Fatty acid and sensory characteristics of beef from three biological types of cattle grazing cool-season forages supplemented with soyhulls

Over two consecutive years, the effects of allocating divergent biological types of cattle (n = 107) to fescue pasture without supplementation, or fescue or orchardgrass pasture with soyhull supplementation on chemical, fatty acid and sensory characteristics were investigated. Cattle from the two supplemented treatments produced beef that had increased (P < 0.05) percentage lipid and decreased (P < 0.05) polyunsaturated and n-3 fatty acids compared to the control. However, the n-6 to n-3 ratio was still less than four in beef from the supplemented cattle. Additionally, supplementation did not decrease (P > 0.05) the CLA present in the longissimus, which can commonly occur when forage-fed cattle are supplemented concentrates. Although supplementation did not impact (P > 0.05) Warner-Bratzler shear force or tenderness, supplementation of soyhulls reduced (P < 0.05) the grassy flavor intensity of rib steaks when compared to the control. Biological type did not have a significant influence on most traits analyzed in this study. These results suggest that supplementation of soyhulls to cattle grazing forage can reduce grassy flavor intensity without decreasing CLA proportions, but can reduce the n-3 fatty acid proportions present in the longissimus.