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AUSTRALIA-PREMIUM LAMBS.

West Australian lamb producers have become the first in Australia to be rewarded for lean meat yield, but not penalised for failing to make the grade, using ViaScan video assessment technology.

Producer co-operative WAMMCO, at Katanning, has with Meat and Livestock Australia and the Sheep CRC spent four years developing its ViaScan database for variable WA lamb carcases, but is now ready to put the technology to the ultimate test: as a tool to guide genetic development of co-operative’s 2000 producer members.

It’s one more step in the molasses-slow uptake of ViaScan for the lamb industry, and only time will tell whether other processors are willing to make the long-term investment the technology requires.

ViaScan technology, which assesses lean meat yield on a carcase using video and computer technology, was developed by MLA in the early 1990s.

It has been adopted by sections of the beef industry, but despite years of discussion about its benefits—particularly as a means of providing objective feedback to producers—the only lamb processor to run with the technology has been Castricum Brothers at Dandenong, Vic.

Castricum offers producers the option of using Viascan. WAMMCO is running its full kill of up to 4000 carcases a week through the screening.

WAMMCO chief executive, Des Griffiths, said the system introduced by the co-operative rewards producers with a 5pc premium for carcases that are in the top 15pc for meat yield.

Unlike the traditional grid system, WAMMCO does not penalise producers who fall into the other 85pc.

"We’re a producer co-op, we see ourselves as an extension of the producers’ business, and we see rewards as the way to drive change," Mr Griffiths said.

"As a principle, I don’t think penalties work; rewards work."

WAMMCO as a business does not expect any short-term rewards for its innovation.

Because of breeding cycles, Mr Griffiths expects it to be at least 12 months, and more likely 24 months, before producers’ response to the rewards system begins to filter through the works.

At present, producer feedback is limited to a general listing of carcase qualities, because there is no system for recording individual animals.

That may emerge in the future, Mr Griffiths said, if RFID eartag technology can be linked to the kill process, but for now producers, and the processor, work in mobs..

To date, the feedback from producers has been "very positive".

"If it works for us, there’s no barrier to other processors adopting it," he said.

"Our profit drivers might be slightly different, but the fundamentals are the same."

Sheep CRC Meat Program Leader, Professor Dave Pethick, said the key to making ViaScan exert an influence on lean meat yield will be the targeted use of Sheep Genetics Australia’s Australian Sheep Breeding Values (ASBVs).

"The best results are gained when rams are specifically selected so their traits match the ewe base and can meet target carcase weights," Prof Pethick said.