CARCASS AND MEAT CHARACTERISTICS OF YOUNG STEERS AND HEIFERS, FINISHED WITH SUPPLEMENTATION ON CULTIVATED PASTURE
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5216/cab.v11i1.5131Keywords:
beef cattle, Hereford x Nelore beef tenderness, cultivated pasture, sexAbstract
The objective of the study was to evaluate the carcass and meat characteristics of young castrated steers and heifers. Twelve animals of each sex were used, fed during growth with energetic supplementation on Lolium multiflorum + Avena strigosa cultivated pasture, and finished on Pennisetum purpureum, and slaughtered at fourteen months of age. Farm live weight hot carcass and weight were higher for steers, being of 365.8 and 203.4 kg, respectively, than for heifers being 310.3 and 168.6 kg, in the same order. Males were superior in carcass length (118.1 vs. 111.3 cm), leg length (69.2 vs. 64.1 cm) and in the longissimus dorsi area (58.0 vs. 52.4 cm2). No difference was observed for subcutaneous fat thickness, but heifers showed meat with better marbling (5.58 points) than the males (3.67 points). No differences for sensorial and organoleptical characteristics were observed between the two sexes. In conclusion, excepting relation to weight, young heifers have carcass and meat characteristics similar to males.
KEY WORDS: Beef cattle, Hereford x Nellore, meat tenderness, cultivated pasture, sex.
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