Colour, composition and eating quality of beef from the progeny of two Charolais sires

Eating quality and variation within eating quality attributes of beef from young bull progeny of a Charolais sire of average conformation heritability (CF44) (n = 14) and young bull progeny of a Charolais sire of good conformation heritability (IC27) (n = 16) were examined. The M. longissimus dorsi (up to 12th and/or 13th ribs) was excised 24 h post-slaughter and eating quality attributes analysed at 2, 7 and 14 days postmortem. While progeny muscularity and carcass weight reflected that of each sire, in general no variation was observed in the quality attributes. In addition no significant difference in mean values was evident between sire progenies for carcass and meat quality attributes examined. Significant variation was observed in colour after 2 days ageing, but this was not evident after 7 or 14 days ageing. Average sarcomere length did differ significantly (p < 0.05) between progeny of both sire types (CF44 = 1.87 mum and IC27 = 1.77 mum), but did not appear to impact on tenderness. The similarity between the progeny of the average or good conformation sires examined in this experiment suggests such sires have no effect on the eating quality of their young bull beef progeny. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.