About 90 per cent of the country’s sheepmeat processing capacity has asked what it would cost to install objective carcase measurement in plants.
But who will front that cost is still up to industry, according to Meat and Livestock Australia boss Richard Norton.
Mr Norton made the revelation around the progress of DEXA within the sheepmeat sector to about 260 sheep producers and industry stakeholders at the Woolworths Lambition event held in Bendigo, in conjunction with the Australian Sheep and Wool Show.
The MLA board has already approved that MLA may invest up to $24 million in co-funding through its MLA Donor Company to install DEXA (dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry) technology at plants, which has included putting the tool in the JBS Brooklyn and Bordertown operations.
Mr Norton first brought forward his plan to implement DEXA and OCM across the industries 90 Aus-Meat accredited abattoirs 2016, at a cost of about $150 million.
“Producers already have a tool for objectively measuring beef eating quality of the meat they’re producing via the MSA program; DEXA will provide an actual measure of the quantity of meat their animals are yielding, meaning they can make truly informed decisions on farm about the genetics they’re using, their feeding and husbandry practices,” Mr Norton said.
However despite independent reports since showing that DEXA and better meeting market specifications would add more than $270 million annually to the red meat industry, a funding model has yet to be decided upon.
“MLA has always said who installs DEXA and who owns DEXA is an industry question… on how we will fund DEXA going in – but MLA wants…the data and measurements to come back to the producing sector with a lot more transparency than it has in the past,” Mr Norton said.
He said plants where these systems were installed, lamb automation enabled by DEXA had demonstrated a return on investment within a year – and a return of up to $7 per head.
Mr Norton was one of seven industry leaders and thinkers who participated in the question and answer session during the gala dinner.
The Fairfax Agricultural Media event devised to shine a spotlight on both the success of the sheep and wool industry, and the path it might take in the future.
Despite the live export debate and consumer trends threatening to steal the spotlight, Mr Norton said eating quality was number one.
“With all the measures that MLA and the processing sector are bringing in about lean meat yield, you will always be paid on eating quality,” he said.
“Eating quality enables us to charge three times the amount of our competitors in the global market… the most important person in the value chain is the person that pays…the eating experience is the number one thing we as an industry should maintain a sharp focus on.”
The missing link in determining eating quality before it gets to the plate is a camera able to measure carcass intramuscular fat fast enough to keep up with processing.
Co-convenor Michael Craig, Harrow sheep producer, said DEXA and chain speed IMF measurement in every plant would be the holy grail.
“If we get IMF at chain speed, and we get yield on every single carcass in Australia, in the same method in every plant, our future is really strong, we can get signals as producers,” he said.
Mr Norton said with the initial costing of installing DEXA nation-wide completed, the numbers were now being independently verified before a total cost and funding model would be put to each of the industry’s peak councils and research and development funding bodies.