Prime Lamb Production and Marketing

Summary

Traditionally treated as a bi-product of the Merino wool industry, the Western Australian prime lamb industry has experienced poor conception and lamb survival rates and a spate of imbalanced slaughter. The majority of prime lambs slaughtered in WA are first cross lambs from Merino ewes. The recent introduction of the new meat, milk and dualpurpose sheep breeds has provided producers with the option to produce prime lambs from first cross ewes. Proponents of the new ewe breeds claim the growth and carcase characteristics of the second cross progeny are superior to the first cross lambs from Merino ewes.

It is important to understand the quality and quantity of wool produced by first cross ewes as the value of the wool clip from prime lamb dams can contribute significantly to the income of a prime lamb enterprise. To open new world lamb markets, WA requires consistent availability of more large lean prime lambs (including suckers). This requires ewes with good mothering ability, high milk yields and persistent lactation. It is intended that this project will provide producers with an objective demonstration of the value of new and current maternal genetics to produce the large lean sucker lambs now demanded. The maternal breeds evaluated are the Merino (M) and the first cross progeny from mating of Merino ewes with Border Leicester (BL), Poll Dorset (PD), South African Meat Merino (SAMM) and East Friesian (EF) sires.

The PD breed is the most common terminal sire used in the WA industry and therefore large numbers of M x PD ewes could be available as prime lamb dams. The M x PD ewe also has the ability to mate in spring and pure PD ewes are known to be quite fecund and to produce large amounts of milk. For these reasons the M x PD ewe offers considerable potential for the production of large lean sucker lambs. The SAMMs have only recently been introduced to WA. In South Africa they have mainly been selected for meat, wool and reproduction traits and apart from an apparent better carcase conformation, the ewes are considered to be better mothers than the Australian Merino ewe. The East Friesian is a highly fecund dairy breed with a large lean frame suitable for producing the large and lean carcases demanded by American markets.