Summary

A 2-yr experiment was conducted to compare carcass characteristics and meat palatability attributes of steers (³⁄₄ British, ¹⁄₄ Continental) finished postweaning as calves or yearlings. Calves and yearlings of the same contemporary group were designated to a finishing system at weaning. Calves (n = 73) were finished in the feedlot (191 d) on a high-concentrate diet. Yearlings (n = 84) grazed crop residues after weaning, followed by spring and summer pasture grazing, and concluded with a short finishing period (91 d) in the feedlot. All steers were fed to a constant, fat thickness endpoint of 1 cm. The M. longissimus lumborum steaks from each production system were aged for 7, 14, or 21 d for Warner-Bratzler shear force determination and for 7 or 14 d for in-house sensory panel evaluation. Insoluble, percent soluble, and total collagen were determined. Yearlings produced heavier (P < 0.001) carcasses with larger (P < 0.001) LM areas and lower (P < 0.001) marbling scores and quality grades. Calves possessed greater amounts of total collagen (P < 0.001), with a significantly greater percentage of soluble collagen compared with yearlings (39.72 vs. 24.38%). Calves

No abstract

One hundred eighty crossbred steers were organized in a 2 ¥ 6 factorial arrangement to test the incidence of liver-like off-flavors in cattle finished on wet distillers grains plus solubles (WDGS). Cattle were finished with either 0, 10, 20, 30, 40 or 50% WDGS. Cattle finished with WDGS had heavier carcass weights (except for 50%) and a higher United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) yield grade (P < 0.001 and P = 0.04, respectively). USDA Choice steaks, when compared to Select, had significantly higher trained sensory muscle fiber tenderness scores (5.90 versus 5.39; P < 0.001), less detectable connective tissue (5.01 versus 4.51; P < 0.001), higher juiciness scores (5.24 versus 4.87; P < 0.001) and more intense off-flavor ratings (5.51 versus 5.80; P = 0.002). USDA Choice steaks had a higher percentage of panelists denoted liver-like (P = 0.03) and metallic off-flavors (P < 0.001). Treatment did not significantly influence off-flavor intensity. The frequency of liver-like notes occurred in a quartic fashion; frequencies of liver-like off-flavor were always numerically lower in meat from distillers grain-fed cattle than control cattle. Results from this study indicate that WDGS can be used to finish cattle without causing detrimental effects on the sensory profile. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONSResults from this research suggest it is possible to include up to 50% wet distillers grains plus solubles (WDGS) in the diet of yearling steers with * A contribution

No abstract