Higher carcass gains for Limousin cross cattle on grass silage and barley-based ration
Take Home Message: Charolais and Limousin cattle perform similarly, but carcass fat and eye muscle area is lower in Charolais when slaughtered at the same liveweight, whilst meat toughness is not affected by breed.
Limousin cross cattle had higher carcass gains and produced heavier, better conformed carcases in trials, compared to Aberdeen Angus cross (AAx) cattle, when fed on a grass silage and barley-based ration.
“And while the AAx cattle did achieve higher prices per kilogram of carcass weight, their basic performance characteristics resulted in lower financial values overall,” SAC’s Jimmy Hyslop told delegates at this year’s British Society of Animal Science’s annual conference.
“These fundamental commercial performance characteristics should be taken into account when considering the economic sustainability of future beef production systems where pricing structures may be further developed to reward beef eating quality parameters,” he added.
Dr Hyslop’s team set out to assess the on-farm and carcass animal performance characteristics in suckler-bred steers and heifers during the finishing phase. This was a vital piece of work since, due to increasingly discerning consumer demand, the eating quality of beef has become a major focus of research effort for the beef supply chain and some pricing schemes currently reward Aberdeen Angus sired animals over animals sired by other breeds.
“The animal performance characteristics of beef cattle at a farm level must also be examined in studies on beef eating quality since they will remain an integral part of primary producer returns for the foreseeable future,” said Dr Hyslop, adding that the trail was part of a wider beef eating quality project.
The study involved 100 steers and heifers, which were used in a continuous factorial design experiment where two breed types (B) and two sexes (S) of suckler-bred finishing cattle, were compared. The two breed types were either Aberdeen Angus x Limousin (AAx) or Limousin x Aberdeen Angus (LIMx) derived from the reciprocal crossing programme within the main SAC beef herd.
There were 27 AAx steers, 31 LIMx steers, 21 AAx heifers and 21 LIMx heifers allocated to three pens per sex on the basis of initial liveweight and days of age. All animals were fed the same finishing diet consisting of first-cut grass silage and a barley-based concentrate (50:50 DM basis), which was offered as a completely mixed ration on a daily basis.
All animals remained on the diet for a minimum of eight weeks after which they were selected for slaughter according to standard commercial practice (target grades R4L or better).
“And we found that breed type and animal sex, along with their interaction, were all significant effects in all parameters except age at slaughter,” said Dr Hyslop.
“In general, LIMx animals grew faster, had a higher killing-out percentage and produced heavier carcasses with a higher conformation and lower fat scores compared to AAx animals.
“Similarly, steers generally grew faster, had a higher kill-out proportion and produced heavier carcasses with a lower fat score compared to heifers.
“AAx animals achieved a commercial price premium averaging 4.6 pence/kg, but due to the carcass characteristics listed above, overall carcass value was £28.90 per head less compared with the LIMx animals,” he added.
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