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I Rate Sheep – John Clarke Captain Cook dumped the first few sheep on this land in 1773. They survived and their descendants, in the form of the Arapawa ram, can still be seen today. The national flock grew steadily to 70.3 million in 1982, but has since declined to 32.5 million due in no small part to conversion to other apparently more lucrative forms of land use, mainly dairy and to some extent vineyards.
Even now our national sheep flock at less than half its one-time peak represents 10 sheep for every person in New Zealand, and in one way or another they live and die for our pleasure. Not only do our grass-fed sheep provide us with the best lamb and mutton, they earn this country about $2.5 billion a year (the single largest export earner after dairy products). It is sheep that provide us with a good proportion of the things we feel we need (flat screen televisions and other such necessities) to survive in this modern world of ours. We in the hospitality industry should value our sheep and the best way to do so is to recognise the high quality of our lamb and mutton and treat it with the respect it undoubtedly deserves. We should not begrudge the farmer the $80 he gets for a lamb in a bloody good year, but celebrate and promote sheep meat as an exclusive, high-quality product.
And New Zealand sheep meat is just that – an exclusive, high-quality product. Our sheep are not housed or intensively farmed but are generally run on hill country with the sun on their backs. The whole marketing world is seeking ways to differentiate the character of their product so they can improve their margins and secure their market. As butcher Gary Cullen from Northland stresses, New Zealand has an advantage: “New Zealand is one of the few countries that finish animals in a natural environment, on pasture. This is a great thing, not a fault. It is our greatest virtue.”
Where does our sheep meat come from? High country
The high country has bloody long cold winters and regular snow. Pastures are mostly unimproved tussock and adventive grasses (grasses that are not deliberately planted) such as browntop and sweet vernal. Areas of better soils are often cultivated to grow feed crops and improved pastures, which are usually harvested as hay and silage. Irrigation of these soils is becoming widespread.
Fine wool from Merino or Halfbred sheep is still the main source of income for high-country farmers, though many will cross a terminal sire with some of their ewes to produce lambs for the meat trade. Surplus sheep are also sold to farmers on rolling hill country and lowlands to breed cross-bred lambs, or for fattening. Hill country
Hill country makes up the bulk of pastoral land in both the North and South Islands. This land is the engine room of New Zealand sheep farming. North Island hill country has traditionally been dominated by Romneys. In the South Island, the Halfbred and Corriedale are found in the drier areas, and the Romney in wetter parts.
The hill country can be subdivided into three classes – easy, medium and hard – according to the steepness of the hills and the length of the growing season.
On hard hill country, farmers run breeding stock. Their income is from wool and the sale of store sheep (sheep to be fattened for slaughter). The Perendale was bred to replace Romneys in this type of country. It is a cross of the hardy Cheviot over the Romney, is naturally more fertile, hardier, a better forager, and needs less shepherding than the Romney.
Medium hill country is used to finish lambs and older sheep for the meat trade, but wool still remains an important product.
Easy hill country has more flexibility, with breeding and finishing sheep the norm and in good seasons farmers also buy in stock for finishing. Lowlands
The plains, river valleys and easy rolling hills of both islands are the home of intensive sheep farming. This land has been given over increasingly to dairy farming and horticulture, including vineyards. The few farmers that haven’t been squeezed out generally finish stock brought off the hill and high country.
Ironically the decline in profitability of sheep and therefore numbers over the past 25 years has led to even greater improvements in the quality of the meat we are getting. As sheep farming profitability declined a lot of the easier country was converted to dairy and horticultural production, much of it vineyards. Farmers have fewer places to put sheep these days and that simple fact has had an impact on sheep numbers. This has helped farmers and processors to concentrate on quality rather than quantity providing better meat, traceability and a greater choice to the consumer.
This meat quality is determined by five factors: breed, environment, condition, age and processing, and the ranking of importance will depend on where in the supply chain the opinion is formed. Processors almost always mention breed and condition, while butchers may go on and on about hanging meat, and farmers will rave about age and breed. All are important to a greater or lesser extent, and all these factors need to be considered. Breed has some influence, and any farmer or stud breeder will tell you his breed tastes best. But farmers are usually primarily concerned with feed conversion rates, cut out rates and other factors directly connected with turning grass into meat. However, farmers are very aware that where breed really matters is in the environment it has to live in. Different breeds cope better in different environments. Perendale sheep in the less developed country of Northland, Halfbred wethers (sheep) in the high country and Romneys on the easy hills and low country are all examples of breeds suited to particular conditions. Though, if the truth be known, most of the sheep meat we see is some permutation of a Romney.
Environment really does count; we are what we eat and sheep are no less. An animal’s tastiness and texture will reflect the environment it lives in – the terroir in wine terms. “I killed lambs we fattened on land that went down to the river. It was full of wild mint; everyone commented that they had never tasted lamb like it, it was just great,” says Steve Marquet, a Canterbury butcher and supplier to the hospitality trade. He goes on to suggest that being able to trace meat to a specific locale could have advantages. “Decent, well-fed animals from varied pasture have the advantage of tasting like they are supposed to, tasting like the country they are from. A two-tooth high-country wether brought down and finished for six weeks on the flats still has all the flavours of the herbs and grasses of the tussock country in its meat. This would surely be good for business; it is all about selling an idea to the customer.”
Chef Peter Thornley agrees: “It is up to the restaurateur and the chef to educate our customers, to indicate the differences in taste and texture from specific localities. There could be a margin in it.”
Condition is the critical factor when it comes to tenderness and flavour. A skinny sick animal will taste like a skinny sick animal, but these days farmers finishing stock make every effort to get their animals to the works in the best condition possible. As Stu Milligan, a farmer from Tautoro in Northland, says: “Animals in poor condition taste poor; if it is not happy or healthy, this also is a stress factor. Bugger all sheep meat you get today has this problem as any sheep growers still left are good farmers and of course there is no money in sending stock to the works in poor condition.” The age of an animal can have a greater influence on the flavour and particularly texture (tenderness) of meat than almost anything else. An older animal in its prime has time to grow and gain flavour and muscle texture from its environment.
Fewer sheep more meat Farmers, with the help of our world-leading agricultural research and advisory services, work on improving the performance of their capital flocks. There has been a shift in emphasis from sheer numbers to selecting a sheep on its performance and this has helped lift the productivity of the national flock. Between 1992 and 2002 the number of breeding ewes and hoggets in New Zealand fell by 24%, yet between 1993 and 2003 the tonnage of lamb meat processed increased by 22.4%.
“There is little better than a two-tooth wether that has been feeding on high country tussock before going down to the flats to have a nice rest and fatten up before it gets its head cut off,” says Milligan. But most of the dead animals people eat are adolescent if not younger. This may not necessarily be a bad thing as the young tend to be sweet, tender and boring – a great vehicle for the latest sauce creation. This is not an issue with lamb, and New Zealand lamb in particular, as it is tender but still has a definite definable flavour. This is the great advantage that our lamb has over other under-aged meats and we as chefs should capitalise on it.
Processing is the easiest factor to control. Simply find and get to know a decent supplier, stick with him or her and always insist on a branded product. Do this and all the other quality variables mentioned above will fall into place. Choosing lamb displaying the New Zealand Beef and Lamb Quality Mark is a bloody good start. Do business with cowboys offering cheap deals and you will just get what you pay for. |
