J. Anim Sci.
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J. Anim Sci. 1988. 66:2568-2577.
© 1988 American Society of Animal Science
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Factors Affecting Carcass Characteristics and Palatability of Young Bulls1

D. D. Johnson2, D. K. Lunt3, J. W. Savell4 and G. C. Smith4

Texas A&M University and Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, College Station 77843

Abstract

Young bulls (n = 202) of mixed breeding and unknown history were assembled at a commercial feedlot in Trial 1. At random, 101 of the young bulls were castrated. Steers and bulls were subjectively evaluated for frame size, muscle thickness, fat thickness, maturity and apparent breed-type. Bulls and steers (approximately 14 to 15 mo of age) were placed on a high-concentrate diet for 135 d, then transported to a commercial packing plant for slaughter and carcass evaluation. In Trial 2, young bulls (n = 589) that had been fed in commercial feedlots in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas were assigned to apparent British, Brahman or Continental breed-types prior to slaughter. In Trial 1, beef from young bulls was less tender than beef from steers. Aging of steaks from young bulls for 13 d rather than 6 d significantly improved tenderness, as determined by Warner-Bratzler shear force and sensory panel evaluations. In Trial 1, level of marbling was more highly related to loin steak acceptability than fat thickness, sex or breed-type. In Trial 2, carcasses visually sex-classed as "bullock" had coarser lean texture, less marbling, less external fat thickness, heavier hot carcasses and numerically lower USDA yield grades than those classed as "steers." Loin steaks from carcasses designated as "bullocks," as opposed to those called "steers," had higher (P < .05) shear force values after 6 d of postmortem aging but had equivalent shear force values after 13 d of aging. Loin steaks from the Continental-type bull carcasses from Trial 2 had higher (P < .05) shear force values at 6 and 13 d of postmortem aging than did loin steaks from carcasses of Brahman and British-type bulls.

Footnotes

1 Technical Article No. 23180, Texas Agric. Exp. Sta. This study was funded by the Texas Cattle Feeders Assoc, Amarillo and King Ranch, Inc., Kingsville, TX.

2 Meat Sci. Sect., Dept. of Anim. Sci., Univ. of Florida, Gainesville 32611.

3 Texas A&M University Agric. Res. Center, McGregor 76657.

4 Meats and Muscle Biol. Sect., Dept. of Anim. Sci., Texas A&M Univ., College Station 77843.






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Copyright © 1988 by the American Society of Animal Science.