Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 March 2009
Meat quality comparisons were made between a total of 43 infertile bulls and 42 steers in five separate trials. Tenderness, juiciness and flavour were tested by taste panel for each of the five trials, making 15 subjective tests, while objective tests were made of tenderness (Warner-Bratzler shear) and juiciness (industrial press) in the five trials, making a further ten tests.
From this total of 25 different groups of assessments no significant difference between bull and steer meat was detected in 21; of the four groups of assessments where significant differences were detected, two favoured the bulls and two favoured the steers; the quality of all the samples was acceptable.
It is concluded from the overall results that in terms of practical meat quality there was no difference between the bulls and steers used in these five trials.