AMS Responds to ASI's Lamb Initiatives

Craig Morris, Ph.D., deputy administrator of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Marketing Service, responded last week to a number of American Sheep Industry Association directives the agency hopes to address in short term and through the balance of 2013.

These directives include a review of ASI recommendations on Livestock Mandatory Reporting for lamb, a proposed a strategy to address a more accurate definition of the maturity window for the current grade standard for yearling mutton and a more market-friendly descriptor, a commitment to establish a lamb tenderness standard and supports the approval of a non-hormone treated lamb certification protocol for the export to the European Union.