VERMILION, Alta. – Early results of a carcass sire project show a good ram can make all the difference.
Gordon Schroeder, executive director of the Saskatchewan Sheep Development Board, said the trial shows that the quality of Canadian lamb can be improved dramatically by using a good terminal sire ram.
“We’ve got producers who think that as long as it’s male and not castrated it’s a ram,” Schroeder said during an update of the project and opening of the new cattle and sheep barn at Lakeland College where the project is underway.
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“We’re hoping producers will learn the value of a good sire.”
The project, which the development board helped fund, began as a way to identify terminal sire breeds that produce the highest value lambs for the growing premium lamb market. So far the project has found that lambs going to slaughter look like a collection of odds and sods with no consistent size, shape or carcass quality.
The Lakeland Carcass Sire project hopes that by using the five most common terminal sire breeds, it can help producers choose the right terminal sire breed for their flock and produce a uniform, quality lamb. The terminal sires were Suffolk, Texel, Charollais, Canadian Arcott and Ile de France. All the terminal sire breeds specialize in growth rate and carcass quality.
Susan Hosford, an Alberta Agriculture employee and the carcass sire project manager, said Canadian’s appetite for lamb is increasing. Along with this growing appetite is an expectation that good, quality lamb will be continuously available.
“If we don’t produce the kind of lambs Canadians want, there are other people willing and waiting to ship over what kinds of lambs we want,” Hosford said.
When the project is finished the results of 600 lambs will be studied.
“The ultimate goal is to improve the consistency of lamb for our Canadian consumers,” she said.
Miles Kilner, general manager of Sunterra Meats in Innisfail, Alta., said the company sees the demand for premium lamb grow each week, but the growth of a quality lamb market needs the effort of everyone in the sheep industry.
“In order to sustain growth there needs to be a collaborative effort,” said Kilner, whose company also helped fund the project.
He pointed to the fast food industry as an example of how companies have mastered giving customers a consistent product in each of their stores across the country. Consumers want the same consistency in their lamb.
Kilner hopes the project helps producers work toward developing a consistent product and narrow the wide range of quality.
Growth of the lamb market requires a consistent supply, quality and size 52 weeks of the year. Instead, Kilner said Sunterra is seeing a variety of sizes, fat cover and muscle quality in the lambs that arrive at its plant.
