Media Statement | SPA welcomes the launch of the world-first meat yield and IMF lamb grid

26/05/2021

Sheep Producers Australia (SPA) welcomes Gundagai’s launch of the world-first meat yield and IMF lamb grid and paying producers on lean meat yield, weight, intramuscular fat, and providing feedback on animal health at an individual carcase level last week.

“SPA has given support for IMF being recognised as a trait in meat language for sheep meat. This w ill provide a reference standard against which emerging technologies that aim to predict chemical intramuscular fat in Australian lamb and sheepmeat can be assessed against for accuracy at chain speed, and ultimately drive their commercialisation.”

“There are already established Australian Sheep Breeding Values, but there needs to be market forces and value signals in place to encourage their use. It is part of the reason that there are potential benefits in growing our national flock numbers to a point where the industry can have more experimentation in advancing desirable traits.”

SPA would like to see the evolution of sheep meat industry value chains to support objective measurement technologies at chain speed so that consumers can be guaranteed a quality product, producers can adjust their ram selection for a balance between yield and eating quality in the lambs they produce, and processors can optimise boning, target specific markets, and potentially reward producers.

“We are currently looking to re-build a flock, and if we can build a better flock in the process, that can only be good for future returns and the sustainability of the sheep industry.” Stephen Crisp SPA CEO can be attributed to all quotes in this statement.

24 May 2021

Media Inquiries to

Stephen Crisp SPA CEO

scrisp@sheepproducers.com.au

Mobile 0455 999 130

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