Abstract:

In order to study the beef traits and beef quality of Jiaxian Red bull with crossbred beef cattle, 5 purebred Jiaxian Red bull, 5 Red Angus cattle×Jiaxian Red bull F1 generation, 5 Simmental cattle×Jiaxian Red bull F1 generation and 5 Charolais cattle×Jiaxian Red bull F1 generation were chosen and assigned into groups A,B,C and D for continual finishing for 3 months of age under the same feeding and management conditions and slaughtered at the end of the trial. The results showed that there were no significant difference in body height, body length, chest girth and cannon circumference between Red Angus cattle×Jiaxian Red bull F1 generation and purebred Jiaxian Red bull, the same as in Charolais cattle×Jiaxian Red bull F1 generation (P>0.05). The weight of head, skin, fore hooves and tail, the skin thick, esophagus, trachea, liver, spleen, lung, kidney, and carcass meat percentage, loin eye area and the meat bone ratio in crossbred beef cattle groups were not significant differences compared with purebred Jiaxian Red bull (P>0.05), but its hind legs wide in carcass was significantly higher than that of purebred Jiaxian Red bull (P<0.05). The high-grade meat weight and high quality meat weight in Red Angus cattle×Jiaxian Red bull F1 generation were 70.22 and 105.22 kg, respectively, and was the highest in four groups,but the high-grade beef percentage among four groups did not show significant differences (P>0.05). The high quality meat percentage in Red Angus cattle×Jiaxian Red bull F1 reached 34.43%, was significantly higher than that of Jiaxian Red bull and Simmental cattle×Jiaxian Red bull F1 generation (P<0.05), and was higher than that of Charolais cattle×Jiaxian Red bull F1 generation (P>0.05). In terms of meat quality, the content of inosinic acid that related with the meat flavor in Red Angus cattle×Jiaxian Red bull F1 was the highest in four groups, while the content of unsaturated fatty acid and the flavor related amino acid, such as aspartic acid, glutamic acid, glycine and alanine, in Charolais cattle×Jiaxian Red bull F1 were the highest in four groups,and their values were 53.85% and 8.04%, respectively. To sum up, the results suggested that there was no significant difference in body development and beef traits using Red Angus cattle, Simmental cattle and Charolais cattle to improve Jiaxian Red bull, while Red Angus cattle crossbred with Jiaxian Red bull could moderately improve the weight of high-grade beef and high-quality beef, and Charolais cattle could moderately improve the beef quality of Jiaxian Red bull.

Key words: Jiaxian Red cattle; cross breeding; beef traits; meat quality