Yearling and traditional autumn lambing systems with special emphasis on extending season for fresh meat for halal market & byproducts use

Sheep farming depends on unimproved pastures during summer months as well as roughages during the in-door feeding period. Farmers receive government subsidies for the preservation of rural landscapes and for food production based on natural resources. To maintain the financial support for agriculture, it is important that the processing industry is cost-efficient and provides high-quality products. Consumers' preference for meat from small ruminants will probably increase if it can be documented that it is produced in an environmental friendly way. Sheep grazing is important for keeping a diverse and beautiful cultural landscape. Farmers located in mountainous areas have a long barn-feeding period in winter and therefore it will be most economical to slaughter the lambs in fall. Norwegian sheep are usually bred in November-December to have lambing in April-May and slaughtering of lambs in September-October after the summer grazing season. On coastal sheep farms the production system is more flexible and overwintering of lambs for provision of off-season fresh lambs meat may be feasible. In this study lambs will be kept for five to 12 months before slaughtering. This gives the opportunity to have fresh lamb meat for marketing year round, and serve the Eid al-Adha, Easter and Christmas, as well as Friday, celebrations. Farmers will receive a premium for keeping their sheep longer indoors. It is also anticipated that early grazing of sheep in spring and late in fall will result in more browsing compared to summer-grazing and therefore improved landscaping-capacity. The hypothesis that such a production system is economically feasible will be tested in a similar manner as for other systems. Goals of the project are to evaluate overwintering of lambs with respect to economy, meat quality, and culture landscaping.

Meat sensory analysis results showed that hogget meat is similar to the lamb meat, while Norwegian Spæl hogget have the potential to fulfil the fresh meat demands in offseason and Muslim meat festival. An economic analysis was carried out that showed that hogget production system calculated least amount of concentrate use and increased life span of ewes calculated the maximum gross margin. The halal meat consumer survey showed that Muslim meat consumers trust the halal butcher while purchasing the halal meat. Norwegian national supermarkets can attain main share of halal meat market by adding variety of halal products in their shelves and integrating some of the services of the halal butcher depending upon the economic viability. The results dissemination was done by celebrating sheep day each year at Baroniet Rosendal. Following Australian model, the halal meat production protocols were developed at Fatland Ølen for the mutual benefit of Fatland Ølen and meat consumers in Oslo.

For sheep farming there exists three production systems: spring, winter, and accelerated lambing. Small ruminant farmers receive government subsidies for the preservation of rural landscapes and for food production based on natural resources. To maintain the financial support for agriculture, it is also important that the processing industry is cost-efficient and provides high-quality products. Consumers' preference for meat from small ruminants will probably increase if it can be documented that it is produced in an environmentally friendly way. Mountain sheep-farmer operates within strict environmental boundaries. Animals must be fed indoors from mid-October to mid-May. Availability of home-grown feeds for the winter is limited due to small farm size and short growing season.The main aim is to produce sheep stock of approximately one year of age ready to cover the Eid al-Adha marketing together with Friday celebrations, Easter and Christmas celebrations. Norwegian sheep usually breed in late November or early December and lambing occur in late April or early May. Over winter, lambing will cover the religious festivals and farmers will receive a premium for keeping their sheep longer indoors. The hypothesis that such a production system will be economically feasible and will be tested in a similar manner as for the other systems. It is also anticipated that early and late grazing of sheep in spring and fall, respectively will result in more browsing compared to summer-grazing and therefore improved ?landscaping-capacity?. This experiment will be undertaken at Rosendal barony. Publications: 1. Effect of concentrate and roughage fed sheep farming system on slaughter weight, carcass composition and meat quality (sensory analysis) in Western Norway 2. Economic modeling of the efficient sheep farming system for getting better carcass yield and meat quality 3. An overview of consumer perceptions about halal meat and value-added meat by-products in Oslo, Norway