Comparison of feeding systems: feed cost, palatability and environmental impact among hay‐fattened beef, consistent grass‐only‐fed beef and conventional marbled beef in Wagyu (Japanese Black cattle)

Abstract

The objective of this article is to compare feed cost, palatability and environmental impacts among feeding systems of high concentrate (HC), high hay (HH) and grass-only-fed (Gof) groups. Feed cost was the sum of costs paid for feed intake times the price of feed per kilogram. Palatability was measured by a panel taste test using HH and Gof beef and analyzed for differences. Environmental impacts were calculated based on 1 kg of Japanese beef yield of CO2 equivalents (eq) and animal end weights at each feeding stage. Results showed that the HH and Gof feeding systems could significantly reduce feed costs by approximately 60% and 78%, respectively, from the HC. In the panel taste test, 50% and 47.50% of panelists indicated that HH beef was 'extremely delicious' and 'acceptable,' respectively, while 15% indicated that Gof beef was 'extremely delicious'; 62.50% indicated that Gof beef was 'acceptable.' Environmental impacts of each feeding system in terms of CO2 equivalents (eq) were 9.32, 6.10 and 2.04 tonnes of eq for the HC, HH and Gof, respectively. The HH was an economical system that produced moderate impacts on the environment and had impressive taste.Key words: environmental impacts, feed cost, grass fattening, palatability, Wagyu. INTRODUCTIONCompared to European cattle, Japanese Black cattle have good potential to accumulate intramuscular fat called 'Shimohuri' (Gotoh et al. 2009). In the Japanese beef market, marbled beef from Japanese Black is quite popular and expensive. However, in Japan, recent attention has focused on oil prices, food mileage and environmental issues (e.g. greenhouse gases, global warming). Japan annually imports a large amount of food and animal feed equal to approximately 58.9 million tonnes throughout the world. This is equivalent to 914 billion tonnes-kilometers (t-km), or 1.6 times the yearly shipment, in terms of food mileage (Nakata 2003). In 2007, more than 24 911 960 million tonnes of grain feed were imported to Japan, and 4 564 228 million tonnes were specifically for beef cattle (USDA 2009). The Japanese beef cattle industry is highly dependent on imported feed to produce domestic marbled beef. According to these figures, beef production in general has high production costs, especially due to feed and labor costs. As a result, domestic beef can be more expensive than imported beef, making it unaffordable for consumers. Nakata (2003) also reported that feed materials have been transported from many countries with an average of 15 000 km based on the distance between Tokyo (Japan) and Cape Town (South Africa). Feedstuff production and grain transportation consume fuel energy and emit harmful gases into the environment. Feedstuff is considered a source of environmental pollution associated with beef production systems. Moreover, cattle and their waste also create environmentally harmful gases that are distributed into their French et al. (2001French et al. ( , 2003 reported that the beef carcass weight could increase even when animals are fattened by silage grass d...

Consumer Acceptability of Intramuscular Fat

“…Many Asian consumers prefer moderate amounts of IMF in the meat they purchase, whereas visible fat is unpopular with Western (e.g., Europe, Australia) consumers. The amount of IMF within beef muscle varies widely depending on animal breed or genetics (Barendse, 2014; Hocquette et al , 2014; Widmann et al , 2011), the nutrition system (pasture or grain) (Duckett et al , 2013; Sithyphone et al , 2011; Van Elswyk and McNeill, 2014), animal maturity and weight (Duckett et al , 2014; Frank et al , 2016), primal (Pavan and Duckett, 2013) and other factors. Marbling describes the small flecks of visible fat deposited between individual muscle fiber bundles.…”

Metabolic Profile of Japanese Black Breeding Cattle Herds: Usefulness in Selection for Nutrient Supplementation to Enhance Reproductive Performance and Regional Differences

“…On the other hand, in rural areas of Japan, such as in the study area included in the current study (the Osumi Peninsula, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan), most of the breeding beef cattle herds are fed hays collected from their home pastureland. Recently, the importance of this beef-forage production system of Japanese Black cattle has been re-recognized, because it contributes to improved nutrient utilization (ecological aspect) and reduced cost of commercial feeds (economical aspect) [17,20]. However, no evaluative study has been conducted to investigate the nutritional adequacy of forage collected from the home pastureland.…”

Effect of different early weaning regimens for calves on adipogenic gene expression in Hanwoo loin at the fattening stage

“…Usually this EW strategy involves maintaining a high concentrate diet for a short period before allowing the cows to forage freely in the fields. The EW strategy has been successfully used for Japanese Black cattle (Sithyphone et al, 2011). According to Moriel et al (2014b), steers fed high-concentrate diets at 177 vs. 213 days of age showed larger marbling scores.…”

“…Supplying appropriate nutrition can enhance the calf's performance during early life and consequently, improve the production limit providing distinctive opportunities to optimize feeding strategies and increase the profitability of beef cattle production. Some studies have already suggested that exposure to high grain diets for early weaned (EW) calves leads to greater fat deposition and increased marbling scores and carcass quality at slaughter (Myers et al, 1999a, Myers et al, 1999bSithyphone et al, 2011;Moriel et al, 2014aMoriel et al, , 2014b.…”