Meat Colour and Texture:

Comparative Studies into the performance of South Devon crosses conducted by the United States Department of Agriculture at the Meat Animal Research Centre, Clay Centre, Nebraska.

In 1994, Shackelford et al.. compared the colour and texture of the longissimus muscle from 3641 beef carcasses from 21 different beef breed crosses.

Mean colour scores ranged from 1.82 for Angus crosses to 2.85 for Chianina crosses, with the lower scores representing lighter coloured meat. South Devon crosses averaged 2.09, and were ranked eighth behind the Angus crosses.

Mean texture scores ranged from 1.80 for Angus crosses to 2.66 for Piedmontese crosses, with the lower scores representing finer textured meat. The mean score from the South Devon crosses was 1.88 which was not significantly different from that of the Angus crosses.

These results confirm the ability of South Devon infused cattle to produce quality meat which is both lighter in colour and finer in texture than most other breeds, and which closely resembles that produced by Angus.

Reference:

Shackelford SD, Koohmaraie M, Wheeler TL, Cundiff LV, Dikeman ME. Effect of biological type of cattle on the incidence of the dark, firm, and dry condition in the longissimus muscle. J.Anim.Sci. 1994; 72:337-343. Back