Silky texture and subtle flavour with Charollais lambs

There's been increased interest in the breed, known for its easy lambing and fast growth, and there are now about 15 stud and commercial producers in the country.

Oberon producers Mick and Lynne Mooney, Keystone Two, have been in the breed for five years, but they found the breed in a roundabout way, with a visit to Camlea at Glencoe, where Kevin and Gina Feakins were running Charollais sheep along with a horse stud.

"Lynne wanted to buy a Fell pony from Gina and when we went there Kevin had these sheep and I really liked the look of them," Mr Mooney said.

"I was looking for something a little bit different and they've got a lot of things they do right, from small birthweight to light boning, which gives you good dressed weights, and the intramuscular fat."

The marbling and high yield has led to a premium market for Mr Mooney, who's now running La Roche stud and a small commercial flock, supplying lambs to a Carlingford butcher Duncan Webster, Webster's Gourmet Meat Kitchen.

Mr Mooney is also planning to sell Charollais-cross lambs through CTLX at Carcoar for the first time in October or November.

"We took seven-eighth Charollais lambs, by our rams out of three-quarter Charollais ewes, to a butcher shop at Carlingford and Duncan has sold them as Charollais lamb," he said.

"They're full of meat, and it's a quick-growing lamb so they finish earlier on grass, and we just supplement with high protein pellets to add extra fat cover."

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The lambs are dressing around 54 per cent, with carcase weights from 33 to 35 kilograms.

They're bigger lambs, but it's not an issue for Mr Webster, who has been impressed with the yield and marbling.

Mr Webster's previous work as a restaurant butcher in London has given him the ability to appreciate exceptional meat, and his shop includes a line of restaurant-quality meats.

"They're a lot bigger than our normal lambs, but they're eating like a sucker lamb, just with more meat," Mr Webster said.

"The bone structure doesn't correlate with the amount of meat or muscle on them. They look like a Dorper in their structure, with the round hindquarter, but without the really strong taste and toughness.

"They're retaining a really nice, soft muscle."

The texture and taste is also very different, making the Chaollais a nice change to a traditional crossbred lamb.

"They've got a bit of fat cover on them, which I like, but that also gets into the muscle and there's a nice bit of marbling through them.

"Some of them are heavily marbled, and the others have the soft, silky texture."

He's even had non lamb-eaters looking for his Charollais lamb.

"We've had a couple of customers, whose wives or partners don't eat lamb, but they've tried this and love it," Mr Webster said.

"It's not a really big lamby flavour, and that's what customers like - nice and subtle.

"A lot of people turned off lamb over the years with a really strong lamb flavour, and I think it's a good breed to get people into eating lamb."