Meat quality of beef-cross-dairy cattle from Angus or Hereford sires: A case study in a pasture-based system in New Zealand.

ABSTRACT

Meat quality of beef-cross-dairy cattle born in the dairy industry and finished on hill-country pastures is not well characterised. This experiment aimed to objectively evaluate meat quality traits of 15 Angus and 18 Hereford sires via progeny testing of their 326 beef-cross-dairy offspring, and to compare the intramuscular fat (IMF) percentage with the AUS-MEAT marble scores. Beef-breed sires had similar and overall good objective meat quality characteristics. Ultimate pH was not affected by sire (P > 0.05). The differences among sires in meat quality (fat yellowness b*, meat redness a*, yellowness b* and chroma C*, cook loss and shear force, P < 0.05) were small and all values were within the normal range for beef. Marble scores could capture the variation of IMF at marbling score 1-3, but was not effective to distinguish between 0 and 1. In conclusion, the effect of sire on the meat quality of the beef-cross-dairy progeny in this study was of minor importance.