A BINDI Bindi lamb producer has raised concerns over research into lamb tenderness saying producers are not getting financially rewarded for implementing new technology.
In a letter sent to Farm Weekly, Maria Wood, a stud breeder from Te Rakau Grazing Co, Bindi Bindi, questioned the point of research from the Sheep CRC in DNA technology for lamb eating, saying while the research project identifying genes contributing to tenderness and taste was a great breakthrough but has little commercial value for prime lamb producers.
"If it cannot be integrated into industry-wide specifications reflecting value and consumer preferences back to producer, what is the point?" Ms Wood said.
When Farm Weekly spoke to Ms Wood this week she said there needed to be some incentives for the better quality product and at the moment there wasn't.
"If you send off animals that are 22kg carcase weight with a 55 per cent lean meat yield it gets exactly the same money as a 22kg cw with a 41pc lean meat yield and that seems wrong," she said.
"We get told we should be using maternal breeds in the prime lamb industry and that is all well and good but there is no reward for doing it.
"We all aim for that 55pc lean meat yield but why bother?"
Ms Wood believes all the research done is producer focused but nothing is connecting producers to the marketplace.
"There are no signals out there to make us (producers) do it any better," she said.
"We have got an industry which is waiting to build up the Merino flock so that we can use the cast-for-age ewes in the prime lamb industry.
"You don't have a healthy industry when it's based on a breed that's not bred for meat at all."
Ms Wood said she thought the research from the Sheep CRC was good but wanted a more market focus.
"We have specifications in the grain industry, wool industry and beef industry why can't the lamb industry be put under the same umbrella?" she said.
"I don't want to actually criticise the MLA and I think the scientists that we have got are doing a great job, but we have now got science-run research."
Sheep CRC chief executive Professor James Rowe said the Sheep CRC was working with processors to find ways to quickly and accurately measure lean meat yield.
"Nobody wins when there are high fat carcases going through the system," Mr Rowe said.
"We are going through the process in measuring lean meat yield and that gives the producers, processors and the breeders a level of certainty that they just haven't had before.
"One of the really straight forward issues is how you measure lean meat yield at the speed of commerce on the chain."
"At the moment most yields are based on estimated fat and we are working on trying to find an alternative to get it more accurate," he said.
"We are also going through with processors in showing them just how much better value they can get with a higher lean meat yield."
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