When discussion happens among farmers around beef eating quality, it often descends into a debate about breed, and the assumption that extreme beef breeds are bad, and traditional breeds are good.

A new meat eating quality index launched by the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF), partly backs up this claim, with Hereford and Angus bulls coming out top for tenderness, flavour and juiciness. Presumably that is due to higher levels of intramuscular fat within the muscles of these particular breeds.

But beef eating quality is a complex issue that is driven by a multitude of factors, of which breed is only one. And while more fat on the carcase might improve the eating experience, the reality is that the majority of local consumers look at it very differently, and most will chose a lean cut every time.

Customer satisfaction

But perhaps the most important question to be answered is whether there is an issue with the eating quality of local beef. Beef processors make the point that they receive very few complaints from customers, and with various techniques used, such as electrical stimulation, hip hanging and maturation, it helps remove any variation due to pre-slaughter differences such as sex or breed.

It is also the case that nearly every animal on a farm in NI is within one hour of an abattoir, so pre-slaughter stress should not be an issue.

However, Professor Nigel Scollan from QUB argues that there is a significant degree of variability in beef eating quality.

He advocates a new approach based on Meat Standards Australia (MSA), which has developed a model to predict the eating quality of individual cuts.

To implement a similar model in NI would come at a cost for both processors and farmers, that would have to be recovered in higher prices from the market. That might be possible, but firstly we need to be sure that there is a problem to be solved in the first place.

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