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This topic was originally posted on the 3rd September 2019 by Dan. It has received 3 replies and was last updated on the 13th September 2019 by Helen. If you would like to reply to this topic, please ensure you are registered and logged in.
Dan
Did you know it's "Love Lamb Week"? Running from 1st to 7th September 2019 the idea is to celebrate all things about the delicious meat and boost consumer attitudes towards the meat in a world where the industry gets a lot of uninformed negative press. At LambWatch we are proud to not only support this industry with our commercial breeds, but, even more so, promote the benefits of an aged sheep meat in the form of hogget and mutton. Hogget is meat from a sheep that is over 12 months old and mutton is meat from a sheep older than 24 months. Because the animal has a longer life grazing quality grass pastures and meadows, the meat is much more delicious and far superior.
So if you can, why not enjoy some tasty lamb this week, or even better, find a local producer near you who offers hogget and mutton from traditional native breeds. This all helps to support the rare breeds and promote a sustainable and ecologically beneficial way of farming. Many will wonder "how can eating rare breed meat support the rare breeds"? The answer is simple: "use them or lose them". Rare breed farmers need to have an outlet for their surplus stock, in the form of the many wethers (castrated males) which are not required for breeding. It is impossible to keep every animal otherwise stocking densities will become too large, increasing the risk of disease. So it's vital to support rare breed hogget and mutton, and lamb, as this provides the farmers with an outlet and also a valuable source of income which they can use to further support their work in promoting and saving these wonderful rare breeds.
Simply put, if we didn't eat them, they would go into serious decline, hence "use them or lose them".
For more info, visit: [link]
Helen
I actually looked for some lamb chops this morning (Tuesday) when I went grocery shopping and there was no sign of them. I will look again. I love lamb, but we usually get NZ lamb here, for some mysterious reason that has to do with trade agreements.
Dan
We get a lot of new zealand lamb in our supermarkets too, despite us producing fine quality lamb, hogget and mutton in this country.
Helen
You'll be happy to know I did finally find some lamb chops (NZ) and have enjoyed them several times in the past ten days. Delicious.
