Chapter 3.2 Manage the production system to meet market specifications
Background information
Consumers demand food products that are consistent in quality, provide nutrition and health benefits as well as being free of chemical residues and other contamination. Tool 3.4 presents a checklist to assist production and delivery of quality assured sheepmeat products. It is important to consult your livestock agent, buyer or processor for more specific requirements as each processor will have specifications relevant to their customer needs and requirements.
Monitor and assess the productivity and profitability of the production system by:
- Recording the amount of feed on offer from forage and/or supplementary feeding systems.
- Assessing the average growth rate to market (kilograms per day).
- Recording pre-slaughter growth, especially for Merino lambs.
- Calculating the cost of production (cents per kilogram).
- Pre-sale or pre-slaughter weighing and fat scoring lambs.
- Knowing skin values at the time of sale.
At a glance
- Weigh and fat score lambs to monitor growth rate and condition and use the information to better manage the production system and meet target specifications.
- Use dressing percentage to convert live animal weight into carcase weight of each sale consignment.
- Use Meat Standards Australia (MSA) guidelines for lamb and sheepmeat to improve product eating quality.
- Understand management factors affecting skin values.
Weigh and fat score lambs
Weighing lambs at weaning is recommended. Lambs should be weighed after 2-3 hours off feed for an accurate assessment. Draft lambs into liveweight categories and then use fat scoring to assess the range in fatness.
Fat scoring sale lambs (Tool 3.3) is an important pre-sale procedure when targeting a market. Fat scoring is performed on live sheep and is based on the tissue thickness (both fat and lean tissue) at the GR site (110 mm from the carcase midline over the 12th rib). A practical option is to draft lambs into liveweight categories and fat score a 20% sub-sample of the animals. This is used to estimate the amount of fat cover on the carcase, with fat scores ranging from 1 (leanest) to 5 (fattest).
Predict carcase weight from dressing percentage (DP%)
DP% is an important consideration for producers when marketing lambs as it provides an indication of how likely your sheep are to hit the carcase weight specifications for a given category. DP% is the weight of a carcase, expressed as a percentage of the liveweight of the animal from which it will be processed.
Australian lambs generally have a dressing percentage of 45-50% hot standard carcase weight (HSCW), 23 hours off feed. Leaving sheep off feed and water for extended periods of time will reduce their dressing percentage and therefore their yield (lower relative HSCW).
Use dressing percentage to convert liveweight into carcase weight (table 3.2).
Table 3.2 Converting liveweight to carcase weight
|
|
EXAMPLE |
YOUR SHEEP |
|
Liveweight of lamb |
50 kg |
|
|
Estimated dressing percentage (DP%) |
46% |
|
|
Live weight (kg) x DP% (decimal) |
50 kg x 0.46 |
|
|
Hot standard carcase weight (HSCW) |
23 kg |
|
Producers can use DP% to estimate carcase weight from liveweight to meet market specifications. When you receive carcase feedback, check the actual DP% to see how close your estimation was and refine your estimated DP% to use on-farm.
Factors affecting dressing percentage include:
- Breed – at the same fatness, more muscled animals dress higher. Border Leicester/Merino and Merino lambs will generally dress 1.5% to 3.5% less than second cross lambs.
- Age – older animals have a lower dressing percentage (young lamb > carryover lamb > mutton).
- Fat score – higher fat score animals have a higher dressing percentage.
- Seasonal feed conditions – low digestibility pasture will reduce dressing percentage by as much as 3%.
- Sex – wether lambs dress higher than ewe lambs.
- Skin weight – if wool is dry make no adjustment for weight. If wool is wet with a 75mm wool length, it will hold 0.2-0.5kg of water.
See Tool 3.3 for more information.
Apply Meat Standards Australia sheepmeat requirements and recommendations
Use of Meat Standards Australia (MSA) supply chain management program requirements and recommendations for lamb and sheepmeat will improve the eating quality of lamb, hogget and mutton.
MSA on-farm requirements include:
- Producers are registered with MSA prior to sheep leaving property of origin to be MSA eligible.
- Minimum of two weeks at consignment property before dispatch.
- Minimum two weeks off shears (minimum wool length of 5 mm).
- At least fat score 2.
- Minimum HSCW 16 kg for milk-fed Lamb/Young Lamb.
- Minimum HSCW 18 kg for all weaned lambs, hogget and mutton.
- Total time off feed not greater than 48 hours before slaughter.
- Animals to have access to water at all times while not in transit.
- Maximum time in transit 24 hours.
- National Vendor Declaration (Sheep and Lambs) correctly filled out and accompany consignment to saleyards or processor, including the MSA registration number in Part A, Question 7 ‘Additional details’.
- Entire males or animals showing secondary sexual characteristics are not eligible for MSA grading.
MSA recommends that lambs and sheep should be on a rising plane of nutrition leading up to consignment, and that the following growth rates should be achieved in the two weeks prior to slaughter:
- First and second cross – minimum of 100 g/day.
- 51-100% Merino – minimum of 150 g/day.
Additional recommendations and further information on MSA sheepmeat production can be found in tool 3.5 and on the MSA Sheepmeat website (see signposts).
Red meat integrity system
Australia's red meat integrity system ensures the livestock industry can ‘stand by what it sells’.
Incorporating on-farm assurance and livestock traceability, the red meat integrity system protects the disease-free status of Australian red meat and underpins the marketing of our product as clean, safe and natural. Integrity Systems Company (ISC) is responsible for delivering this world leading red meat integrity system, managing and delivering the industry’s on-farm assurance and through-chain traceability programs:
Livestock Production Assurance
The Livestock Production Assurance (LPA) program is the Australian industry's on-farm assurance program, providing evidence of livestock history and producer on-farm practices when transferring animals through the value chain.
There are seven requirements of the LPA program, which underpin market access for Australian red meat, providing customer assurance around food safety, biosecurity and ethical production. Producers who choose to participate in the LPA program commit to carrying out on-farm practices that feed into and support the integrity of the entire system. Minimum learning and assessment requirements include:
- Property risk assessments
- Safe and responsible animal treatments
- Stock foods, fodder crops, grain and pasture treatments
- Preparation for dispatch for livestock
- Livestock transactions and movements
- Biosecurity
- Animal welfare
This integrity is verified when producers sign a LPA National Vendor Declaration (NVD) for livestock movements. NVDs communicate the food safety and treatment status of every animal every time it moves along the value chain – between properties, to saleyards, or to processors. The NVD also acts as movement documentation throughout the value chain.
NVDs are a legal document that are key to Australian red meat’s traceability and market access. It is crucial that you fill out the NVD accurately.
You must be LPA accredited to access to LPA NVDs. When you tick the box on your LPA NVD, you are declaring your on-farm practices meet LPA requirements, and ultimately customer expectations.
An LPA electronic National Vendor Declaration (eNVD) is the digital alternative to paper based NVDs. The eNVD is not just an NVD – it’s a system for completing all consignment paperwork digitally including livestock assurance and health declarations.
National Livestock Identification System
The National Livestock Identification System (NLIS) is Australia's system for the identification and traceability of cattle, sheep and goats. NLIS reflects Australia's commitment to biosecurity and food safety and provides a competitive advantage in the global market.
As animals are bought, sold, and moved along the supply chain, they must be tagged with an NLIS accredited tag or device from their property (PIC) of birth. In most cases this tag will remain with the animal for their entire life and it is illegal to remove this tag, unless it is not in working order.
If tags are lost or become defective then a new tag can be applied, however if the animal is no longer at its place of birth then a ‘post breeder’ tag must be used. This indicates that the animal no longer has ‘lifetime’ traceability.
All animals leaving a PIC must be identified with an NLIS accredited device before moving, unless a permit is obtained from the state or territory. Each movement they make to a location with a different PIC must be recorded centrally on the NLIS database by the receiving property via their NLIS account. NLIS accounts are free to open and operate.
Using this information, NLIS is able to provide a life history of an animal's movements and discern if contact with other livestock occurred. The NLIS is required to facilitate the traceability of animals in accordance with the National Traceability and Performance Standards.
National Residue Survey
The National Residue Survey is an Australian Government program that monitors agricultural products and meat producing animals for residues of agricultural and veterinary chemicals, as well as some environmental and industrial contaminants.
The purpose of residue monitoring is to confirm that residues in products are within internationally accepted limits and to alert responsible authorities when limits are exceeded so that corrective action can be taken and affected product removed from the supply chain.
The survey is designed to confirm Australia’s status as a producer of clean meat. Abide by label directions for use, withholding periods and slaughter intervals for all chemicals to avoid residues in sheepmeat.
Check out this overview of the services and tools available at myFeedback – an Australian-first information hub for sheep and beef producers, combining data from NLIS, MSA, NLRS, and AHA.
A supply chain management program designed to improve the eating quality of all sheepmeat categories (lamb, hogget and mutton).
A system of on-farm assurance, animal identification and traceability from paddock to plate guarantees the integrity of Australia’s red meat industry.
Australia's system for the identification and traceability of cattle, sheep and goats. NLIS reflects Australia's commitment to biosecurity and food safety and provides a competitive advantage in a global market.
LPA is the on-farm assurance program that underpins market access for Australian red meat. LPA National Vendor Declarations (NVDs) provide evidence of livestock history and on-farm practices when transferring livestock through the value chain, and livestock producer accreditation increases marketing options for their livestock.
Latest pricing, reporting, forecasts and analysis for Australian and international red meat markets.
An industry-first single-source data program, which combines the benefits of carcase and eating quality data with animal disease and defect insights in one place, enabling more accurate benchmarking of carcase performance for all users and help producers make data-driven on-farm decisions to improve the quality and health of their livestock, in line with market requirements.
