Saskatchewan Sheep Development Board Works On Designing Better Lambs

Source: Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food

If the Saskatchewan Sheep Development Board and its partners succeed in a new project, funded in part by Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food’s (SAF) Agriculture Development Fund (#20050709), consumers will end up with better cuts of lamb on their plate, and producers with more money in their pockets.

“We have joined forces with the Alberta Sheep and Wool Commission, SAF, Lakeland College and Sunterra Meats to try to work on building better lambs, using the Lakeland College ewe flock," explains Gordon Schroeder, General Manager of the Saskatchewan Sheep Development Board. “We are taking six sire breeds to those ewes, and we are tracking their rates of gain and their cutability right through to the plant. We are trying to determine what is required to build that top quality carcass that can get us really good cutability at the plant.”

This matters, explains Schroeder, because the slaughter plant pays a premium for carcasses that index over 100 per cent.

“So we are trying to get some data and figure out a way for lamb producers to get that premium pricing all the time," he says. "You see, a carcass of average quality is called 100 per cent index. If you can produce a carcass that has more cutability, meaning better traits, they will pay a premium on those—a percentage over the average price.”

This project involves a multilevel partnership. Staff at Lakeland College —including veterinarians—are working with the students at Lakeland to provide the labour.

“They are handling the flock, doing the weighing, the breeding and caring for the flock. Once these animals reach slaughter weight, they will be transported to Sunterra meats for further tests around cutability." Sunterra Meats in Innisfail, Alberta is the only federally licensed lamb cutting plant in Western Canada.

The project will be conducted over three years. Schroeder looks forward to obtaining the results. He says this is the only project of this type going on in Canada.

“This is why we have partnered with other jurisdictions. Our industry has to build a quality carcass and we have to have consistent quality. So we must acquire the knowledge and provide that data to producers.”

For more information, contact:

Gordon Schroeder
General Manager
Saskatchewan Sheep Development Board
(306) 933-5582
gordsheepdb@sasktel.net
http://www.agr.gov.sk.ca/agrifood/boards/SKSheep.htm