Sheep industry
Packers simply cannot afford to
adjust slaughter rates to ac
commodate the highs and lows of
seasonal lamb production. “If
production were evenly distributed
throughout 12 months, the packing
industry could handle all we
produce,” he said.
The fact that sheep producers
are sitting on a potential gold mine
is evidenced by Rocco Enterprises’
willingness to sink large amounts
of capital into their current lamb
venture, said Hubbard. The well
known Virginia-based turkey
processor created a stir within the
red meat industry last year by
“Ewe will love 'em," says enterprising meat marketer Eugene Gagliardi of his
patented lamb cuts. Pictured with the inventor of “Steak-umms" is one-half of a lamb
prepared a la Gagliardi.
(Continued from Page *1)
announcing its intention to
slaughter 10,000 lambs a week at
its Rocco Further Processing
facility located in Timberville.
Rocco’s approach to insuring a
year-round supply of lamb has
been to insist on using ewes with
year-round breeding potential in
its contract agreements.
Whether or not Rocco’s strategy
will pay dividends remains to be
seen, said Hubbard, adding that
the future of the industry depends
on producers’ willingness to adopt
progressive management
strategies such as year-round
lambing.' At the present time,
however, American sheep
producers aren’t even good enough
managers to compete with the
price and availability of New
Zealand lamb on their own turf.
“We’re no longer the most efficient
producers of agricultural products
in the world,” Hubbard said.
The USDA official’s overhaul of
the industry includes new product
development, a factor, he said,
that has played a major role in the
poultry industry’s ability to claim
an increasing percentage of
consumers’ food dollars. Here
again, said Hubbard, the answer
lies in the grower’s willingness to
increase his production efficiency
and volume. “A variety of sheep
• products won’t be developed until
the supply of sheep meat is big
enough to make it profitable,” he
said.
Lancaster Faming, Saturday, April 12,19W-Al9
But increasing the supply of
lamb doesn’t mean increasing the
sin of the lamb, cautioned Eugene
Gagliardi, the evening’s second
speaker. Gagliardi is best known
as the inventor of the popular
frozen meat product called ‘ ‘Steak
umms”.
The owner of Southdown Meat
Co. Inc., of West Chester,
Gagliardi finally turned his
creative muse loose on the lamb
industry about three years ago. “I
thought for years and years that
lamb was being presented wrong,”
he said, noting that all that was
needed to increase lamb’s
popularity was a more attractive
and convenient array of lamb
products.
After carving some 100 lamb
carcasses, Gagliardi came up with
nine lamb cuts (all patent
pending) that minimize carcass
waste, and, he claims, provide
more edible meat per ounce than
any other cuts on the market. All
cuts can be cooked in less than an
hour and can easily be carved by
the cook with a kitchen knife.
Gagliardi also guards against
any strong, muttony taste by
removing the thin white mem
brane, or fel, from the surface of
the meat. Bones that stand in the
way of easy carving are removed,
and fat cover is limited to no more
than one-eight of an inch.
One of the factors traditionally
limiting lamb’s acceptance by
consumers has been large cuts that
result in mountains of leftovers.
Gagliardi’s secret to providing
cute of convenient size is to work
with the smaller New Zealand
lamb carcasses that top out at no
more than 45 pounds. American
lambs are simply too big, he says,
pointing out that current showring
trends are out of touch with the
real world of meat production.
Gagliardi also encourages sales
by printing appropriate lamb
recipes on each individually
Dixon Hubbard
wrapped cut of lamb that bears his
“Lamb Lovers Gourmet Cuts”
label. “Ewe will love ’em,” reads
the logo.
Judging by public acceptance
thus far, he just may be right. The
U.S. Army has agreed to stock its
commissaries from Maine to
Virginia with Gourmet Cuts, and
two Philadelphia-based chain
stores have done likewise. “The
reception has been phenomenal,”
saysGagliardi.
*