Simon Quilty, Global AgriTrends Australia in Albany tomorrow

He has gone so far as to tout lamb as "the new Wagyu", a phrase coined not so much to reference the marbling for which Wagyu is world renowned but more its ability to capture heightened demand at unparalleled pricing levels.

"COVID-19 was actually a great friend to lamb," said Mr Quilty, Global AgriTrends Australian managing director, Wangaratta, Victoria.

"When shop shelves were left bare of beef, lamb was often still there forcing consumers to turn to it for their protein source.

"What we saw was they found they really liked it, especially in places like North America and we are seeing increased demand as a result.

OTHER SHEEP NEWS

"The other thing that had an impact was home meal delivery services like Hello Fresh that provided the fresh ingredients and innovative recipes with advice on how best to cook the dishes (which encouraged home cooks to experiment.)

"Lamb is now starting to compete in the high end beef space, but in this space in America it is all about consistency of product and tenderness even more so than taste."

Mr Quilty said at the elite end of the market lamb would have to compete with grainfed beef and this is where genetics would really start to matter in driving a premium product.

"If you can prove and establish elitism for meat product, such will be demand that you can become somewhat (pricing) bulletproof even in market downturns," he said.

Mr Quilty said the Australian sheep flock "had come of age with about 40 per cent of the flock now there for meat reasons".

"Sure there are challenges for the sheep meat industry like seasonal and environmental factors, competition for land use, labour shortages and the big one of FMD (foot and mouth disease)," he said.

Mr Quilty recently returned from a summit in Indonesia of 15 invited nations, where he was one of eight Australians mostly veterinarians and CSIRO representatives who discussed current and future state of FMD and lumpy skin disease.

"These countries have been meeting annually for 25 years and where once we were on a mission to eradicate FMD, it's becoming more apparent our thinking has to change to more management of the issue with it now endemic in at least 10 countries including Indonesia.

"We cannot put our head in the sand, this issue is more important now than ever."

Mr Quilty, who studied agricultural science at Melbourne University and has worked in the meat protein space for almost 30 years including at Victorian Farmers Federation, Louis Dreyfus and ConAgra will be a guest speaker at the SheepMaster Sundowner at White Dog Lane, Elleker via Albany, this Thursday, November 3 (commencing at 2pm) and will officially open the SheepMaster National Elders Ram Sale at the same venue the following day.