Continuing on from the success of last year’s industry webinars, Hybu Cig Cymru – Meat Promotion Wales’ first webinar of 2021 will explore lamb meat quality with sheep geneticist, Dr Nicola Lambe.
The webinar is to be held on 11 January at 7:30pm and as well as providing an update on the Welsh Lamb Meat Quality Project, will explore the influence of on-farm factors that have an effect on lamb eating quality.
The Welsh Lamb Meat Quality Project looks at factors that affect variation in meat quality, as part of Hybu Cig Cymru – Meat Promotion Wales’ (HCC) five-year, three-project, Red Meat Development Programme that seeks to help Welsh farming prepare for an increasingly competitive global marketplace.
Dr Nicola Lambe, from the leading Scottish rural studies university SRUC, has more than 20 years of experience working on sheep research projects, investigating improvements in carcase and meat quality, alongside production and reproductive traits, considering both hill and terminal sire breeds.
Dr Lambe currently manages the Computerised Tomography (CT) unit at SRUC, which mainly quantifies product and meat quality traits for use in research and commercial sheep breeding.
Giving an update on the Welsh Lamb Meat Quality project will be HCC Programme Officer, Elizabeth Swancott; “Throughout the lifetime of the project, we will be researching various on-farm and processing factors to see how they influence the eating quality of PGI Welsh Lamb. Last year, the factors explored were muscle cut, breed type and lamb gender.
“This year, the project is specifically investigating lamb finishing diets, lamb growth rate and meat ageing period, and how they possibly influence the taste of Welsh Lamb. A number of farms across Wales have been chosen based on the different finishing diets. Once all samples have been collected, they will be analysed for fatty acid and mineral composition, protein content, and tested through consumer taste panels.
“An update of the project activity so far will be given during the webinar on Monday.”
Registration for the webinar is essential and can be done here.
HCC’s Welsh Lamb Meat Quality Project is one of three 5-year projects in the Red Meat Development Programme which is funded by the Welsh Government Rural Communities – Rural Development Programme 2014-2020, which is funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the Welsh Government.
