Effects of feeding strategy during a short finishing period on performance, carcass and meat quality in previously-grazed young bulls

Twenty Gascon young bulls that had been reared either in intensive conditions (INT) (n = 10) with early weaning at 3 to 4 months, or in a traditional extensive (EXT) system (n = 10) with weaning at 7 months, were subjected to the same conditions during the 145-day finishing period. Production system before the finishing period did not affect conformation, dressing percentage or morphology of the carcass; nevertheless, tissue composition differed somewhat between the two groups. Display had a stronger effect on meat colour than did production system. Percentage of myoglobin was highest in INT (P ⩽ 0.001), although meat texture and sensory quality did not differ between rearing conditions. EXT animals had darker, more yellow fat, a higher percentage of n-3 fatty acids (P ⩽ 0.001), a lower percentage of saturated fatty acids (P ⩽ 0.05) and a lower n-6/n-3 index (P ⩽ 0.001) than did the INT-reared animals. Production system before the fattening period might modify some of the characteristics of commercial beef, especially those associated with fat.Keywords: Gascon breed, beef cattle, colour, panel test, fatty acids ImplicationsThe effect of background before the entrance in a feedlot on meat quality in beef has been hardly studied for the literature available on this topic is very scarce, especially when the productive life of the animals is considered as a whole and animals are fed a common finishing diet. Our results show new information and complement the existent helping to understand the possible influence of the previous fattening production system, as grazing at an early stage provokes certain distinctive characteristics that are kept even after several months of concentrate feeding.

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 72%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 90%

Effect of production system before the finishing period on carcass, meat and fat qualities of beef

Guerrero

Albertı́

Ripoll

et al. 2013

“…Alterations in the appearance or sensory characteristics of bull beef produced in this way could have a negative impact on the attractiveness of the beef to consumers accustomed to beef from the "traditional" production system. However, Cerdeno et al (2005) indicated that it was possible to improve the sensory qualities of beef from grass based systems, by allowing a finishing period on concentrate diets, while at the same time retaining the advantages of grass feeding. Similarly, studies on steers and dairy bulls by McCaughey and Cliplef (1996) and Vestergaard et al (2000), respectively, showed that animals raised on grass and finished on concentrate diets for two to three months produced beef with similar desirable sensory quality to intensively fed animals.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of organoleptic quality and composition of beef from suckler bulls from different production systems

Mezgebo

Moloney

O’Riordan

et al. 2017

Bull beef production is traditionally based on high concentrate rations fed indoors. Inclusion of grazed grass, which is generally a cheaper feed, would decrease the cost of bull beef production, but may affect beef quality. Accordingly, the organoleptic quality and composition of beef from continental-sired suckler bulls (n=126) assigned to either ad libitum concentrates to slaughter (C), grass silage (GS) ad libitum for 120 days followed by C (GSC) or GS followed by 100 days at pasture and then C (GSPC) and slaughtered at target carcass weights (CW) of 360, 410 or 460 kg was examined. Tenderness, flavour liking and overall liking were lower (P<0.05) for GSPC than for C and GSC. Intramuscular fat content and soluble collagen proportion were lower (P<0.05) for GSPC than GSC which was lower (P<0.05) than C. Soluble collagen proportion was lower (P<0.05) for 460 kg than 410 kg CW, which was lower (P<0.05) than 360 kg CW. Inclusion of a grazing period decreased the ratings of tenderness, flavour liking and overall liking, but age of the bulls at slaughter had no clear influence on sensory characteristics.

“…Collagen content decreased, whereas MFI increased along time-on-feed, suggesting a decrease in WBSF. However, WBSF did not change along time-on-feed (French et al, 2000;Cerdeño et al, 2006), indicating that the variation in this variable was not enough to decrease WBSF. These results are in line with other studies reporting that the collagen content is neither related to WBSF nor to taste panel tenderness (Hunsley et al, 1971;Christensen, et al, 2011), as muscles with low collagen content, such as the longissimus dorsi, might provide a limited contribution to background toughness (Ngapo et al, 2002).…”

Section: Texture Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 91%

Effects of castration and time-on-feed on Mertolenga breed beef quality

Monteiro¹,

Navas

Lemos³

2014

Physicochemical characteristics were determined in the longissimus lumborum muscle, after 8 days of ageing of steers (n = 12) and bulls (n = 12) from Mertolenga breed slaughtered directly from pasture (day 0) or after a finishing period of 50, 100 and 150 days in a feed-lot facility. Bulls and steers presented similar live weight (averaging 388 kg), carcass weight (CW; averaging 213 kg), dressing percentage (averaging 60%), carcass fatness (11.9% CW) and carcass fat thickness (averaging 3.03 mm). Live weight, CW, carcass fatness and fat thickness increased along time-on-feed. Gender only had a negligible effect on meat characteristics, with b* and h* being the only parameters of colour affected by gender, also presenting a significant interaction gender × time-on-feed. Nevertheless, both the genders presented a high-quality grade concerning tenderness (Warner-Bratzler shear force (WBSF)). L* increased until 50 days on feed and decreased afterwards, whereas a* and C* values increased along time-on-feed. Pigment content was also affected by time-on-feed and showed a gender × time-on-feed interaction. Beef colour became darker and redder along time-on-feed, but still in a colour range highly acceptable by Portuguese consumers. Despite the increase in intramuscular fat and myofibrillar fragmentation index, as well as the decrease in collagen content of steers and bulls along time-on-feed, it did not affect the tenderness/hardness, indicating a small effect of time-on-feed in meat characteristics. Despite only small differences in carcass characteristics and meat-quality parameters that have been noticed along time-on-feed, those differences were only significant after 100 days on feed. Principal component analysis (PCA) was performed. The first PC axis (39.6% of the total variance) included colour variables a*, b* and C*, and carcass fatness, fat thickness, CW and live weight, whereas the second one (12.7% of the total variance) included h*, cooking losses and dressing-out. The principal component (PC) analysis confirmed the lack of differences between bulls and steers and indicates a differentiation of the first two periods of feeding (0 and 50 days on feed) from the two latter (100 and 150 days on feed) periods of feeding.