Pre-slaughter behaviour and beef quailty

Behaviour during lairage of 215 steers (7 mobs) and 44 bulls (3 mobs) was observed and related to meat quality measurements. Each individual animal was allocated an activity / temperature scale (ATS, 1 = active; 5 = calm) based on the observer’s impression after half an hour and a dominance scale (DS, 1 = dominant; 5 = subordinate) as determined by two-way win: loss table. Ultimate pH (pHu), meat colour and fat colour was recorded 24 hr post slaughter for each individual carcass. ATS = 1 steers has a trend for higher mean pH (5.64 relative to 5.49), with no significant differences occurring in any meat measurements for DS. Number of mounts in bulls (p<0.05) and the number of wins in steers were related to higher pHu. The inter-relationship of ATS and DS showed an effect on pHu, with ATS = 1 DS = 1 steers showing a rapid increase in mean pHu, with a more gradual rise occurring in DS = 5 animals. These measures of behaviour are of some use in identifying individuals at risk of high pHu and darker meat colour.

Grantor dc:publisher

Lincoln University

Year dc:date

1997

Author dc:creator

• Nichol, Craig G.

• beef
• behaviour
• meat quality
• measurement
• cattle
• ANZSRC::0702 Animal Production
• ANZSRC::070203 Animal Management

Statement dc:rights

• Digital thesis can be viewed by current staff and students of Lincoln University only. If you are the author of this item, please contact us if you wish to discuss making the full text publicly available.

Licence

• https://researcharchive.lincoln.ac.nz/pages/rights

Language dc:language

en

Identifier

Q112853340

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:researcharchive.lincoln.ac.nz:10182/4888