Abstract:
The study was conducted to evaluate the effects of aging duration and age on qualities of
major primal meat cuts from beef of Arsi, Boran, and Harar and HF Crossbred bulls. A total
of 24 bulls in two age categories of 2-3 and 4-5 years were used for the study. Before
slaughter experimental animals were managed at experimental beef Farm of Haramaya
University for 90 duration. The bulls were feed 40% concentrate and 60% roughage. After
slaughter the carcass was fabricated and samples of major primal meat cuts were collected
for evaluation. A total of 96 samples from major primal beef cuts from chuck, loin, rib, and
round were collected to evaluate in 5, 10, 14 and 21 aging duration. Beef quality parameters
namely; WBSF, WHC, pH, CL, and color (L*, a*, b*) were evaluated. Factorial split plot in
CRD was used for the study design thus, breed and age were considered as main factor and
meat cuts and aging duration were considered as sub factor and sub- sub factor respectively.
Breed and age had significant source of variation (P<0.05) on qualities of major primal meat
cuts. Boran bulls exhibited lower WBSF than Arsi, Harar and HF- Crossbred bulls.
Furthermore, loin cuts from Boran breeds were the tender over other cuts (WBSF, 25.78N)
however, round cuts from Arsi breed where the toughest cuts (41.61N). WBSF and WHC
significantly (P<0.05) influenced by age of animals. The lowest LSM shear force was obtained
from 2-3 age category than 4-5 age category moreover, loin cut from 2-3 age category was
obtained the lowest WBSF (28.35N) record while, chuck cut from 4-5 age category exhibited
the highest SF (37.64). Aging duration had a very highly significant source of variation
(P<0.0001) on qualities of the present study. Moreover, the result of the present study
highlights the possibilities of using beef from Harar and HF Cross breed cattle for export
purpose to the Middle East countries in addition to beef from Boran breed which was used for
the purpose in the past. The difference in the tenderness of the major primal cuts warrants the
possibilities of introducing cut based pricing in the future.
