The eating quality of beef from young dairy bulls derived from two breed types at three ages from two different production systems

Abstract

Expansion of the Irish dairy herd has led to more dairy breed male calves being available for beef production. This study investigated the physico-chemical and sensory characteristics of beef from Holstein-Friesian (HF) and Jersey × HF (JEX) young bulls fed pasture grass only or pasture grass plus 2 kg concentrate during their first grazing season and slaughtered at 15, 19 or 22 mo of age. Longissimus thoracis (LT) muscles were collected from 67 carcasses. Postmortem pH, ultimate pH (pHu), meat colour, chemical composition, collagen content and solubility were evaluated. After ageing for 21 d, Warner-Bratzler shear force and cooking loss were determined, and assessments by a trained sensory panel were conducted. Meat from older animals was darker. The pHu, moisture and ash contents decreased, while residual roast beef flavour length increased with age. However, increasing age to slaughter did not negatively influence tenderness. JEX beef had lower cooking loss, was darker and redder, in addition to having higher sensory scores for initial tenderness and fattiness than HF beef. Warner-Bratzler variables were positively correlated with cooking loss and chewiness and were negatively correlated with intramuscular fat (IMF) content, soluble collagen and initial tenderness. In summary, most young dairy bull beef samples were acceptably tender after 21 d of ageing and half of them had acceptable IMF content. Slaughter age affected beef colour, pHu, chemical composition and flavour length. The eating quality of meat from the JEX breed type was considered to be superior to that of the HF breed type. Diet during the first season had no effect on meat quality traits.

Extending the Grazing Period for Bulls, Prior to Finishing on a Concentrate Ration: Composition, Collagen Structure and Organoleptic Characteristics of Beef

“…Similarly, a literature review of mainly French production systems indicated that as age at slaughter increased from 12 to 24 months there was little evidence of an increase in shear force or decrease in sensory tenderness in meat from bulls [47]. In Irish studies with bulls of dairy origin, there was no difference in shear force or sensory tenderness of LT from production systems similar to C, P99 and P162 where the dairy bulls were 15, 19 and 22 months of age at slaughter, respectively [48]. It is difficult, however, in many studies to separate the effects of age per se from other production factors, which might contribute to differences in beef tenderness.…”

The effect of complete feed to carcass characteristics and meat quality of male Bali cattle fattened in West Timor, Indonesia

“…In this research, beef collagen can be decreased due to the beef fat content which was quite high. Furthermore, the factors affecting the meat collagen level are the gender and muscle on the same carcass [ 29 ], age [ 29 , 32 ], cattle family, feed, and pattern of cattle raising [ 32 , 33 ].…”

“…Theoretically, the tenderness of meat is affected by three beef components; those are myofibrils structure and its contraction status, connective tissue content and its cross ties level, WHC, and the juiciness of the meat [ 28 ]. Meanwhile, the age and the type of muscle did not affect the beef cattle tenderness significantly [ 32 , 43 ]; other factors such as the cattle family and feeding time also did not significantly affect the tenderness of the beef as reported by Nian et al . [ 32 ].…”

“…Meanwhile, the age and the type of muscle did not affect the beef cattle tenderness significantly [ 32 , 43 ]; other factors such as the cattle family and feeding time also did not significantly affect the tenderness of the beef as reported by Nian et al . [ 32 ].…”

Influence of ageing on longissimus lumborum quality from Holstein-Friesian young bulls fed different diets

“…Since the carcasses of the cattle show lower slaughter parameters (lower dressing percentage and degree of conformation) and meat quality (Bureš and Bartoň 2018 ) than beef or crossbred cattle (Węglarz 2010 ), different strategies for improving the quality have been introduced, e.g. using different dietary treatments (Nian et al 2017a ), fattening to higher slaughter weight (Węglarz 2010 ) or electrical stimulation of the carcasses (Li et al 2011 ). On the other hand, there are also reports showing similar or even better eating quality of beef obtained from dairy breeds (Devlin et al 2017 ), which indicates that meat obtained from dairy breeds might be valuable material for culinary applications.…”