A description of the importance of IMF in sheep meat quality
What is intramuscular fat and why is it important?
A picture tells a thousand words so here 1000 to start you off- a 7-8 month old grain fed black faced suffolk lamb loin. This is what it's all about
Intramuscular fat is one of 5 types of fat laid down by animals. There is subcutaneous, kidney, belly, intermuscular and intramuscular fat. Of the five traits four of them are pretty much undesireable in terms of growers, retailers and consumers. One though, intramuscular fat is a major determinant of the flavour and juciness of red meat and a contributing factor in tenderness of red meat. Australia's world leading consumer research (Meat Standards Australia) into red meat eating quality has shown the presence of intramuscular fat is a major determinant of red meat eating quality.
There is a demand for high quality lamb meat in the export market at the present time – especially driven by the United States and Japan. Both of these countries pay premium prices for marbled beef. Early indications from MLA Japan appear to confirm that marbling in lamb would also be viewed as beneficial to the eating experience as well as marketable to the end consumer. In addition the US appears to want carcase sizes (domestic average carcase weight is 34kg) that are more suited to older lambs (9 months)
The “modern” Australia lamb industry is predominately focussing on it’s breeding goals of large lean lambs generated from Merino or Merino cross dams. From the beef industry example this is akin to breeding vealers from dairy cows by European bulls. This is a popular and high quality product but it does not suit all markets and some of the higher priced markets do not like this type of beef product.
Thus to continue the beef comparison we wish to discover if a Pure Bred Suffolk is more akin to Angus or Wagyu. Either way we believe there IS a market for the product. We have proven this at the top end of the domestic marketplace without measuring intramuscular fat. We believe these markets can be enhanced and expanded with a strong focus on carcase eating quality of which intramuscular fat is the central plank.
Dr David Pethick Australia’s foremost sheep meat quality researcher has recently completed a study where low levels of intramuscular fat in lamb did cause significant problems in consumer acceptance of the product consumed. This the first time a study has found this and a theory is that this may be of been caused by “modern” lamb genetics interacting with dry times as experienced last year.
What have we learnt is that there is a range of 1.5-8.2 (machine maximum) and that this range is present as young as 4.5 months old. This very strongly suggests this is a trait that can be bred for. We have also found there are animals with good intramuscular fat as well as good muscling but this is not always the case which backs up our fear that the general chasing of muscle could reduce intramuscular fat.
So what does this mean for the rams sold in 2008. A little bit more than last year as we scanned the rams much younger from a range of 4-5-7 months old (slaughter ages) and we have scanned nearly 400 sheep from a dozen sire lines so the comparisons of their sires are beginning to have some relevence.
We have also joined 2008 drop ewe lambs to 2008 drop ram lambs so we will have the first lot of lambs where both sides of the pedigree have the raw data in our 2008 drop which will be exciting to see the results
So should I buy a High Intramuscular fat Ram?
This is entirely your call. There is only 1 market that will pay you any more for the progeny which is the Pure Suffolk Lamb trade and we still do not have a measurement system for our carcases at this point in time and given the low level of information we will not require that suppliers use rams that scan at the top end of the scale.
You may well however buy a ram whose lambs are better than average and give a great eating experience to those who eat them thereby cementing lamb’s reputation as a unique premium red meat meal.
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