Brahman meat quality: A review

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

The Brahman Cattle Breeders’ Society is privileged to be investigating Brahman meat quality. As stated before, this is a priority for the society as the market continues to shift its focus towards a better-quality product for the consumer.

In 2015 the first animals were tested as part of the first cycle of the Beef Genomics Project. Following that first introduction to meat quality traits, the society initiated its own project to test meat quality. However, progress is slow due to the many requirements implemented for these tests, as well as the high cost of the entire process.

In order to arrive at a dataset conforming to the requirements of a BREEDPLAN analysis, the following actions are critical:

• Animals must be slaughtered in contemporary groups of at least five animals, where at least two sires are represented. The reason for this is to allow for comparison; if animals end up in single-animal groups, the data will not be used in the analysis.
• No growth stimulants may be administered, as these products have a significantly negative effect on meat quality.
• Animals must be handled with as little fuss as possible. Elevated stress in animals may cause results such as high pH, abnormal meat colour, and tough meat.
• Measurements at the abattoir should be accurate and taken according to a strict protocol.
• Cooling and transport of the meat samples should be done at exactly the right temperature and time.

The total dataset

From a total number of 250 samples, consisting of six slaughter groups, the Warner-Bratzler shear force (WBSF) values varied between 2,1 and 10,7kg. In layman’s terms this means there were very tender meat and very tough meat. Also note that the aging period was only seven days in all the groups.

According to aging standards, muscles should age for a minimum of 14 days for optimal effect. The majority of aging in the industry exceeds this minimum standard, with average aging periods from 14 days to 35 days.

While Brahman beef production does not focus exclusively on tenderness, but rather aims to include genetic progress in terms of healthy beef and nutritional benefits, etc., it does offer the potential of a good eating experience. The heritability of meat tenderness is stated as being medium to high, so genetic progress can be made relatively fast.

In order to develop an estimated breeding value (EBV) for meat quality traits, a minimum of 1 000 records are needed. After the initiation of an EBV, an influx of information needs to be maintained as accuracies for observed animals will be very low and even more so for non-observed animals.

A measure of meat tenderness for which BREEDPLAN already analyses data, is flight time. This trait is moderately correlated with meat tenderness and not as expensive to measure as shear force, according to various studies done by the Beef CRC in Australia.

The latest meat quality tests

In February 2024 a group of 33 Brahman bulls were slaughtered at the Vencor abattoir in Polokwane. The group was contributed by nine breeders and represented 16 different sires. This contributes towards improved linkage between herds. 

Additional to the tracing of the eye muscle area (EMA), the society contracted Wagyu technical officer, Tanja Pieterse, to scan the EMA after quartering using an MEQ camera. This technology has been used to investigate the accuracy of the images and compare it to the transparencies traced manually directly from the cut sample.

The MEQ camera consists of a smartphone application that uses the phone’s own camera to segment muscle on a carcass’s grading site in real-time. It utilises AI to give the solution stronger integrity as it grades from data-rich video, instead of just from still images, as is the case with other technologies on the market.

Comments

Prof Arno Hugo from the University of the Free State’s Department of Microbial, Biochemical and Food Biotechnology, provided the following comments:

• The average percentage marbling is 1,13% – it ranged from 0,65 to 1,99%, which is very low. To have an effect on meat flavour and juiciness, a percentage marbling of at least 4% is required. Marbling results are very similar to the 2022 experiment.
• The WBSF (tenderness) of the seven-day aged meat samples was very similar (on average slightly lower) as in the 2022 experiment. It ranged from 3,6 to 8,7kg with an average shear force value of 5,38kg. Forty percent of the samples adhered to the retail requirement of 4,6. One must, however, remember that sirloin cuts from all carcasses could have benefited from a longer ageing period. The 2024 carcasses were also slightly heavier (19kg) than the 2022 carcasses.
• A large variation in EMA was observed between individual carcasses. The EMA ranged from 5 400,79 to 9 102,99mm² with an average of 6 896,81mm². A larger EMA has been reported to be associated with more meat on the carcass.
• The pH values of the Brahman carcasses measured by myself ranged from 5,34 to 5,53 with an average of 5,44. The pH for meat of good quality is considered to be from 5,3 to 5,7. Dark, firm and dry meat (dark cutters) often occur at a final pH of above six. A low occurrence of dark cutting meat is a sign of good temperament of animals, good transport conditions and proper handling before slaughter.
• Since quite a large number of measurements were made, I decided to run a correlation analysis between hump height (mm) marbling percentage, WBS and percentage cooking loss. In some countries, hump height is used in the meat grading system. A higher hump height is considered to be negatively correlated with a meat quality parameter such as tenderness. A higher percentage marbling is usually positively correlated with meat quality parameters (Table 1).

None of the parameters included in the correlation analysis were significantly correlated with hump height. It is a positive finding that hump height was not significantly correlated with especially WBSF. Note that in all the groups tested at the University of the Free State, a correlation analysis was done, and in all of the previous analyses the same results were found.

For Southern African Brahman this is good news. Apart from the direct value of meat quality information to our breeders, this would also serve to address the ongoing negative perceptions regarding Brahman meat quality. – By the Brahman Cattle Breeders’ Society of South Africa

For any questions regarding meat quality testing, visit the Brahman Cattle Breeders’ Society website at www.brahman.co.za.