Dr Daniel Brown urges Merino and maternal sheep breeders to look at eating quality

Dr Brown leads a team that has developed eating quality traits in sheep, and now those traits are becoming more important to producers.

But Dr Brown thinks there is an opportunity for Merino and maternal producers, as well as processors, to focus more on eating quality.

Dr Brown leads a group of sheep researchers working at the Animal Genetics and Breeding Unit based at University of New England, where he has worked for the past 25 years.

His team is funded by Meat and Livestock Australia to deliver breeding values for Sheep Genetics. He is also involved in other research projects for sheep, including eating quality and carcase data. Their work on eating quality began in 2007.

"We started capturing more carcase data, like intramuscular fat (IMF) and shear force measurements, and with the Meat Standards Australia (MSA) team we started getting more consumers eating lambs and obtaining more sensory data on them," he said. "We then started doing the consumer testing to truly understand eating quality as determined by untrained consumers."

To do this, the Sheep CRC had an Information Nucleus Flock, which has evolved into the MLA Resource Flock.

"We used industry sires and bred lambs that were relevant to industry and Sheep Genetics. We bred them in the research project and we followed them through to the abattoir," he said.

"We collected carcase traits and meat samples, and the meat samples went to the lab to get meat science traits on them. Some also went to consumer testing - this is where we had taste panels of consumers. They ate the meat and scored it."

He said MSA was working on a new model for sheep, where individual carcases are graded for eating quality.

He said he and his team of scientists first released breeding values for eating quality traits in 2011.

"We've recently incorporated those traits into the index, so we have balanced improvement in growth and lean meat yield (LMY) as well as eating quality," he said. "Those two traits are antagonistically related."

He said there were three key indexes.

"The first one, Terminal Carcase Production, was designed to increase yield but to hold eating quality constant," he said.

"Eating quality (EQ) aimed to make improvements in both yield and eating quality, so it meant more balanced selection for both traits.

"Lamb Eating Quality (LEQ) was for the producers who had other things to deal with, such as worms. It also had a bit more focus on things like lambing difficulties, so it managed birthweights. LEQ is a more detailed version of EQ with a few extra traits."

He said seeing the response from the sheep industry was encouraging.

"There has only just started to be price signals in the marketplace, but breeders have been selecting for 10 years to manage eating quality and make sure that we don't let it deteriorate, and even improve it," he said.

He said most leading terminal sire breeders in the sheep industry had made massive changes to eating quality in their genetics.

"They've turned eating quality around. It's not declining like it was at one point in time. We are now improving eating quality and LMY. The fact that breeders have invested in getting information on these new traits and made improvement is a good reward in itself," he said.

"For us as scientists, to see industry making those changes to our lamb production is awesome."

He said eating quality had been dealt with as an industry.

"It's been a combination of scientists and geneticists, the industry doing the recording, co-funded research populations, genomics, as well as MSA and processors like Gundagai Meat Processors actively collecting data and putting price signals in the market to help make this happen," he said.

"It's been a collaborative project across the whole value chain to make sure we are able to manage these challenges as an industry. That in itself has been awesome to see. A lot of countries don't have that integrated approach that we seem to have achieved. I think that in itself is a credit to Australia and the sheep industry."

He said they were working on a range of new traits to help producers make better selections in the future, such as feed efficiency, easy-care and methane traits.

"We are actively out there now collecting data and developing reference populations for these new traits and how to measure them so we can include sustainability and feed efficiency, as well as things like mature size. This isn't as important for terminal sires but for Merino and maternal producers, that is a focus," he said. "Developing new traits can be challenging, but it's also enjoyable to be at the forefront and collecting new data."

Dr Brown would like to see more Merino breeders looking at eating quality rather than just terminal sire producers.

"In maternals and Merinos there isn't as much focus. We need to be careful to make sure our maternals are managing eating quality appropriately as well," he said.

"To date there hasn't been much selection pressure on eating quality in Merinos and some maternal producers. Only half the genes come from the sire, and so those maternal genetics contribute importantly to the end lamb product."

He would also like to see more processors getting on board to measure and reward eating quality.

"From an industry perspective, we already have a couple of supply chains measuring eating quality and trying to price accordingly. I think we need to see commercial producers getting the right price incentives in the marketplace so they can help manage eating quality. If producers don't ever get paid on eating quality, why would they bother?

"It is an industry-wide issue. Historically lamb was a commodity product - a lamb was a lamb - but more and more we are segregating lambs into different qualities. That is the end game - to value lamb according to what it is like to eat rather than all being valued the same."