Streaming all that diversity into a marketplace where processors want to handle a standard size of carcass and customers expect every steak to be tender and flavourful is a never-ending challenge.
“When you select for certain traits, for example, environmental adaptability, you can also change other traits like production efficiency, in terms of how much feed it takes to produce a kilogram of beef. Even the tenderness of the beef can be influenced by that,” says McAllister.
In environments with high heat stress, such as the southern United States, Brahman and other Bos indicus genetics are favourable in breeding programs.
“Those animals are more heat tolerant and they’re more tolerant of parasites as well, but at the same time then that selection for those environmental traits to be favourably expressed, there’s a reduction in the tenderness of the meat as well because of those genetic effects.”
“The Canadian beef industry works hard to produce beef with consistent tenderness, taste and texture,” he said.
“Those have been some major objectives of the industry, but it’s challenging because of that diversity of genetics that we need to enable cattle to adapt to a broad range of environmental conditions.”
This, he explains, is “why you probably have greater variation in eating quality of a steak relative to if you’re talking about a chicken breast, where pretty well all the chickens are produced in a standard barn, at a standard temperature with standard feed for a standard duration of feeding.”