Grilled American Lamb with
Red Pepper Jelly, with a Colorado Potato and Fig Salad

Recipe from Lachlan MacKinnon-Patterson, Frasca Food & Wine
(Boulder, Colorado)

4 to 6 servings
Preparation time: 15 min.
Cook Time: 90 min.

American Lamb Ingredients:

• 2 pounds leg of American Lamb steaks.
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste
• 3/4 cup Red Pepper Jelly

Instructions:

Slice lamb leg in approximately 1/2-inch-thick cutlets; rub with vegetable oil. Season with salt and pepper. Place on hot grill about 2 minutes per side or until medium-rare to medium. Do not overcook.

In a small sauce pan, warm Red Pepper Jelly to liquefy.

Colorado Potato & Fig Salad:

• 1 pound Colorado Russet potatoes
• 1 cup finely chopped celery
• 1/4 cup finely chopped carrots
• 1/4 cup minced shallots
• 1/2 cup chopped dried California mission figs
• 2 tablespoons chopped oregano
• 2 tablespoons chopped chives
• 1/3 cup mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup Dijon mustard
• 1/4 cup lemon juice

In a large pan, cover potatoes with cool water. Bring to a simmer; cook until fork-tender, about 90 minutes. Peel potatoes while warm and set aside to cool to room temperature. Cut into one-inch cubes. Gently fold in celery, carrots, shallots, figs, oregano, chives, mayonnaise, mustard and lemon juice; Russets will soften to a coarse mashed texture. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Arrange lamb on serving plate with Colorado Potato and Fig Salad. Drizzle meat and plate with Red Pepper Jelly.

Nutrition per serving: 745 calories, 41 g protein, 63 g carbohydrates, 37g total fat (44% calories from fat),149x mg cholesterol, 4 g fiber, 1654 mg sodium, 11.15 mg niacin, 0.57 mg vitamin B6, 3.87 mcg vitamin B12,4 mg iron, 7 mg zinc

Recipe and image provided by the American Lamb Board

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From the Field by Greg Ahart

Rebuild the Sheep Inventory Committee presents its '2+2+2=Rebuild' Plan

At the recent ASI convention in Reno, the first substantive plan emerged from the "Rebuild the Sheep Inventory" committee. The plan addresses two critical issues. First, why do we need to worry about increasing the national flock? The second issue is how to go about addressing the increase in a manageable and measurable manner.

The reduction in the national flock is reaching crisis proportions. Why do I say that? We are losing infrastructure throughout the industry. Livestock transportation, sheep nutrition specialists, university research geared towards sheep production, and ag lenders with an understanding of the sheep industry are all falling by the wayside. On January 27, Superior Farms announced that it was closing the further processing side of the recently acquired Iowa facility. Lack of lamb supply in the Midwest was cited in the press release as the leading cause. Sheep and Lamb prices are at an all time high. Wool prices are at a 23 year high. There isn't enough lamb to meet consumer demand.

To encourage existing producers to increase production there was a plan presented entitled "2+2+2=Rebuilds." The first goal inside of it is clearly stated as "increase at least 2 ewes per hundred or per operation by 2014." If every operator increased by 2 ewes per operation or per 100 ewes by 2014, we would have 175,000 additional ewes, 254,000 additional lambs to harvest and 2 million additional pounds of wool.

Success for the plan depends on ALL operations, not just the large operators.

The second goal is to increase the average birthrate to 2 lambs per year. With the stated national flock at 3.37 million ewes, that would be 6.73 million lambs on the ground (as opposed to 3.6 million lambs being born in 2010). No, they won't all be saved. There will still be health and predator mortalities, but more born will still equal significantly more at the end. There are multiple tools available to help with lambing percentage: Flushing, Teaser Bucks, Genetics, Vaccinations (for Bluetongue…call the CWGA office!), Nutrition, and additional labor. Most of these can be found and explained in the SID handbook. With that said, when is the last time any of us picked it up and read it? If you lost yours, ASI has additional copies.

The third goal is to increase harvested lamb crop by 2%. Using today's metrics that represents another 67,500 head through the system. Predator losses, disease, and mortality can be reduced by quality of management. We also know from past economic studies that for every 1,000 ewes, 18 jobs are created. This increase in sheep inventory will either create or save 5,700 jobs.

Let's all do our part. To learn more about and see the presentation from the ASI Convention regarding 2+2+2=Rebuild, visit: http://www.growourflock.org/

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