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Monday 16th November. A plant that can slaughter up to 28,000 lambs per day, and further process 85% of those carcases!! This is the reason we travelled to the Lorneville processing plant at Invercargill. (via the Presidential Route, Clinton – Gore) The plant is part of the Alliance Group, a large farmer owned, and operated co-operative which processes lamb, beef and venison. The plant’s throughput is impressive by any standards: Two shifts/24 hours, 4 chains/shift, up to 4000 carcases/chain. (varies according to the season)
We were met by the Plant Manager, Mr David Kean, who very kindly took it upon himself to dedicate the day to show us around the plant and introduce us to his various managers along the slaughtering and processing chain. David is a production guy who has moved progressively up the ladder at the plant over a number of years, and it was very noticeable the quiet respect he received from his colleagues as we toured the plant.
Ceri Lewis, the manager of Mount Linton station had driven up from Ohai to join us for the day. Ceri was one of my fellow students at the Welsh Agricultural College in the 80’s, but on finishing his education, very quickly moved to New Zealand, and is now the successful General Manager of Mount Linton. Ceri supplies around 4000 lambs per week into Lorneville at the height of the season. Many will have watched Dai Jones’s excellent program from the station last year on S4C, and we were looking forward to moving onto the farm after the abattoir visit.
I knew that Alliance supplied many of the leading retailers in the UK with lamb, and I was given a briefing by Gary Maclennan, Development Services Manager, who is responsible for farm assurance and supply chain development. It became very clear that foreign importers drive the agenda with regard to many of the aspects related to transparency and accountability within the supply chain. Gary’s role is to manage these demands, educate and enlighten foreign buyers on the farming systems within New Zealand, and encourage his lamb suppliers to embrace change when necessary to protect market access. A challenging role! I found the conversation transparent, and supported by documentation which I could take away and study at my leisure. I will need another suitcase to carry all the paper work I have collected home to Wales!
Only chain No1 was working on the day due to the early season, and it was noticeable that this senior chain had an equally ‘senior’ average age. I was told that some of the workers were in their late sixties and promotion to this line was nearly a case of ‘filling dead men’s shoes’ The development of robotic pullers at various stages of the carcass dressing had alleviated some of the hard work on the line, and allowed the senior workers to carry on into old age!
We were given a tour around the boning and processing halls, with each department manager taking their turn in briefing us about what was going on at each stage, as the carcass was turned into shoulder rolls for Japan, or racks of lamb for the European market. I am a great believer that every sheep farmer should visit his local processor to follow the lamb through from slaughter to the final cuts and packaging. It is a complex operation.
We finished the visit with a tour of the lairage, where 28,000 lambs could be held at any one time. I was taken through the traceability system that is employed on lamb arrival. Interesting…. The lambs were shampooed as they entered the lairage, and then water sprayed in a large round pen. The plant had done away with the swim bath which I saw in the Silver Fern Farms abattoir earlier on my trip. This washing process is justified on hygiene grounds, and the need to maximise shelf life in some of New Zealand’s far flung markets around the world, but other options are being considered. Some very well trained Huntaway dogs helped move the lambs once they were unloaded from the delivery trucks, and the abattoir staff expressed concern that some retailers had banned the use of dogs in lairage pens, which would cause difficulty in an operation of this magnitude. The dogs seemed to bark on command, shut up on command, and brought home to me how badly trained and controlled my huntaway is at home in Llandre!! Maybe the fault lies with the master.
An interesting day, in the company of some very professional operators . Next stop was Mount Linton, and we followed Ceri through hail, wind and rain to Ohai. Ceri and I were in different years in WAC and had not kept in touch following college but I was convinced that if I ever got to New Zealand, Mount Linton would definitely be one of my destinations. After a hair raising journey back to the station (Ceri cannot be aware of the 100 km speed limit), it was a quick turnaround and another 40km journey to watch Ceri and his much younger station staff take part in a seven a side touch rugby competition. Unfortunately they lost which led to a very quiet journey back to the Lewis home. Rugby is a religion in New Zealand and even the touch rugby competition was laced with quality play. Ceri was a class outside half in college, but when you reach the age where you play in the same team as your son, maybe you should realise your limitations! (Ceri!)
We finished the evening having dinner with Ceri and his family looking out at the famous Mount Linton sheep station stretching before us into the far distance where snowy topped mountains lined the horizon.
We were met by the Plant Manager, Mr David Kean, who very kindly took it upon himself to dedicate the day to show us around the plant and introduce us to his various managers along the slaughtering and processing chain. David is a production guy who has moved progressively up the ladder at the plant over a number of years, and it was very noticeable the quiet respect he received from his colleagues as we toured the plant.
Ceri Lewis, the manager of Mount Linton station had driven up from Ohai to join us for the day. Ceri was one of my fellow students at the Welsh Agricultural College in the 80’s, but on finishing his education, very quickly moved to New Zealand, and is now the successful General Manager of Mount Linton. Ceri supplies around 4000 lambs per week into Lorneville at the height of the season. Many will have watched Dai Jones’s excellent program from the station last year on S4C, and we were looking forward to moving onto the farm after the abattoir visit.
I knew that Alliance supplied many of the leading retailers in the UK with lamb, and I was given a briefing by Gary Maclennan, Development Services Manager, who is responsible for farm assurance and supply chain development. It became very clear that foreign importers drive the agenda with regard to many of the aspects related to transparency and accountability within the supply chain. Gary’s role is to manage these demands, educate and enlighten foreign buyers on the farming systems within New Zealand, and encourage his lamb suppliers to embrace change when necessary to protect market access. A challenging role! I found the conversation transparent, and supported by documentation which I could take away and study at my leisure. I will need another suitcase to carry all the paper work I have collected home to Wales!
Only chain No1 was working on the day due to the early season, and it was noticeable that this senior chain had an equally ‘senior’ average age. I was told that some of the workers were in their late sixties and promotion to this line was nearly a case of ‘filling dead men’s shoes’ The development of robotic pullers at various stages of the carcass dressing had alleviated some of the hard work on the line, and allowed the senior workers to carry on into old age!
We were given a tour around the boning and processing halls, with each department manager taking their turn in briefing us about what was going on at each stage, as the carcass was turned into shoulder rolls for Japan, or racks of lamb for the European market. I am a great believer that every sheep farmer should visit his local processor to follow the lamb through from slaughter to the final cuts and packaging. It is a complex operation.
We finished the visit with a tour of the lairage, where 28,000 lambs could be held at any one time. I was taken through the traceability system that is employed on lamb arrival. Interesting…. The lambs were shampooed as they entered the lairage, and then water sprayed in a large round pen. The plant had done away with the swim bath which I saw in the Silver Fern Farms abattoir earlier on my trip. This washing process is justified on hygiene grounds, and the need to maximise shelf life in some of New Zealand’s far flung markets around the world, but other options are being considered. Some very well trained Huntaway dogs helped move the lambs once they were unloaded from the delivery trucks, and the abattoir staff expressed concern that some retailers had banned the use of dogs in lairage pens, which would cause difficulty in an operation of this magnitude. The dogs seemed to bark on command, shut up on command, and brought home to me how badly trained and controlled my huntaway is at home in Llandre!! Maybe the fault lies with the master.
An interesting day, in the company of some very professional operators . Next stop was Mount Linton, and we followed Ceri through hail, wind and rain to Ohai. Ceri and I were in different years in WAC and had not kept in touch following college but I was convinced that if I ever got to New Zealand, Mount Linton would definitely be one of my destinations. After a hair raising journey back to the station (Ceri cannot be aware of the 100 km speed limit), it was a quick turnaround and another 40km journey to watch Ceri and his much younger station staff take part in a seven a side touch rugby competition. Unfortunately they lost which led to a very quiet journey back to the Lewis home. Rugby is a religion in New Zealand and even the touch rugby competition was laced with quality play. Ceri was a class outside half in college, but when you reach the age where you play in the same team as your son, maybe you should realise your limitations! (Ceri!)
We finished the evening having dinner with Ceri and his family looking out at the famous Mount Linton sheep station stretching before us into the far distance where snowy topped mountains lined the horizon.
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