Module 3 Market focused lamb and sheepmeat production
Introduction
This module is designed to assist sheep producers to deliver quality assured lamb and sheepmeat to target market specifications. It integrates technical aspects of the production system with the marketing process to enable you to:
- Better manage the production system and price risks;
- Meet market specifications and consumer expectations for eating quality; and
- Improve business profitability through better understanding of the marketing process.
Genetics, nutrition and management all have a major impact on the ability to meet market specifications. Having an efficient, value-based marketing process in place enables you to capitalise on the benefits of an efficient production system.
Effective integration of production and marketing delivers the following outcomes that will benefit your business:
- Best quality product to market – knowing the weight and fat specifications is the basis for successfully supplying a target market with a quality assured and consistent sheepmeat product and achieving best financial returns.
- Knowing the cost of production – a key factor affecting the profitability and an important step to assessing and improving the performance of a lamb enterprise.
- Enhanced feed use efficiency – time your key operations to maximise production per hectare, match the system to land capability and supply the target market with a quality product that meets specifications.
- Using the best available selling options – by assessing the advantages and disadvantages, costs involved and likely returns of each selling method and selecting the most appropriate one.
- Supply chain approach to production and marketing – applying the principles of supply chain management can benefit production efficiency and reduce risk for supply chain partners.
- Monitoring, measurement and continuous improvement – the key to benchmarking production efficiency and the implementation of continuous improvement in productivity and profitability.
Decide what product you can produce most profitably – select a production system to suit the environment and monitor and evaluate productivity and profitability.
Manage the production system to meet market specifications – use Meat Standards Australia (MSA) guidelines for producing sheepmeat.
Decide on the most profitable selling method – evaluate selling options and develop relationships along the lamb and sheepmeat supply chain.
Respond to short- and long-term price and market signals – use market intelligence to implement a continuous improvement program.
