The chemical composition of muscles from steers which experienced compensatory growth.

Abstract

AbstractThe psoas major and semitendinosus muscles from ten Hereford Shorthorn steers were analysed. Five of the steers had been severely restricted in their diet during an Irish winter period (temperature range 3–13°) of 20 weeks. The remaining five were used as controls and were adequately fed throughout their lives. After the restriction period the five diet‐restricted animals were adequately fed for 22 weeks. All ten steers were then slaughtered at the age of 20 months.Within each type of muscle there were no significant differences between treatments in the components, moisture, intramuscular fat, total protein, ash, intramuscular collagen, hexosamine hydrochloride, or in Warner Bratzler shear values. The correlations between intramuscular fat and shear values, and between hexosamine hydrochloride and shear values were low and not significant. Collagen contents correlated significantly with shear values at the 10% level of significance.There was no evidence that variation in tenderness (as measured by shear values) could be attributed to the pre‐slaughter treatment or that any deterioration in meat quality was caused by this treatment.