How to Produce High Quality Heavy Lamb All Year Long
by Christine Miron, Animal Production Advisor, MAPAQ Outaouais sector

Here is the summary of a presentation given by Jean-François Samray, an economist, at the 2002 Ovine Symposium held in Jonquière recently.

Contrary to popular belief, New Zealand or Australia are not the biggest producers of sheep in the world. This title belongs to China. According to data processed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2000, there were 1,056,184,130 sheep on our planet. Of this number, 133,160,415 belonged to Chinese shepherds or producers and 120,000,000 to the Australians.

From an international trade perspective, the majority of countries export and import a certain tonnage of ovine meat. The sum of these transactions enables us to measure the net position of a country, that is, if its imports are greater than its exports or vice-versa. From a commercial point of view, New Zealand is the biggest exporting country, followed by Australia. For their part, France, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the United States are among the largest importers.

New Zealand
As we have already seen, New Zealand is an important supplier of sheep meat in Canada. In this capacity, this country constitutes an interesting case on which we will try to find out a little more. With an area of 270,000 km2, for which nearly a third is used exclusively for ovine production, this country currently obtains more than 60% of its export income from agricultural products (raw or processed). Its population, estimated at 3.3 million people, offers a low number of consumers who are progressively giving up the consumption of sheep meat in favour of poultry or beef meat. For this reason, producers from this country must export the greater part of their production.

Depending on heavy lambs
The New Zealand sheep herd had decreased by 33% since 1984, which was after the abolition of subsidies to farmers. It is important to note that during the same period, the weight of lamb carcasses increased by 22%. New Zealand producers came to the conclusion that without any subsidies, it was more profitable to produce quality carcasses with a heavier weight. In this regard, the statistics shown in Table 1 are very convincing. During the last decade, the sheep herd population decreased by 21.56%. Despite the decrease in animals, the quantity of meat produced increased by 1.7%.

The United States
In the United States, lambs are finished very heavy. The carcasses weigh more than 30 kg. The chops that are found in grocery stores have little meat and are very fatty. Therefore, few people buy them, as fat and red meat do not have good press. Those who are willing to try the meat do not want to pay the big price or will choose an imported product.

Regardless of the option, American producers end up on the loosing end. The first option will have little effect in increasing demand, which will result in a substantial decrease in price paid at the farm. The second will result in an increase of demand for imported products, a decrease in domestic demand and, in doing so, will accentuate the decrease in prices. This situation is one that has been faced for many years by American sheep producers, who produce only 60% of the domestic demand.

Quebec and Canadian production
Now that we have looked at what is going on elsewhere, let us see what is happening at home. At the beginning of the year 2001, Quebec filled the gap that was separating it from Alberta and is close to second place for the quantity of ewes with 113,500, as showed by Statistics Canada.

However, Quebec is in first place for the quantity of sheep per farm with an average of 167 head, which is three times more than in Alberta and 2.5 times more than in Ontario. On the other hand, our neighbour differs with its high number of operations located in close proximity to large urban centres. Therefore, we should not be surprised to see that for 2001, local consumption and declared sales at the farm represented 10.3% of all sales in this province. This percentage is lower in Quebec at 5.9%.

Nevertheless, it is at the off-season production level that Quebec differs from the other provinces with a statistic representing nearly double that of its closest opponent, Ontario. In fact, the ratio between lambing from July to December compared to lambing from January to June is 53.1% in Quebec and 27.5% in Ontario. So, even though off-season production in Quebec is far from being sufficient in terms of meeting demands, we can see that training sessions have proved to be worthwhile.

All in all, Quebec differs at the national level with regard to the average size of its operations and by lambing all year long.

Weather influence in inter-provincial trade
It is a known fact that sheep bred on Western Canadian farms and feedlots will end their lives in three different ways: exported outside the province, exported to the United States or slaughtered locally. This distribution is greatly dependant of the rain received in the Prairies. Indeed, during a relatively mild season, lambs raised on pasture will gain weight rapidly and the weight of the animals when they are taken out of the fields will be too high to produce the type of carcasses wanted by Toronto and Montreal consumers, the two biggest markets in the country. As a result, the proportion of lambs exported to the United States will be higher, creating at the same time a rarity and an early increase of prices in the fall and high prices during the off-season period.

Inversely, in period of drought, we have to expect that feedlot owners will avoid filling their barns with milk-fed lambs and will try to sell the residual stock as rapidly as possible in order to close the feedlots until the return of better days. Such a practice has a double effect. On one hand, it decreases demand for milk-fed lambs, which in turn lowers the price that can be obtained by producers as buyers have an abundant supply. On the other hand, it causes a quick liquidation of animals when the price of forage begins to increase. This is what happened at the
beginning of June 2002.

For instance, one of the biggest sheep buyers in Alberta, Mr. Leah, owns facilities that have a capacity for 80,000 head. He usually sells most of his production in the United States. But with the drought that occurred in Western Canada this summer, Alberta producers sold their lambs as milk-fed lambs and culled many ewes. So Mr. Leah ended up with feedlots filled to capacity. He then had to sell a greater number of milk-fed lambs and cull ewes on the Ontario and Quebec markets. This had the effect of rapidly increasing the supply available early in the season and at the same time decreasing the price paid to Eastern Canadian sheep producers.

It is also interesting to note that the average age of sheep producers in Alberta is 58 years old. Those who closed their feedlots will maybe be thinking twice before going back into sheep production.

Market opportunities
The recent perception study conducted by the FMAQ estimates there are more than two million consumers in Quebec. Of this number, more than 200,000 people eat lamb at least once a month. The demand generated by these consumers, mostly concentrated in the greater Montreal area, is nearly three times higher than our production capacity. So, it is no big surprise to see exporting countries, such as New Zealand, filling the gap in production.

Another positive aspect revealed by the study is that Quebec consumers prefer fresh Quebec lamb to any other type. Everything leads us to believe that in such circumstances, we should be able to increase our share of the market as long as producers increase their production in off-season periods.

We should not have to remind you that shortage of supply is market development's worst enemy: it frustrates regular consumers and will lead them to choose a substitute to Quebec lamb. Currently, 13% of the market share for sheep meat is left up for grabs due to a lack of regularity and supply structures (well-ordered marketing).

Variety of cuts
The typical lamb consumer is educated and has a comfortable income. He or she is also looking for a diversified diet and our meat meets their needs.

Cutting and preparing small portions that can be sold in stores are, therefore, marketing elements that are essential to the development of sheep products and something that we are still working on.

To obtain the full potential in this field, producers will have to offer consumers carcasses that are above 20 kilograms. As shown in our New Zealand example, farm profitability is dependent on the production of heavy lamb carcasses. However, there is a limit that we should not exceed as indicated by the example of the United States.

Conclusion
Quebec producers market a quality product. This product can and must be improved with the production of homogenous carcasses, low in fat with a weight ranging between 20 and 23 kg. Consumers from Quebec and North Eastern United States are looking for this type of product. So it is up to us to produce and market our product in an orderly and effective manner.

The production of quality heavy lamb is without a doubt an important production principle. It is undisputedly the key in winning the battle. In the near future, those who would like to make a descent living from raising sheep should come to the conclusion: there is "no salvation outside of producing high quality heavy lamb all year long."