International significance of Australian research on beef quality - a view from the periphery

Abstract

Australia produces agricultural products, including meat, as major items for export as well as being consumed locally. It is no accident that Australia is one of the major exporters of meat to distant markets and the success is predicated on adapting animal production practices and processing to produce a highly desirable product that is safe to eat. Research plays a large part in this strategy, but one would have to say that for some time the view that ‘a prophet hath no honour in his own country’ has predominated. The Cattle and Beef CRC is designed to improve the profitability of the Australian beef industry by bringing in partners, some of whom were prominent in previous research endeavours to coordinate a research effort in order to benefit the whole industry — it is a unique and effective approach. It has taken some time to demonstrate that a ‘nice’ looking animal is not a predictor of meat quality — rather it needs to be processed correctly in order for it to meet the most critical consumer requirements. The researchers in Australia have in fact been the world leaders in advocating procedures such as electrical stimulation that have been taken up by the industry. There are still areas where the research results from Australia differ from that in other countries. CRC-based research in Australia in controlled studies using large numbers of animals with a wide genetic base, has shown that both cattle with a significant component from tropical genotypes and non-tropical genotypes, processed correctly, produce highly acceptable meat. To get further improvements, we merely need to identify the causes of outliers and this should not be difficult. This concept is of course important in the context of the relatively dry Australian climate that results in different problems from other countries. One important outcome of the CRC has been to show that sectors of the industry need to work together to use research and, if necessary, challenge current thinking imposed from outside. In other words, Australians should believe in themselves.