Carcass Characteristics, Meat Quality and Eating Quality of Culled Dairy Cows

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of breed and marbling score on carcass characteristics, meat quality and sensory evaluation of culled dairy cows (HFF), fattening dairy steers (HFM) and crossbred Charolais steers (CHA) with different marbling score (MBS<3 and MBS≥3). Results showed that the CHA group had greater carcass weight and dressing (%) than the HFM and HFF groups. Rib-eyes area of the HFF group was smaller than the others (p<0.05). HFF beef with MBS<3 had higher fat content than the others (p<0.05) while beef with MBS≥3 of all breeds did not differ in fat content (p>0.05). At MBS<3, CHA beef had higher L*and b* values than the others (p<0.05), but there was no difference in L* and b* values when MBS≥3. At MBS<3, CHA and HFM groups had higher WBSF than HFF group (p<0.05) but at MBS≥3, there was no difference in WBSF among breeds. CHA and HFF beef had notable oleic acid content and MUFA contents (p<0.05), while HFM and HFF beef had greater P/S ratio (p<0.05). Sensory attributes were not affected by breeds (p>0.05). It could be concluded that culled dairy cows had inferior carcass quality compared to Charolais steers and dairy steers. However, the beef of culled dairy cows had no difference in meat color, fat and protein contents in meat, shear force value, or sensory acceptability compared to the others when beef had a marbling score up to score 3. Therefore, culled dairy cows with marbling scores greater than 3 could be an alternative for producing high quality beef.