Industry Insight: Sharing the 'light lamb' problem

Ireland, like Scotland, has its share of mountainous terrain, where the only suitable form of agriculture is rearing mountain-bred lambs. However, it has become increasingly difficult to find a good paying market for these in recent years, as customer demand is looking for carcases above 15kg.

In Ireland, as in Scotland, there are plenty of carcases from mountain lambs that are falling below this, usually in the 12-15kg range.

A bleak picture for light weights was presented by Seamus Finucane from one of Ireland’s main lamb factories, Kildare Chilling, to a group of hill farmers earlier this year. He said there was unlikely to be a return of traditional light-lamb markets in the immediate future and that the focus between the company and their suppliers of hill lambs that meant what he described as a “universal market”.

By this he meant that all lambs needed to have a minimum carcase weight of 15kg, and ideally 17kg, with some very limited opportunities for lambs at 14kg.

The meeting was told that the difficulty in placing lighter lambs arose from the fact that traditional markets in Spain, Portugal and Italy were now largely self-sufficient. Irish farmers heard from Bord Bia which, like QMS, in Scotland is funded by farmer levies to promote their produce, that Spain has moved from being a net importer of lamb to being a net exporter – competing with Ireland and Scotland in other EU markets.

As in Scotland, Irish farmers pointed out that getting lambs to 15kg – never mind 17kg – was impossible in many areas.

That means there is no commercially viable market for the smaller lambs from many Irish hill areas. Some regions have followed the PGI route, which has been achieved for all Scotch lamb. However, in Ireland this is confined to specific mountain rages, namely Hill Lamb, which has PGI status, and Commeragh Mountain Lamb with a PGI application pending.