Carcass and meat palatability breed differences and heterosis effects in an Angus-Brahman multibreed population

Additive genetic Angus-Brahman differences, heterosis effects, and least squares means for six carcass and six meat palatability traits were estimated using data from 1367 steers from the Angus-Brahman multibreed herd of the University of Florida collected from 1989 to 2009. Brahman carcasses had higher dressing percent (P<0.0001), lower marbling (P<0.0001), smaller ribeye area (P<0.0001), and less fat over the ribeye (P<0.0001) than Angus carcasses. Brahman beef was less tender (P<0.0001), had more connective tissue (P<0.0001), and it was less juicy (P<0.001) than Angus beef. Heterosis increased hot carcass weight (P<0.0001), dressing percent (P<0.017), ribeye area (P<0.0001), fat over the ribeye (P<0.0001), and kidney, pelvic, and heart fat (P<0.01) in Angus-Brahman crossbred steers. Results indicated that crossbred animals with up to 50% Brahman showed limited negative impact on meat quality while maximizing meat yield due to heterosis.