Fat Old Cow (Phase 3)

Summary

Txuleton (pronounced choo-leeton) is a type of beef produced from old cow in the Basque region in northern Spain and is renowned for its intensity of flavour.
The reputation and regard for Txuleton beef has slowly spread from the Basque region locals, to now some of the finest restaurants in the world. This project aimed to investigate whether Txuleton quality beef could be produced under Australian conditions from old cows.

Objectives

• The project origins reflect experience of a specialist production method practiced in Northern Spain where the resulting beef product, Galician Blonde, attracts premiums based on eating satisfaction.
• The beef is derived from aged cows, fed extensively for 18 months post their breeding and milk production life. The product reflects novel production practices at both farm and processing level and has not been previously evaluated within MSA studies.
• The project objectives relate to evaluation of a similar process in Australia utilising aged dairy and beef breed cows, with cuts dry aged post slaughter, supported by formal MSA consumer and observational restaurant evaluation.

Key findings

• The key finding on meat quality is that this production system has a significant positive effect on the intramuscular fat/marble score level.
• Of the 20 carcases analysed, the minimum AUS-MEAT marble score level recorded was 1, the maximum was 7, and a mean score of 2.8.
• The minimum MSA Marble Score was 320, the maximum 950 and the mean score was 492. This is quite extraordinary for old cow beef.

Benefits to industry

There appears to be a significant carcase value add opportunity for older cows as they exit the breeding and/or milking phase of their lives.

MLA action

Findings from the completion of this work will be shared with the broader industry via the publication of this report on the MLA research website.

Future research

The positive effect on the cow meat quality demonstrated in this project warrants further investigation, to determine the parameters (time required on pasture and/or grain, weight gain, fat cover, breed) required to consistently produce high grade beef from older cows.