Moving away from the "price-taker" mentality of farming was part of the impetus behind a Binda prime lamb producer designing a fresh way to market livestock.
Rob Fraser, a fourth generation farmer, has developed a streamlined online sales concept to benefit not only lamb processors but also producers and stock agents.
Called Abblamb, it's due to be launched on the FarmGate Auctions platform on October 2.
What sets this online selling apart from others is it's just for finished prime lambs.
Mr Fraser said other platforms, such as AuctionsPlus, run sales for lambs but not ones exclusively for processors to buy stock ready for slaughter.
He said originally he approached AuctionsPlus with the idea, but talks failed to deliver a workable concept.
"We are going through challenging times in the lamb market both domestically and globally, and people are looking for marketing options," he said.
"As a producer, I was losing interest in breeding prime lambs with the lack of a fair place to sell my lambs. The drawbacks of over the hook, you would be in the queue for about four weeks with no guarantee of price per kilogram and skin value."
Abblamb was developed to take advantage of new technologies which up until now have been underutilised in the prime lamb value chain.
"I felt lamb producers needed a platform where marketing costs can be reduced," he said.
"Abblamb also allows my property's credentials around biodiversity and carbon management to follow my lambs.
"It mimics the saleyards on-farm and gives producers the advantage of passing in the lambs with only the cost of the Abblamb listing.
"Physical markets can be so erratic on the day with one pen of the same article differing $10 side-by-side."
Mr Fraser described Abblamb and FarmGate Auctions as a natural fit.
"We are not reinventing the wheel, but buyers can push a button and purchase a lamb with more information at their fingertips," he said.
"Agents are vital for the supply chain and have a role in linking producers together to do business.
"I wanted a system where the lamb producer could reserve their product when at auction that didn't come as a massive cost or biosecurity risk to the farm."
The system gives a dollars per head price on lambs before they leave the farm gate.
In comparison to a physical saleyard where meat buyers assess lambs visually and estimate their carcase weights, Abblamb present liveweights of each lamb and the lots are drafted into categories from light trade to light and heavy export.
"Producers enter how long the lambs have been off feed and shrinkage rates are calculated automatically," Mr Fraser said.
Mr Fraser said the low carbon footprint of the Abblamb selling system had been welcomed by many producers.
"Going from farm direct to the processor rather than being trucked to the saleyards and then being loaded onto another truck, helps improve animal welfare and biosecurity, and reduce the carbon footprint," he said.
FarmGate Auctions director Richard Norton said Abblamb reassured processors of access to lambs on-farm every day.
Nutrien Ag Solutions livestock manager Daniel Croker, Goulburn, said Abblamb would give agents additional avenues of market exposure of their client's stock without leaving the paddock.
"For the producer to be able to promote what they are doing in terms of their prime lamb product is important for processors to see, in order for the producer to achieve that next level of price," Mr Croker said.
"In regard to the processor, lambs are weighed into their optimal weight ranges, whether that be trade, heavy trade or export, to give the advantage of maximising grid specifications.
"Going straight from paddock to processor optimises animal welfare, lifts the kill average and improves eating quality for the consumer."
