Meat quality of calves raised on pastures of the North Caucasus

Abstract

In connection with the increasing requirements for the quality of beef, the need for further technological solutions improvement for the cultivation and fattening of beef calves, aimed at improving meat productivity, ensuring not only the quality, but also the safety of meat, has acquired particular relevance. Data on the production of environmentally friendly raw meat obtained in the foothill zone of Karachay-Cherkessia from the bulls of the Aberdeen-Angus breed in modern conditions of the development of the meat industry are presented in the article. During the growth and development of animals, significant qualitative and quantitative changes occur, associated with an increase in weight and a change in the morphological composition of the carcass. The morphological composition of carcasses, meat yield and its chemical composition in the final period of fattening were studied. When calves reached the slaughter live weight, slaughter was carried out and the meat qualities were studied. Carcass weight was 320.2 kg (carcass yield - 57.2%); boneless beef - 266.7 kg (84.9% of chilled carcass). 58.7% (156.6 kg) of the meat was lean; 30.6% attributed to fatty beef. The moisture content of the combined minced meat was 70.9%; protein - 20.4%; fat - 7.7%; ash - 1.0%. Meat safety was determined from the average sample of minced meat. In terms of chemical composition and safety, beef meets the requirements of the interstate standard GOST 32855-2014 for raw meat. Thus, the maintenance and feeding of young cattle on the foothill pastures of the North Caucasus, used later for meat, provides moderate-intensive and extensive feeding with an insignificant inclusion of concentrates in the diet.

The results of growing meat bulls

“…Production of cattle for slaughter amounted to about 18 thousand tons, or 12.7% higher compared to the previous year. It is practically impossible to solve the problem of the deficit of high-quality dietary beef without beef cattle breeding [1][2][3][4].…”