Lamb brand hits its straps
 


 

A flock of 1500 Border Leicester-Merino ewes are joined to Kurralea Poll Dorset rams to produce the high-growth crossbred lambs.
"We averaged 148 per cent lambs at marking this year - the best I've ever seen," Bill said.
"The ewes ran on high-protein stubbles over late summer and that made the difference at joining."
Ewes were lambed down on pastures of lucerne, clover and self-sown barley and triticale.
"We haven't had to feed the ewes this year and have never seen so many triplets - about 20 sets with all surviving," Bill said.
Lambing is spread over three months, in order to have a continous supply of lambs for market. At five months of age the weaners are fed barley and additives, via self-feeders in the paddock.
Any shy feeders are drafted off to even out the growth rates.
Bill and Deirdre aim for an average daily weight gain of 300g in the lambs.
Any export-weight lambs, with fat scores of three to four, are sold through the Wagga Wagga saleyards.
This year, six consignments of lambs were sold at Wagga Wagga, topping the sale on four occasions.

In mid-July, Rowallan lambs averaged 76kg at 10 months of age, making $170.
The Mirrool Creek brand takes lambs at 47-50kg liveweight (23-24kg dressed), at fat-score three to four.
Catering for the high-end restaurant and food-service market, Mirrool Creek demands prime cuts, such as French cutlets, shoulders, back straps and racks. Back straps and fillets retail for about $50/kg.
"Our customers want a free-range, natural product with no antibiotics or growth promotants," Deirdre said.
Bill said ad-lib grain feeding gave more control over carcass quality and consistency.
But, he said, the natural pastures and environment of the Mirrool district were ideal for producing quality lamb.
The family use Meat Standards Australia, a carcass grading system guaranteeing eating quality, and slaughter their stock at Cootamundra.
Mirrool Creek Lamb takes more than 40 lambs a week.
"The lambs are trucked straight out of the paddock to the abattoir, spend the night there and are then over the floor the next morning, so it is low-stress," Bill said.
Distribution, marketing and promotion are handled by 26-year-old Sam, who lives in Sydney.
She aims to grow the brand - drought and weather pending.
"We are moving from a boutique market into full-scale wholesale with a lot tighter margins, but ultimately that is the direction we want to go in," Sam said.
"Our premium pre-aged product gives metropolitan customers with limited storage space options for good-quality lamb."
Sam said Mirrool Creek was on the menu boards at leading Sydney restaurants such as Longrain in Surry Hills and Watermark at Balmoral.
She said lamb consumers sought product integrity and access to the origin of the product they ate.
"They love pasture-fed lamb with natural, subtle flavour and consistency," Sam said.
"These consumers live in Sydney's eastern suburbs, are in a financial position to make a choice and think nothing of spending $80 on racks to feed the family. The whole exercise has definitely been a big eye-opener."

  

SHIFTING away from a dependence on crops to value-added livestock has paid off for the Hayes family.

Bill and Deirdre Hayes, with their daughter, Sam, are now commanding premium prices for more than 2000 grain-fed lambs a year.

In a vertically integrated enterprise, the lambs are finished on the Hayes' own grain and supplied as vacuum-packed prime cuts to the food-service sector.
"It really is paddock-to-plate here," Bill said. The family runs a prime lamb and cropping enterprise, Rowallan Pastoral, at Mirrool, in the northern Riverina.
Two years ago they launched their own branded-lamb product, Mirrool Creek Lamb, targeting the top-end restaurant trade.
Sales now range from 700-1500kg of lamb a week, with the brand found in top Sydney restaurants.
Sam, a marketing and communications graduate, came up with the idea when selling apples at farmers markets.
She became convinced the same value-adding principles could be applied to Rowallan Pastoral's crossbred lambs.
"Our first reaction to the idea was: 'We are too old for this and should have done it 30 years ago'," Deirdre said.
"But after thinking it through, it was the logical thing to do."
Bill concedes the work around launching and maintaining a lamb brand was a steep learning curve.
In the past, he had been happy to wave goodbye to the truck as it took lambs to the Wagga Wagga markets.
"The mechanics started out slowly, determining what customers wanted and how they wanted it presented," he said.
Bill, a fourth-generation farmer, was ready for a change after years of drought.
"There was an imbalance in our enterprise, where too much emphasis had been placed on crops and not enough on livestock," he said.
The family's 3000ha property supports 2000ha of wheat, canola, barley, and oats, grown under a minimum-tillage regime with stubbles retained.
The red loam, to clay, country is in a 450mm-rainfall zone, with just 231mm received so far this year.


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