Efficiency objective for meat breeds

Press, 1 July 1983, Page 16

Efficiency objective for meat breeds

New Zealand wants its meat breeds of sheep to become more efficient at producing carcase weight, and to produce lambs with higher value carcases.

That was how a Ruakura scientist, Dr Alan Kirton, summed up what is required of New Zealand meat breeds at the Ruakura Farmers’ Conference.

Dr Kirton was presenting a paper, “What our meat breeds have to offer,” which he wrote with Dr G. L. Bennet of Ruakura Research Centre.

No one breed was best in all performance traits, Dr Kirton explained. He qualified this, however, by pointing out that selection can and has changed breeds. To this end, improving growth and leanness should be the objective of all meat breeds, he said.

Which breeds are best will depend on performance, market preferences and the individual farm situation.

It is likely that New Zealand will continue to have several export markets with several different carcase specifications. A diversity of meat breeds should help satisfy these different markets.

Dr Kirton pointed out that the survival of lambs from birth to weaning was an important part of efficient production of carcase weight on any farm under any grading system. More lambs produced from the same number of ewes increased income at little extra expense. However, he said that whether New Zealand wanted its meat breeds to produce faster-growing lambs depended on the situation. If a farmer sells lambs after weaning or at some fixed time, such as when the summer drought begins or before the facial eczema season begins, the faster growth will mean more carcase weight and more income.

On the other hand if you have adequate pasture and if prices reward a particular carcase weight, then faster growth means that lambs are sold earlier but not for more money.

To date a preferred weight has not been established. New Zealand in fact supplies a variety of markets, each with its own requirements. The market specifications

of carcases had changed and would continue to change, said Dr Kirton. Eating quality was another important aspect of producing carcases for meat. Dr Kirton commented that to date all breeds had been found to produce meat of good eating quality. However, differences in the treatment of carcases after slaughter had shown large effects on eating quality. A farmer’s choice of meat breed sires would be partly determined by its performance and by its ability to meet market requirements, he said. There were of course many other factors which influenced a farmer’s choice of breed, particularly if performance differences were small. These included confidence in the individual breeder, health and condition of rams presented for sale, stock agent preferences, and ram price and availability. Dr Kirton also looked at breed performances.

He said breeds with the fastest growth tended to produce lean lambs. However, he added that Romney purebred and Cheviot cross lambs were lean without having fast growth.