New tech emerging to measure eating quality in live animals

It has long been a dream for the industry to be able to predict the eating quality of live animals, and that dream is close to becoming a reality.

MLA initially partnered with New Zealand-based technology company inMR Measure five years ago to develop an intra-muscular fat (IMF) measurement system for lamb carcases using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), the same technology that is used in MRI systems. This has been a successful partnership, with the first commercial installation expected in early 2025.

Key value drivers

When MLA released an open call in 2022 looking for innovators to develop live animal objective measurement solutions, the inMR team believed their non-invasive technology could be adapted for this use and submitted proposals to develop systems to measure IMF in both sheep and cattle.

These were supported by MLA and both projects have produced exciting results. IMF and marble scores are key value drivers in the beef industry and are beginning to become more sought after in lamb. IMF has been proven to be a key indicator of eating quality in both species, and the ability to measure this on a live animal in a commercial setting creates an opportunity for producers to predict eating quality performance of live animals.

The cattle system was evaluated at the University of New England’s Tullimba feedlot utilising the Southern Multi Breed cattle in partnership with NSW Department of Primary Industries. Results from this project indicated the system has excellent potential to measure IMF in live cattle.

A similar project to assess the potential of the technology to measure IMF in live sheep was also conducted and achieved great results. This is particularly exciting as there is currently no other commercial technology to measure IMF in live sheep, making this a significant step forward for industry.

inMR sheep system

Significant benefits for the industry

These two developments have the potential to create significant benefits for the industry, including but not limited to:

• understanding production over time
• optimising production operations and consignments based on IMF data
• performance prediction early in production
• improved input data into genetic evaluation models.

Both the cattle and sheep systems are still prototypes and require further development to achieve a commercial product. MLA plans to continue partnering with inMR Measure to bring these products to the market to benefit Australian producers.

If you are interested in learning more about these technologies or trialling these solutions as part of future trials, please get in contact with Jack Cook via jcook@mla.com.au.