Alliance Group has launched a new premium lamb offer to farmers as it seeks to capture greater value for its products and reward its shareholders.
The Pure South Handpicked Lamb programme will use an assessment system to measure eating quality with the qualifying lamb initially exported to premium retail markets in Asia and North America.
In the first year of the programme, Alliance will offer farmers a 10c/kg premium above the ruling schedule to all qualifying animals that meet the requirements at the time of processing. The 10 cent premium is on top of the 15c premium Alliance pays for lambs raised without antibiotics. The programme is open to Alliance Platinum and Gold shareholders, who supply 100% of their ovine livestock to the company. Lamb must meet a strict criteria including being born and raised on the supplier’s property, achieve special raising claim requirements and be antibiotic-free.
The lambs must also weigh between 17.1-23kg, have certain levels of fat cover, intramuscular fat and pH. All ewes supplying lambs must be body condition scored throughout the year. Only wether and ewe lambs may be supplied to the programme.
The lamb will be selected from lambs of any breed except Merino. Lambs with greater than 50% Merino genetics will not be accepted as these have their own unique attributes and are marketed under the premium Silere Alpine Origin Merino brand.
