But those driving the $25 million Omega Lamb project believe a lot of good fat and vertical integration will add real value to the lamb supply chain.
The goal of the seven-year project is to produce the world’s tastiest lamb with high levels of health-giving Omega-3 fats and oils and at the same time improve dollar returns along the paddock-to-plate chain.
The concept is similar to that of A2 milk but offered an extra consumer benefit, project manager Mike Tate says.
“A2 milk is differentiated by its health benefits. Omega lamb is differentiated by both health and taste.”
The project is in the second year of a four-year pilot phase to assess the economic viability of the farm production, processing, product and distribution-marketing systems.
Tate is cautiously optimistic on the progress to date but is aware of the huge task in turning 10 years of research and development into a sustainable and premium-returning production system and market model.
“It’s a big challenge to go from where we are now to a vertically integrated system but it’s very exciting and we’ve got a good team.”
Although the project officially started in July last year almost six years of lead-up research went into finding the ideal combination of genetics and feed to produce the tastiest lamb, the details of which remain intellectual property of the project.
The task involved close scrutiny of 300 sire lines and more than 20 forage lines.
“What we’ve found is that both genetics and feeding influence meat taste and quality but the best combinations cause a big change in lamb fat and oil composition which dramatically improves the taste, succulence and eating experience of lamb.”
In tandem with the breeding and feeding developments has been market research identifying "Nutries" as the target consumer group for the lamb. They were no particular age or demographic but unified in their preference for quality and high-health foods.
Alliance general manager of strategy Nigel Jones says the project is not just about delivering a product that pays higher prices. It is also about getting the whole system running efficiently from on the farm through to processing and marketing.
He said Alliance was identifying opportunities across a range of markets. Omega lamb was being trialled in the food service sector and smaller volumes were being used to test consumer perceptions.
'A2 milk is differentiated by its health benefits. Omega lamb is differentiated by both health and taste.'
Investigation of markets and channels for distribution had started with food service distributor The Produce Company supplying limited quantities to New Zealand restaurants.
In June the first trial shipment arrived in Hong Kong and achieved premium prices, but Tate would not say by how much.
“We will be working to maintain and increase this.”
As well as the traditional high-end cuts there was potential to develop new products.
“The rest of the animal, including offal, is highly nutritious so there’s the opportunity to explore health type products.”
If outcomes from the seven-year pilot were successful the size and scale of the Omega system would become self-propelling as more farmer suppliers came on board and the number of lambs increased.
THE OMEGA LAMB BREEDING AND FINISHING PILOT PROGRAMME
The project comprises 10 Headwaters breeding farms and eight finishing farms throughout Otago and Southland.
Omega rams are bred and selected from 10,000 ewes. This year 390 rams were mated to 39,000 commercial ewes.
In 2015-2016 Omega lambs, excluding ewe replacements and those outside weight specs at tailing, were finished on a special chicory, red clover blend.
The lambs went on to the crops at a 32kg liveweight (LW) average and were slaughtered 30-40 days later at about 38kg LW.
In total,15,583 lambs reached the criteria for Omega-3, intramuscular and polyunsaturated fats.
They also had more than 3% IMF (loin) compared with the NZ lamb average of about 2%.
THE OMEGA LAMB PROJECT
- Overview – A $25 million, seven-year project 50% funded by the New Zealand Government, rest by Alliance Group (66%) and Headwaters NZ (34%). Crown has so far paid out about $2m
- Start date – July 2015
- Goal – To produce the world’s tastiest, high-health lambs in a vertically integrated and cost-effective system.
- Estimated potential economic benefit – up to $400m over 25 years
- Progress to date – Year two of a four-year pilot phase to assess the economic viability of farm production, processing, product and distribution-marketing systems
- Next steps – Double the number of lambs meeting Omega-3 specifications in 2017, establish a consumer-ready packaging pilot plant at Alliance’s Lorneville plant
- Long-term goal – to process one million lambs
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