A taste of alpine pasture

Janne Karin Brodin

Lambs spend their summer grazing in the mountains eating what they feel like from nature’s bounty. This has shown to have an important effect on parameters like tenderness, fatty acid composition and the taste of lamb’s meat

The taste of lamb’s meat varies with the kind of feed the lambs are given in the finishing period. Ending the feeding regime with feed concentrates and silage changes the meat quality compared with that from lambs slaughtered straight from the mountain pastures or finished at home pastures. The duration of the feed period in home pastures also influences meat quality. As well, it turns out that gender influences lamb’s meat quality.

Vibeke Lind

These are some of the findings of Vibeke Lind’s doctoral study, which forms part of a larger -“Arctic lamb’s meat” project at Bioforsk.

The goal of the experiments has been to investigate whether autumn feeding in home pastures influences the taste of the meat after the animals have been grazing in the mountains. Also whether the length of the finishing period and the type of finishing feed have any effect on meat quality as measured by sensory qualities like hardness, tenderness, fattiness, metal taste, rancidity and content of polyunsaturated fatty acids.

Type of finishing feed
Most lambs are slaughtered directly after being collected from mountain grazing. For various reasons, some lambs stay in the home pastures for a shorter or longer period. Results from Lind’s experiments show that the meat quality changes somewhat if the lambs stay in the home pastures for more than four weeks, because these pastures typically contain mostly grass and some herbs and thus offer a less varied diet than mountain grazing.

Finishing on concentrates and silage for more than six weeks quite clearly changed the quality of the meat, in the form of changed taste and fatty acid composition.

Norwegian lamb Photo: Janne Brodin

Taste and gender
Gender influenced meat quality when lambs were finished on ryegrass. Ram lambs had a higher intensity of cloying and rancid taste and a lower intensity of tart and sweet taste when compared with meat from ewe lambs.

When ram lambs are older than five to six months, the sexual maturation process changes the taste of the meat. Lind arrived at the conclusion that ram lambs should be slaughtered at approximately five to six months of age, confirming the Norwegian recommendations.

Best quality
In order to achieve the best meat quality and the best taste, lambs should be slaughter directly after mountain grazing. If the finishing period on home pastures extends for more than a month, the quality and fatty acid composition of the meat may be affected. Finishing on concentrates and silage has an even larger negative effect on meat quality and fatty acid composition.

To avoid reduced meat quality, ram lambs should be given optimal conditions throughout the grazing season in order to be ready for slaughter early in the season.

Vibeke Lind is Danish, 41 years old and from Københvan. She has been working as a researcher at Bioforsk Nord Tjøtta in Trondheim since 1995. She took her Master degree in animal production at Købehavn University in 1994.

The trail lecture and the public defence took place Thursday December 8 2009.

Title of the thesis: Effects of pre-slaughter fattening systems and gender on the sensory profile and fatty acid composition of meat from lamb.

Prescribed subject of the trail lecture: The importance of value-adding (labelling of origin, local specialities, cultural landscape, organic certificaton and rural tourism) of sheep meat products in Norway.

Lind’s main supervisor has been Associate Professor Jan Berg. Associate Professor Lars Olav Eik, IHA and Dr. Svein Eilertsen, Planteforsk Tjøtta have been assistant supervisors.

The doctoral study has been financed by Bioforsk

Updated: 14.12.09
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