New MSA index targets better beef

That was the key message from WA beef researcher Peter McGilchrist, Murdoch University, at the SA Beef Producer Forum at Hahndorf.

He said eating-quality-focused research projects involving producers, livestock transporters, processors and even wholesalers, were important to get it right.

Projects included looking at the impact of acute and chronic stress on eating quality, the development of an accurate yield index using CT carcase scan data, rolling out the new MSA index, improving the predictability of cut-by-cook eating quality in MSA, reducing the seasonality of dark cutting, and examining the genetic and economic impact of EBVs on the MSA index.

Dr McGilchrist said that despite many years of research, dark cutting - which arose from low glycogen levels at slaughtern - remained one of the main reasons for MSA non-compliance.

In 2012-13, 4.8 per cent of the 2.4 million cattle graded in Australia were dark cutters but he said the industry needed to strive to reduce this to 1pc in line with its international competitors.

Analysis had shown there was a huge variation between the best and worst producers but with an average discount of 50 cents a kilogram it could be a huge cost.

He used an example of one SA producer who lost an estimated $454,000 through a 52pc incidence of dark cutting in the 7352 cattle they had consigned over a four-year period.

"There are others that are only having 1pc or 2pc dark cutting so we need to work with these producers to find out what they are doing that others aren't," he said.

The University of Adelaide, Department of Agriculture & Food WA, and Murdoch University had started a three-year MLA funded project into MSA compliance which would examine nutritional strategies to overcome the seasonality of spikes in dark cutting levels in late summer and early winter.

The economic viability of using energy additives such as grain or pelleted rations, magnesium oxide supplements, and the effect of higher protein levels at these critical times of the year, would be explored through producer demonstration sites.

* Full report in Stock Journal, June 5, 2014 issue.