Growthy carcases without the fat

ONE of Australia's largest lamb processors has been singing the praises of Prime SAMM lambs and their ability to grow a big carcase without too much fat.

Country Fresh Australasia operates two processing plants in New England and a feedlot at Gunnedah, NSW, exporting premium lamb and mutton to several countries, including the lucrative US and Japanese markets.

Around 10,000 head of sheep and lambs of various breeds were processed each day between the two plants, and while Prime SAMM lambs had only recently been introduced to the business they had already made a big impression.

Country Fresh Australasia livestock manager Andrew Jackson said the few mobs of Prime SAMM cross lambs that begun to come through the system had been outstanding.

"These lambs have been presenting themselves to us very, very well," Mr Jackson said.

"My biggest praise for the Prime SAMM breed is its ability to grow a big, long lamb with good eye muscle and without the fat scores that cause a lot of problems in the production line."

Mr Jackson said one of the biggest drawcards of Prime SAMMs was that they didn't get over-fat.

"They have the ability to put usable red meat on a frame and achieve the desired weight for the export market without running to fat," he said.

"There are very few processors in Australia that have a fat score deduction, but we have imposed a 50c penalty on any lambs that are score 5, and the reason we did that was because we were able to pick up production in our boning rooms by up to 300 lambs per day by not having such big, fat lambs coming through our system.

"The Prime SAMM lambs have been very good at facilitating our throughput and consequently we have increased our numbers through the boning room because we can do so many."

Mr Jackson was particularly impressed with lines of first cross Prime SAMM lambs from Rosco Downs, Cunnamulla, Queensland, and the Vickery family, Bellata, NSW.

A consignment of the Vickerys lambs that were turned off to Country Fresh in August last year averaged 61kg liveweight and dressed out at 29.6kg, giving a dressing percentage of 48.5pc.

The lambs were sold over the hook for a grid price of $3.50/kg for the 26kg + lambs, returning an average of $103.60 as well as $7 for skins to total a $110.60 average price.

Rob Vickery and his father Peter had been running Prime SAMMs crosses commercially since 2004, when Rob met WA Prime SAMM breeder Simon Cullam, Cullam Prime SAMM stud, at an agribusiness course.

"I was really impressed with what Simon was doing with his growth rates and feed conversion," Rob said.

"The wool market was going backwards a bit and we felt we needed to diversify, so we looked at Prime SAMMs."

The Vickerys, who also ran a Merino stud, found the Prime SAMMs were best suited to their large-framed Merinos.

"Our Merinos have quite a big frame so the Prime SAMMs crossed well with them," Rob said.

"We basically wanted to put the meat on the timber and increase the yields in our commercial flock, and we have had excellent results."

The Prime SAMM lambs, which at this stage were only produced as first cross animals, were mainly based on Cullam bloodlines.

Since the Vickerys began to use Prime SAMMs they had also dabbled in other meat breeds, but found they had put too much fat on the carcase.

"We tried a lot of the traditional British breed crosses and we fed them the same amount as the F1 Prime SAMM crosses, but we found they ran more to fat," Rob said.

"The Prime SAMMs keep growing and producing more meat rather than fat, so it's money in our pocket because we are getting into the right brackets and aren't being penalised, and it's money in the processor's pocket because they don't get as much wastage."

Country Fresh was now taking all the Vickery's Prime SAMM lambs.

Mr Jackson said Australia had only touched the tip of the iceberg when it came to dual purpose breeds like Prime SAMMs.

"At this stage I feel the Prime SAMMs are still in their infancy, but with the likes of the more aggressive seed stock producers around the place, they will be able to produce a carcase that will be dual purpose but will also be able to service the domestic market in a more consistent manner," he said.

"I think producers will definitely get the wool side of things right and they will definitely get the meat side of things right, so the future looks good for Prime SAMMs."

By EMMA de BURGH, Farm Weekly.