Evaluation of Angus, Charolais, and Hereford as terminal sire breeds on Hereford and first-cross cows. III. Meat quality of progeny
journal contribution
posted on 2023-11-21, 03:59authored byH Hearnshaw, PF Arthur, WR Shorthose, Andrew SinclairAndrew Sinclair, D Johnston, PD Stephenson
Carcasses of 435 Angus, Charolais, and Hereford sired progeny out of
straightbred Hereford (H × H), and first-cross Brahman × Hereford
(B × H), Simmental × Hereford (S × H) and Friesian ×
Hereford (F × H) dams, were evaluated for meat quality traits. The
cattle had been raised and slaughtered for the vealer (both sexes), yearling
domestic (both sexes), or the heavy export steer market. Meat samples from the
M. longissimus (LD, striploin) and the M. semitendinosis (ST, eyeround) were
evaluated for colour, cooking loss, sarcomere length, shear force parameters,
instron compression values, lipid content (LD only), cholesterol content (LD,
vealers only), and taste panel assessment (LD only). The effects of sire breed
and dam breed were small and were significant for only a few traits. The use
of either hot carcass weight or pH of meat as a covariate reduced the
differences further but did not change sire breed or dam breed rankings. Meat
from B × H progeny, which had 25%
Bos indicus (Brahman) breeding, was as tender as that
from progeny of the other dam breeds, which had no Bos indicus breeding.
Striploins from vealer carcasses were more tender and had less fat (mean peak
force, 3·8 kg; mean lipid in lean steak, 3·8 g/100 g) than
those from yearling domestic carcasses (mean peak force, 4·1 kg; mean
lipid in lean steak, 5· 0 g/100 g) which in turn were more tender
than those from heavy export steer carcasses (mean peak force, 4·9 kg;
mean lipid in lean steak, 6·3 g/100 g). From the total responses of
the taste panel, 65% rated vealer striploins of good or excellent
overall acceptability, compared with 29% for heavy export steer meat.
Trimming subcutaneous fat from striploin steaks of vealers reduced lipid
content and cholesterol content by 85% and 32% to 3·8
g/100 g and 55 mg/100 g, respectively.