A PhD researcher at Murdoch University has discovered that beef cattle with more musculature have better meat,  benefiting both the cattle industry and consumers.

Muscular cattle makes for tender meat / Image - Courtesy Istockphoto

Mr Peter McGilchrist found that more muscular cattle retain more glycogen, making the beef more tender and moist. Though previously known that more muscular cattle generated higher yields of beef, it was unknown whether their musculature affected meat quality.

Lactic acid is produced when the glycogen breaks down after slaughter. The lactic acid lowers the pH of the meat which creates the bright cherry red colour of meat that consumers desire. The amount of lactic acid can be measured by using the pH scale and the the ultimate pH is lower than 5.7 and preferably close to 5.5. It rarely increases in acidity further as the acid build up then destroys the enzyme responsible for breaking the glycogen down.

As events just prior to slaughter are stressful for cattle, the process is unavoidable but can give the beef industry an advantage. According to Mr McGilchrist, firmer, darker, tougher beef from cattle storing less glycogen and thereby producing less lactic acid, costs the industry $35 million nationwide as it is inferior in quality.

“We want to reduce the cost of dark cutting (selling the darker, tougher beef) to industry”, he says.

Mr McGilchrist also recommends selecting cattle for different traits with the study finding that more muscular cattle were less prone to stress overall and more sensitive to insulin, therefore storing more glycogen after feeding.

“It’s important to have multi-trait selection in breeding but we want to highlight the importance of selecting muscling traits,” Mr McGilchrist says.

Selecting for muscling traits could therefore result in calmer cattle, better beef for consumers and better profits for producers, processors and industry alike.

The study was given funding by the Cooperative Research Centre for Beef Genetic Technologies. Post-doctoral research for Mr McGilchrist will focus on the economic and marketing aspects of implementing his results over a two year period. He hopes to utilise the Meat Standards Australia grading system to further segregate premium quality beef and provide an incentive for producers to select such traits in their cattle with an estimate of $30 extra profit per head of cattle to both the producer and the processor.

Comments (1)

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written by nick gugliotta, September 12, 2010

docile animals tend to put more condition on,and higher protein intake gives a better colour,that has been my experience in 30 years of breeding and cutting them in my retail butcher shop.