Carcass Quality and Grading in a Sheep Operation
The whole point of being a sheep producer is producing quality lamb for a consumer market.
Many producers are ignorant to the very essentials of what makes a quality lamb carcass. At
the end of our Sheep Management video, we look at some carcasses and lamb cuts to discover
the best possible product for a consumer, neither too fat or too thin. The importance for any sheep
producer to have the opportunity to see their lambs hanging at an abattoir is a major consideration in
learning what makes for a market ready lamb. When I was involved with lamb marketing in Nova Scotia,
it became a standard request for a new producer to be asked to check out their carcasses that they
had sent in so that they could learn exactly what they had produced and how they could do things
differently next time. Although a good scale is an essential part of a sheep operation, a scale
only tells one part of the story and not the story of whether the lambs are fit for killing, or
perhaps over fit.
(Information on raising sheep)
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