The Lambex conference has kicked off in Adelaide with around 1500 in attendance

A Merino breeder has topped a new national feedlot competition at the Lambex conference as a top researcher warns Aussie lamb has gotten tougher.

The best lambs in Australia come from Merinos.

This was the result from the LambEx Feedlot Carcass competition, which saw 1500 lambs from three states and various breeds assessed for the top spot, with results revealed in Adelaide this week.

Ricky and Marni Luhrs, from Mooralla Merinos, just north of Hamilton in the Western District, were awarded the top prize.

The in-depth judging took place after lambs in the competition were delivered to Thornby Feedlot in South Australia at the beginning of December last year.

And the results have shined a light on the potential for greater attention to be paid to eating quality traits within the sector.

The win for the Merinos comes while researchers at Lambex warn that Australian lamb is losing market share in food service and eating quality needed to be lifted.

The Luhrs family run 5000 Merino ewes, with 60 per cent joined to Merino for their replacement and stud flock and 40 per cent of ewes mated to terminals on their 1200ha property.

The LambEx awards aimed to benchmark sheep genetics and provide a process that identified eating quality traits, regardless of breed. Wool value was also considered for the commercially focused competition.

“A total of 1500 lambs across 16 different breeds from 30 producers across Australia were entered in the competition as an opportunity to receive comprehensive feedlot and carcass feedback on their sheep genetics,” LambEx chair Jason Schulz said.

The groups of 50 were placed under the same conditions and same rations for the same number of days, before being processed at Thomas Foods Interntaiona’s Stawell plant.

Mr Schulz said the results of the awards showed there was “as much variation in carcass traits within a breed as there is when comparing different breeds, meaning there is greater opportunity for improvement through genetic selection at the farm level, based on data from Meat Standards Australia feedback,” he said.

He said there was so much potential to use MSA data to market lamb as a premium product and the competition, initiated by the LambEx committee, stemmed from that need.

Recording individual carcass traits of the lambs using electronic tag identification demonstrated MSA grading in lamb was possible by leveraging industry investment in abattoir technology, he said.

Meanwhile, this comes after the eating quality of lamb, and the need to improve it and prevent Australian lamb from becoming too tough for consumer’s liking, was flagged by a number of presenters at the conference.

University of New England Associate Professor Peter McGilchrist told the audience lamb was losing market share in Australian food service demand and that decline “needed to be arrested”.

The lamb industry could follow the lead from beef, in adopting and further employing MSA technology, he said.

He said data showed that “your lambs have been getting tougher” as producers pushed from growth, and that customers have to be happy as they are the only ones who put money into the supply chain.

Ricky and Marni Luhrs.

1500 people attended the Lambex conference in Adelaide

THURSDAY

Farmers told not to “feel silenced”

Farmers have been urged not to “feel silenced or undermined” and to “not let self-proclaimed experts” outside of agriculture tell their story.

This was the message from Scottish agricultural commentator and advocate Claire Taylor to the Lambex conference in Adelaide today, and set in the context of increasing pressure on farmers from climate and animal welfare activism and government controls.

The conference has kicked off with around 1500 sheep and lamb farmers and service providers flocking to the three day event.

Ms Taylor told the gathering farmers were the experts in their field and they needed to respond to questions from consumers without becoming defensive.

“Or, somebody else will tell (your story),” she said.

Claire Taylor at Lambex

Ms Taylor spoke about the ban on live exports in Great Britain, which had been introduced this year, but said an early engagement with local politicians had overturned a planned ban on internal transit of stock, a big win for Scotland’s regions like Orkney.

She urged the Australian sector to take the opportunity “not to shake your fists” at the new federal Agriculture Minister Julie Collins but look to built trust with her.

“The early days really do set the tone,” she said.

Reflecting on Australia’s recent proposed ban on live sheep exports by sea, the advocate said there should have been more engagement with leaders from earlier warnings in 2019.

The farming sector needed to see communication as a long-term game and Australians needed to be aware of what was happening globally.

She gave the example of the Dutch government’s proposal to buy out farmer’s rights to farm, and the predicted 10-15 per cent decline in farmer numbers within 12 months as an example of the extremes of government actions in Europe and their impact.

After experiencing online trolling herself, Ms Taylor said all that could be done was to change the way you react and to “rise above the noise”.

She called on Australian farmers to not “let current frustrations become a roadblock for future engagement”.

Price outlook strong, but risks loom

Lamb producers can expect to see returns of around $10.50 a kilogram by 2027, the Lambex conference was told today.

Global AgriTrends president Brett Stuart, who is also an Idaho cattle farmer, said predictions by his colleague Simon Quilty pointed to a sustained rise in pricing for lamb as the globe battled to keep pace with rising demand for protein.

Mr Stuart said demand for red meat was “looking really good” and the challenge was going to be whether production of proteins could keep pace.

“The highest bidders will get the meat,” he said.

Despite the positive demand outlook, Mr Stuart said outside pressures on livestock producers continued.

While consumers made their purchases primarily on taste, safety and then affordability, they were not generally prepared to pay for sustainability measures.

But social guilt, pushed by animal activism, was a “powerful” force influencing consumers, he said, noting the lack of meat offered in the athlete’s village at the current Olympic Games in Paris.

He said the strategy of activists was to raise producer’s production costs to trigger a move away from meat products and gave the example of regulations brought into California which required new standards for any pork sold in that state.

This had raised the price of pork by 20 per cent and lead to a decrease in consumption of pork in California, Mr Stuart said.

But competitors like the fake meat movement were struggling to make headway, he said, with the share price for one start-up collapsing from $238/share at launch to around $6/share today.

“It has totally collapsed, consumers don’t like it,” he said.

“Investor appetite is not proof of concept.”

The analyst also pointed to methane’s proportionally small contribution to warming and said some of the “fights are being won” regarding regulations that hamper producer’s ability to make a living. He pointed to the overturning of New Zealand’s planned methane tax as one example and encouraged the sector to focus on the science and not allow the narrative to be directed by activists.

The best was to have a net impact of reducing warming was actually to produce more productive livestock, not to reduce meat consumption, he said.

Nutrition scientist Dr Anneline Padayachee also gave an address on the role lamb plays in diet, and how it was viewed by consumers. Despite the focus on plant-based foods, only 2 per cent of Australians ate exclusively plant based diets, she said.

She also urged producers to own their expertise as food and nutrition producers.