all about getting industry systems to help us improve what we do on-farm through access to information so the industry can better monitor and manage.
While SPA has noted some challenges and frustrations with the slowness of uptake of OCM technologies, we support the production, processing and retail sectors working together to achieve these common goals and in particular satisfying the most important person in our value chain - our consumer.
- Bonnie Skinner is the SPA product integrity policy manager.
