The poor weather of late is making life tricky for farmers who are finishing lambs outdoors, as ground conditions deteriorate.

As ground conditions get softer and lambs get dirtier, the chance of lambs falling under category C (unacceptable for slaughter) of the Clean Livestock Policy (CLP) is likely to increase.

Farmers who are finishing lambs outdoors, particularly those who are finishing lambs on winter crops, are more at risk of not complying with the CLP regulations and possibly facing charges from factories who deem lambs unacceptable for slaughter.

To get an insight into what is acceptable and what isn’t, we take a look at the CLP in more detail (below), which includes images of each category.

Clean Livestock Policy

The CLP for sheep was introduced in 2016 and it’s a three-category system. Under the policy, sheep are classified as being satisfactory (Category A), acceptable (Category B) or unacceptable (Category C).

It was introduced to “significantly improve performance in relation to the cleanliness of incoming sheep” to Department of Agriculture approved slaughter plants.

In the gallery (below) each category (A, B and C) is pictured. Click on a thumbnail in the gallery to open up a full-size image; once opened you can scroll sideways to see the next picture.

What can farmers do?

To help reduce the risk of sheep falling into the latter category – Category C – the department offers farmers the following advice: