Influence of genetic type and level of concentrate in the finishing diet on carcass and meat quality traits in beef heifers
Highlights
► Carcass and beef quality vary with feed system and genetic type of cattle. ► We evaluate effects of concentrate levels and breed on carcass and beef quality. ► Concentrate level can be reduced without compromising meat quality traits. ► Genetic type affects beef tenderness.
Introduction
In order to meet the market demand for beef, producers in Brazil have been adopting production strategies for finishing feedlot heifers due to their ability to reach harvest weight in a relatively short period of time (20–24 months of age). Although finishing heifers in the feedlot is not commonly observed in Brazilian beef production systems, the manipulation of diets and conditions represents an available tool to increase productivity (Paulino et al., 2008).
The use of feedlots and high concentrate diets for beef production has been increased in Brazil, among other reasons, due to a better efficiency of use of these diets than roughage based diets (Resende et al., 2001). Therefore, researchers have suggested that increasing concentrate levels in diets of feedlot heifers can improve carcass dressing percentage (Duarte et al., 2011, Silva et al., 2002) which is a really important characteristic for a beef cattle production chain since it establishes the weight upon which payment is calculated for animals sold on a live weight basis.
In addition to beef cattle production, meat quality has been identified as one of the major problems for the beef industry, whereas the uniformity, lack of fatness and inadequate tenderness are the main problems faced by meat producers in Brazil. Some studies have suggested that controlling the genetics of the slaughter cattle population would minimize the problem with tenderness since genetics makes a large contribution to the total variation in tenderness.
In this context, the use of crossbred animals represents an alternative that can be used to improve livestock production efficiency and beef quality. It is well documented that the mean shear force and variation in shear force increases as the percentage of Bos indicus, such as Nellore, inheritance increases (Crouse et al., 1989). Furthermore, meat from ½ or greater Bos indicus cattle is usually significantly less tender than meat from cattle with less than ½ Bos indicus (Bianchini et al., 2007, Vaz and Restle, 2005). However, there are a limited number of studies aiming to identify the effects of crossing between Nellore and different European breeds on carcass and beef quality.
Therefore, this study was carried out to evaluate carcass and meat quality traits of heifers from different genetic groups, fed two different levels of concentrate.
Section snippets
Animals and management
The trial was conducted at the Federal University of Viçosa in Brazil, following the humane animal care and handling procedures, according to the guidelines of the Federal University of Viçosa (Brazil).
Thirty-six intact heifers with average age of 18 months: 12 Nellore “Bos indicus” (NE); 12 ½Simmental x ½Nellore (SN); 12 ½Angus x ½Nellore (AN) were treated for internal and external parasites by administration of ivermectin (IVOMEC®) prior the beginning of the experiment. The animals were
Results and discussion
There was no interaction (P > 0.05) between concentrate level (CL) and genetic groups (GG) for any of the variables evaluated. Thus, the effects of CL and GG were discussed independently.
The CL did not affect HCW (P = 0.18), CCW (P = 0.18), carcass shrink loss (P = 0.72), LMA (P = 0.34) or RFT (P = 0.16; Table 2). However, cold carcass dressing percentage (CCD; P = 0.0183) and hot carcass dressing percentage (HCD; P = 0.0144) was higher for animals fed concentrate at 0.8% of BW than those fed 1.2% of BW (
Conclusions
The concentrate levels used in this study did not promote differences on carcass and meat quality traits. Regarding genetic type, ½Angus x ½Nellore animals had greater longissimus muscle area and fat thickness, although they had a lower mean dressing percentage. This data suggests that genetic type affects beef tenderness, with crossbred animals seeming to produce more tender beef than Nellore cattle.
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