Lucchesi labour of love wins WAMMCO award
Kulin lamb producer Michael Lucchesi was thrilled to be named WA Meat Marketing Co-operative’s producer of the year, and very proud to be awarded the prestigious Judy Cameron Memorial trophy at an awards function in Katanning on October 27.
After four years in the competition, it was the first overall win for Mr Lucchesi and his wife Alison, who had the highest points in the competition with their lambs averaging 22.88kg on the hooks.
The couple — along with their children Pippa, 5, and Ben, 7, — run a 7000ha mixed farm and lease an additional 3800ha of property.
“We enjoy running sheep and it is good to have the recognition for our effort,” Mr Lucchesi said.
“We’re proud to be part of this industry.”
The Lucchesi family run between 2500 and 3000 big-framed Merino ewes which were all acquired from outside the farm.
The sheep are crossed with Poll Dorset and White Suffolk rams from Nick and Gina Cheetham’s Cheetara stud in Narembeen.
The Lucchesi family supplied 6187 lambs to WAMMCO’s Katanning processing plant in 2020-21.
Their score of 92.8 points in the crossbred large supplier category was just 1.96 above supplier KD & VG Hoey, of Esperance, who came second.
Mr Lucchesi said he drafted 40kg liveweight lambs into the farm’s feedlot to gain a desirable market weight of 48kg, or about 22kg dressed weight, using a home mix of mostly farm-grown lupins and barley.
“We lamb in March and April and market lambs in August,” he said.
The family had two second place awards in 2018-19 and 2019-20 after coming eighth in 2016-17.
WAMMCO supply and development manager Rob Davidson, who co-ordinates the producer of the year competition, said Mr Lucchesi’s attention to detail — particularly to the health status of his livestock — had been an essential component to his success.
“Michael also maintains consistent deliveries of a quality lamb product throughout the year,” Mr Davidson said.
“He has worked out over time a formula that works for his enterprise, from sourcing quality genetics to establishing a strict criteria in regard to lamb liveweight on entry into a feedlot and the most beneficial time on feed.”
Mr Davidson said Mr Lucchesi’s willingness to work with Westcoast Livestock agents Lincon Gangell, Barry Gangell and Jane Bushby, who help weigh all animals in preparing a consignment, showed his commitment in doing the job right.
He said the competition point scoring based on a total 100 points was 80 per cent on carcase specifications with the target of between 18.1kg and 28kg dressed weight, with a fat score between 2 and 3 and a defect-free carcase.
“The other 20 per cent of the point scores are accumulated on delivery volumes and times of the year,” Mr Davidson said.
“The competition is run by automatic entry for suppliers with a minimum annual turn-off of 250 crossbred or Merino lambs and the 2020-21 season had 701,493 lambs scored in one of the five different categories.”
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