Impact of Postweaning Management Strategies on Beef Carcass Characteristics and Meat Quality

The overall objective of this dissertation was to determine the impact of selected post weaning management strategies on beef carcass characteristics and meat quality. The specific objectives were 1) determine the effect of a rumen-protected long chain fatty acids fed during finishing on live performance, serum fatty acid profile, carcass traits, and predicted carcass composition, and 2) determine effects of feeding brassica-based cover crops to cattle during backgrounding on live animal performance, carcass characteristics, tenderness, juiciness, and flavor of strip steaks, and case life of ground beef and strip steaks. Results from both objectives indicate post weaning management strategies do impact carcass characteristics and meat quality. Specifically, the supplementation of rumen-protected long chain fatty acids during finishing increased hot carcass weight and altered blood serum fatty acid concentrations without impacting other meat quality attributes such as marbling score or tenderness. Additionally, feeding steers a backgrounding diet containing brassicas can increase tenderness in early in the aging period and alter case life color stability without impacting subjective palatability or carcass characteristics