Dairy beef will never overtake straight beef in Australia: Here's why

In the wake of comments made by an overseas cattle genetics expert at the Australian Dairy Conference this month that already consumers in other parts of the world were showing a preference for dairy beef, industry people said Australia was an entirely different story.

Juan Moreno, from global livestock reproductive services company STgenetics, told the dairy conference in Melbourne that beef off dairy was going to be "more valuable and more expensive than beef off straight beef cattle" due to its ability for uniformity.

"I think we're there already," he said, on the choice consumers were making.

While that might be the case overseas, Australian meat grading professionals told Farmonline it would never occur here.

Where the European beef grading system was based on yield only, Australia boasted the world-leading Meat Standards Australia which incorporated eating quality criteria, they said.

As a result of how farmers are paid in Europe, their beef breeds are heavily muscled, very lean and present a lot of variability in eating quality while Australian producers are also selecting for traits like marbling and tenderness.

Meat trading stalwart and one of the pioneers of MSA, Rod Polkinghorne, said what MSA had delivered in spades was consistent eating quality in Australian beef.

"It's a long bow to draw to say dairy genetics is more consistent," he said.

"The dairy industry has the advantage in that it is nearly all artificial insemination while beef is predominantly natural-bred.

"One of the key reasons MSA was developed was to account for the variance in Australian beef production systems - to allow us to manage the extreme variability under which we produce."

Mr Polkinghorne said MSA was very sophisticated.

"It does a brilliant job of telling the consumer exactly what to expect on an individual meal basis. There is no other grading system in the world that does that," he said.

"It's fair to say very high quality beef can be produced off dairy but not that it is superior or will ever overtake beef from beef only animals here. There is a place for both.

"Take dairy beef in New Zealand for example. It's a fast-growing animal with very little fat - don't confuse that with the best beef.

"It's not bad beef but it's certainly not the best table beef.

"Dairy beef programs around the world are producing good beef but it's not the dairy genetics involved, it's the program. It's much more nuanced than saying dairy genetics have the ability to be more uniform."

Beef retailer Craig Cook, who has close to 20 butcher shops, most of which operate across Sydney under the Prime Quality Meats and The Natural Butcher name, said there was certainly no swing towards dairy beef among consumers in Australia.

"It's an interesting flavour. It's good but not better," Mr Cook said.

"The biggest issue dairy beef has is the perception people have that they are being fed an old cow.

"A few restaurants here are working with a bit of dairy beef but in Australia, we simply have access to such high quality steer and grassfed beef that there is no need to be looking for anything else."

Mr Cook also said chicken would never compete with beef in Australia in terms of the premium it was able to command, and interestingly that was because the poultry sector had overdone the uniformity piece.

Chicken was so bland that as a meal it hinged on the sauce that accompanied it, he said.

That was something Mr Moreno also referred to.

"People are buying beef more for its flavour these days than ever," Mr Cook said.

"They are concerned about preservatives and additives in sauces and want their food to be natural, which beef can deliver on.

"Consumers are learning about different cattle production systems and actively asking for certain things, like grassfed or Wagyu."