Animal performance and meat quality of crossbred young bulls

This work was carried out to evaluate animal performance and carcass characteristics of 45 young bulls of three genetic groups: Nellore, 1/2 Nellore × 1/2 European and 1/4 Nellore × 3/4 European finished in feedlot. At the beginning of feedlot, the average bull was 20 (± 2) months old, and average weight body was 356.0 (± 7.9) kg. The 1/2 Nellore × 1/2 European young bulls had greater (P < 0.05) initial weight (381.7 kg), final weight (531.6 kg) and hot carcass weight (279.2 kg) than 1/4 Nellore × 3/4 European animals (334.6; 498.3 and 256.8 kg, respectively) and Nellore bulls (336.4; 446.4 and 234.3 kg, respectively). The crossbred bulls had greater daily weight gain (1.5 kg) as compared to the Nellore group (1.1 kg). However, carcass dressing was similar (52.3%) among groups.The superiority of crossbred animals over Nellore was observed when considering carcass conformation (good vs. regular), carcass length (136.6 vs. 130.1 cm), cushion thickness (26.6 vs. 25.0 cm), fat thickness (3.38 vs. 1.92 mm) and marbling (light vs. trace). The Nellore group had greater leg length (77.9 vs. 72.9 cm), better meat color (red vs. slightly dark red) and greater bone percentage (16.6 vs. 15.6%) than crossbred specimens. The 1/2 Nellore × 1/2 European groups had greater Longissimus muscle area (68.8 cm2) and greater fat percentage (23.9%) than 1/4 Nellore × 3/4 European and Nellore animals. There was no difference in regards to texture (fine) and muscle percentage (62.9%). There was no difference among crossbreds for moisture (73.2%), ash (1.03%) and fat (1.81%) levels. Nellore animals had greater percentage of protein (25.3 vs. 23.8%), total cholesterol (27.5 vs. 23.0 mg/100 g muscle), stearic acid (25.0 vs. 21.6%), transvaccenic acid (1.6 vs. 1.3%) and γ-linolenic acid (0.2 vs. 0.1%) than crossbred specimens. Total saturated fatty acids (49.9%), monounsaturated fatty acids (38.1%), polyunsaturated fatty acids (12.1%), n-6 (10.0%), n-3 (1.7%), PUFA/SFA ratio (0.2) and n-6/n-3 ratio (6.27) in the Longissimus muscle were similar among genetics groups.