SHEEP producers will be able to take advantage of a new Meat Standards Australia saleyard pathway along with the direct consignment route, when the cuts-based sheep meat model is commercialised.

MSA business development manager Kate Neath made the announcement while describing an expansion of the MSA sheep meat cut-by-cook model at the National Saleyards Conference in Wagga Wagga last week.

She said when the model was first released it covered nine cut-by-cook cuts and this had been expanded to 23.

“And that’s also including a saleyard pathway which will be released soon.”

Ms Neath said three major sheep meat producers are in the process of implementing the systems to support the MSA cuts-based model. But she said implementation of the model in processors required technology for hook tracking of individual carcases for eating quality and lean meat yield in plants.

“So there is a lot required to set this up at the processor.

“Hopefully that will all be ready soon and some processors are working very hard on that to launch very soon.”

Ms Neath said the benefits to producers of the MSA cut-by-cook model would be the same as for MSA graded beef, including that they will be able to access their carcase grading data.

“Obviously that’s a benefit for (sheep) producers that will be coming soon.”

Ms Neath also outlined the myMSA benchmarking and myFeedback tools that enabled producers to compare their data to state and national data. Individual and national data from the National Sheep Health Monitoring Project is already available.

“So currently if you are a sheep meat producer and you log in, if it’s a participating processor, you can see your disease and defect data.

“And your MSA grading data will come soon, once the processor is also grading (MSA).”

Ms Neath said the MSA requirement for no mixing of stock is something that needed further research for sheep.

“We have a lot of work to do.

“Our goal is to have all cattle and sheep eligible for MSA grading, so will continue working on the R&D for both cattle and sheep meat.”