Evaluation of Angus, Charolais, and Hereford as terminal sire breeds on Hereford and first-cross cows. III. Meat quality of progeny

Abstract

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.