Sire Selection and Meat Quality

Abstract

Today's beef industry primarily is "consumer driven." This means that consumers have certain expectations for the quality and price of beef, and that demand will decrease if those expectations are not met. Beef processors, purveyors, and retailers also have certain expectations for the cattle, carcasses, and boxed subprimal cuts they purchase for processing. Cattle have to be fed to a certain level of fatness in order to have a high dressing percentage and to express their genetic potential for marbling. However, the relationship between fatness and marbling (quality grade) is not very high. In the U.S. beef industry, marbling receives considerable emphasis as a determinant of beef quality and it has a greater effect on value differences among carcasses and cuts than does meat yield percentage. There is a genetic antagonism between marbling and meat yield percentage that must be managed in cattle production, especially for the large "retail" quality target. Although over simplified, there are three primary beef quality targets for which cattlemen should aim. In producing beef for the "white tablecloth" quality target, breeds that have high marbling potential, such as Angus and Red Angus, are best suited. In this target, meat yield percentage will be compromised. In producing beef for the "lite/lean" quality target, high percentage Continental breeds that yield a high percentage of meat, such as Limousin, Charolais, Simmental or Gelbvieh, are best suited. In this target, tenderness and other palatability traits will be compromised to some extent. In producing beef for the large "retail" target, crosses of Continental breeds, such as Charolais and Simmental, with British breeds, such as Angus and Red Angus, work best to manage the genetic antagonism between marbling and meat yield percentage. This system "optimizes" meat quality and meat yield percentage and is a very efficient production system. Because marbling is not an accurate predictor of tenderness, selecting directly for tenderness would be more effective. Expected Progeny Differences (EPDs) of Warner-Bratzler shear force, an instrumental measure of cooked meat tenderness, have been published by several U.S. beef cattle breed associations for the most widely used sires in those breeds. These EPDs resulted from a national project coordinated by the National Cattlemen's Beef Association in the U.S. to improve carcass traits and meat palatability genetically. Preliminary results from this project also suggest that, in the future, DNA "marker" analysis could be used as a selection tool for carcass and meat traits. Cattlemen should select sires from breeds that excel in the carcass traits of interest and that have relatively accurate EPDs for those traits.