Marketing prime lamb

Understanding what customers want at every stage of the supply chain is key to producing lamb that sells. Discover how meeting consumer expectations for quality, consistency and assurance, while hitting processor and retailer specifications, can help maximise demand and returns for your lamb.

There are four main customers:

• The consumer
• The retailer
• The meat processor
• Farm assurance

Consumers want lean and tender meat which is safe to eat and from a trusted source.

Above all, they’re looking for a consistent product that gives them the same satisfying experience every time they buy, cook and eat it.

While consumers perceive lamb as being tasty, they also believe it can be expensive and fatty. The industry must work hard to provide consumers with a product that meets their needs.

Consumers buy their lamb from a range of retail and foodservice outlets.

Supermarkets now sell over two-thirds of the sheep meat sold in Britain. Public sector catering is another area of demand.

Each outlet knows exactly the type of meat it requires to satisfy its customers’ needs, based on detailed knowledge of their previous buying behaviour.

The sheep farmer’s direct customer is the lamb buyer, based either at a livestock market or at an abattoir, if selling deadweight.

Specifications for weight, conformation and fat class will vary between each buyer.

The prices offered by different abattoirs may vary for the same animals and will depend on the requirements of their customers further down the supply chain.

Abattoirs are looking for animals that:

• Are clean
• Are quick and easy to process
• Arrive at the right time, on the right day
• Hit the correct weight specification
• Meet the correct carcase and fat specification

All lamb carrying an assurance logo can be traced back to the farm the livestock came from.

Assured beef and lamb give consumers confidence that farmers have met comprehensive standards covering hygiene, safety, environmental protection and animal welfare.

Compliance with these strict standards is regularly checked by independent auditors.

There are two dressing specifications agreed by the industry: the reference specification and the UK standard specification.

Find out what these are and how they differ.

Killing-out percentage (KO%) is important as it determines how much saleable carcase weight is obtained from your lambs. Find out what affects the percentage and yield.

ach market has different requirements. Find out how to identify and target the market(s) looking for the type of carcase you can produce consistently and at a profit.

Find out how liveweight and deadweight lamb prices are reported across Great Britain, learn about the introduction of mandatory deadweight price reporting, and discover how key factors such as weight bands, assurance status and abattoir payment systems can affect the final price received.