What will live weight in Lamb equate to deadweight

[sherg]

It is. But British farmers are paid on live weight or dead weight, with EUROP grid. Saleable meat doesn't come into it.

Disjointed supply chains = producers disconnected from the consumer = poorer product. You only have to read some of the comments made on here re eating quality "I'm not paid for it so I don't consider it".

Is there not more saleable meat on an e or a u grade carcass than an r or o grade????

 

[unlacedgecko]

Is there not more saleable meat on an e or a u grade carcass than an r or o grade????

Potentially.

However, according to @Global ovine , confirmation changes have been brought about by changing skeletal shape not muscle mass. VIAscan more accurately shows lean meat yield. This can vary by up to 10% in carcasses of the same confirmation grade.

 

[neilo]

There’s a big difference in bone, etc too.
CT scanning gives %ages of muscle, fat and bone for every animal, as well as KO%. I scanned pure Beltex and pure Charollais lambs last 2 years, and KO% was 7% higher in the Beltexes, on average. That extra muscle isn’t in the hindquarter though, which is what EUROP would suggest, but in lighter bone and next to no fat.

The fashion for breeding ‘strong bone’ in ‘powerful’ terminal sire breeds is counterproductive when it comes to KO%.

 

[GreenerGrass]

@neilo is CT scanning a DIY job or what does it cost to get someone in. I know some of my sheep have myomax gene, do you test for that?

 

[neilo]

A CT scanner is a specialist whole body scanner, the same as they use for humans in hospitals. It’s certainly not cheap, even when subsidised by the levy boards, but the extra information provided is revolutionising performance recording. SAC operate the service from Edinburgh, and with a mobile unit at various sites around the country.

I screen my stock rams for MyoMAX, but don’t test everything else. That particular genetic mutation only adds lean meat in the hindquarter, not the entire carcass.

 

[garfield89]

A CT scanner is a specialist whole body scanner, the same as they use for humans in hospitals. It’s certainly not cheap, even when subsidised by the levy boards, but the extra information provided is revolutionising performance recording. SAC operate the service from Edinburgh, and with a mobile unit at various sites around the country.

I screen my stock rams for MyoMAX, but don’t test everything else. That particular genetic mutation only adds lean meat in the hindquarter, not the entire carcass.

Is the MyoMAX gene in most, or only a small number of breeds?

 

[neilo]

Is the MyoMAX gene in most, or only a small number of breeds?

It’s certainly in a lot of Texel/Beltex sheep and some Charollais, and has been introgressed into a lot of composite breeds. I’ve used double carrier Highlander, NZ Texel & Lleyn rams in my commercial flock, which are likely mostly double carriers now.
The Myostatin mutation will occur in all populations & species (including humans iirc). Where selection has been for hindquarter muscling, it would stand to reason that those carrier sheep would be likely to have been selected, without realising it at the time. That mutation doesn’t make a crap sheep a good sheep though, just less crap than it would have been without it. It has no bearing on muscling through the (valuable) loin, just the hindquarter.

 

[Global ovine]

A CT scanner is a specialist whole body scanner, the same as they use for humans in hospitals. It’s certainly not cheap, even when subsidised by the levy boards, but the extra information provided is revolutionising performance recording. SAC operate the service from Edinburgh, and with a mobile unit at various sites around the country.

I screen my stock rams for MyoMAX, but don’t test everything else. That particular genetic mutation only adds lean meat in the hindquarter, not the entire carcass.
[/QUOTE


All myostatin gene variants, with MyoMAX being the most recognised, do increase the bulk of all muscles in the body. The bigger the muscle the more it appears obvious to the eye.

Potentially.

However, according to @Global ovine , confirmation changes have been brought about by changing skeletal shape not muscle mass. VIAscan more accurately shows lean meat yield. This can vary by up to 10% in carcasses of the same confirmation grade.

In a recent conversation with a rep from Alliance Group (NZ's largest sheep meat processor/exporter and payer on Viascan) their suppliers have now increased carcass meat yield by just over 3% on average since that technology's inclusion into the payment system. This increase is surprising given that less than a third of all lambs slaughtered are sired by terminal breeds, a proportion that has not changed since 2005 when Viascan became commercially used by Alliance. Some of the superior maternal breed/composite flocks are Viascan grading out better than many terminal sired flocks and have recorded carcass meat yield increases of around 6% over the 4 generation intervals.
This is an example of farmers following the money by sourcing their genetics from breeders doing the job with figures proving it by using ultrasound and CT scanning and all put into clear information by using a verified performance recording scheme.
This processor sells meat, therefore encourages suppliers to produce a higher meat yielding carcass by sharing the added value. An increase in meat yield does not have negative relationships with reproduction and other natural functions. That does not include shortening the limb bones and shifting the legs out to the extreme corners of a box shape.