Study finds market-ready beef cattle maintain meat quality on low-input diet for 60 days.

A new study led by Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences reveals that market-ready steers can maintain their meat quality and yield even when fed lower-cost, low-input maintenance diets for longer periods than previously thought.

This finding is particularly useful to cattle producers and feedlot operators during times of market unpredictability and processing slowdowns, such as those experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the start of the pandemic, social distancing measures and lockdowns led many meat processors to close or scale back operations. As a result, many beef producers and feedlots have had to hold their cattle for extended periods of time in uncertain market conditions and risk financial losses.

The study, led by Virginia Tech School of Animal Sciences working with colleagues at the University of São Paulo in Brazil, they sought to determine whether finished steers could maintain their ability to produce high-quality beef when transitioned and be subjected to less maintenance regimes. costly while markets improved.

The research focused on 16 commercial Angus cross steers, each weighing about 590 kilograms, or about 1,300 pounds. Once ready for market, these steers were fed one of two maintenance rations consisting primarily of forage or grain for 60 days. At the end of this holding period, the cattle were harvested and the quality of the beef was evaluated according to American Meat Science Association standards for color, weight, yield, maturity and marbling. .

The study, published this month in the journal Translational Animal Sciencefound no significant differences in meat quality between the two diet groups.

“Our data shows that beef quality is quite resilient,” said the professor David Gerard, the lead author and director of the School of Animal Sciences. “Despite huge dietary changes, the intrinsic qualities of meat, such as its color and texture, are not affected. This suggests that there is more flexibility in feeding strategies than previously thought “Producers can use this knowledge to better plan and manage marketing decisions without compromising revenue losses.”

Consumers tend to favor beef quality categories, such as premium and choice grades, as well as visual cues of color and marbling in their purchasing decisions. The study demonstrates that even with modified dietary practices, these quality indicators can be maintained for an extended period of time.

Besides Gerrard, Virginia Tech researchers included Jordan Wicks Ph.D. ’23, now an assistant professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Alexis Wivell MS ’24, now a Ph.D. student at University of California-Davis; Mariane Béline, postdoctoral associate; doctoral student Jocelyn Bodmer ’17; doctoral student Con-Ning Yen ’17; Thomas B. Wilson, ruminant nutritionist; Professor and animal science popularizer Scott Greiner; Paul Mellon Professor Emeritus of Agriculture Sally Johnson; and research associate professor Tim Hao Shi. The team also included Morgan Zumbaugh ’16, Ph.D. ’20, who is now an assistant professor in the Department of Animal Sciences and Industry at Kansas State University, and Saulo Silva, a professor in the College of animal sciences and food engineering from the University of São Paulo.