Prosjektleder hos Nofima Mat: Rune Rødbotten Prosjektleder hos IHA: Jan Berg
The main objective for this project is to improve the eating quality of beef produced in Norway. At the moment there is a decrease in domestic beef production which means Norway has to import beef.
By nature our country has large areas of natural land of low alternative value which can be utilized by ruminants to produce meat. Bulls, which dominate beef production today, are not allowed to utilize pasture while steers and heifers are well adapted to grass in these areas. A main objective for this project is to compare meat quality (tenderness) for steers and heifers which have utilized pasture with bulls raised traditionally indoors.
Although bulis have better growth performance than steers and heifers, the meat seems to be tougher. Today the loin muscles are highly priced in the retail market while muscles from chuck and round obtain lower prices although they seem to be more tender. A sub-goal will be to up-grade these tender muscles.
Proteomics will be applied to study degradation of structural proteins from muscles located in chuck and round. So far the majority of proteomic studies have focused on enzymes from loin muscles, less attention has been paid to other muscles. However, more studies are needed to learn which proteins are affected during tenderisation.
Another main objective for this project is to make economic models which estimate cost-benefit for different beef production systems. If carcasses from steers and heifers have a higher proportion of tender muscles than bulls these carcasses should get a corresponding increase in retail price. However, it still remains unkuown whether this value-addition compensates for the increase in production cost. Hopefully this project will show that steers and heifers, which utilize pasture, can be an important source of high quality tender beef.
