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Merino Challenge 2010-2012 – Meat Challenge (2010)

Project start date: 31 August 2010
Project end date: 01 February 2011
Publication date: 30 November 2010
Project status: Completed
Livestock species: Sheep
Relevant regions: National
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Summary

The Peter Westblade Memorial Merino Challenge 2010 -2012 was developed to assist Merino breeding operations make more informed decisions on their Merino genetics.
It was deliberately designed to show the entrants in the Challenge and the wider sheep industry the genetic opportunities that exist for them to be more financially sustainable into the future.
PWMMC included 50 wether teams from across Australia and integrated key carcase and eating quality traits into the standard Merino wether trial protocol.
Results from the PWMMC demonstrated that Merino wethers have sufficient growth rates, can meet market specifications in terms of carcase weight and fat score at slaughter and analysis of various meat quality parameters indicated that meat from Merino wethers can
attain acceptable levels for traits like colour and pH.

More information

Project manager: Alex Ball
Primary researcher: Industry and Investment NSW