MLC warns against over-fattening lambs

28 July 1998

MLC warns against over-fattening lambs

By FWi staff

THE Meat and Livestock Commission has warned sheep producers against keeping lambs so long they become over-fat.

The MLC says farmers should assume that the exchange rate for Sterling will remain high and hamper export opportunities for light lambs. It says farmers should not keep lambs back in the hope that trade will pick up

Last season, too many lambs were held over for too long and the price collapsed.

The forecast this year is that despite bad weather at lambing time, there will be more lambs to sell at a time when meat, particularly pigment, is in plentiful supply throughout Europe.

The MLC also says that an export trade for ewe carcasses should be moving before long and an improved ewe premium is forecast.