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  • Effects of feeding flaxseed or sunflower-seed in high-forage diets on beef production, quality and fatty acid composition.

Effects of feeding flaxseed or sunflower-seed in high-forage diets on beef production, quality and fatty acid composition.

Meat science (2013-05-15)
C Mapiye, J L Aalhus, T D Turner, D C Rolland, J A Basarab, V S Baron, T A McAllister, H C Block, B Uttaro, O Lopez-Campos, S D Proctor, M E R Dugan
ABSTRACT

Yearling steers were fed 70:30 forage:concentrate diets for 205 d, with either grass hay (GH) or red clover silage (RC) as the forage source, and concentrates containing either sunflower-seed (SS) or flaxseed (FS), each providing 5.4% oil to diets. Feeding diets containing SS versus FS significantly improved growth and carcass attributes (P<0.05), significantly reduced meat off-flavor intensity (P<0.05), and significantly increased intramuscular proportions of vaccenic (t11-18:1), rumenic (c9,t11-CLA) and n-6 fatty acids (FA, P<0.05). Feeding diets containing FS versus SS produced significantly darker and redder meat with greater proportions of atypical dienes (P<0.05). A significant forage × oilseed type interaction (P<0.05) was found for n-3 FA, α-linolenic acid, and conjugated linolenic acid, with their greatest intramuscular proportions found when feeding the RC-FS diet. Feeding GH versus RC also significantly improved growth and carcass attributes, sensory tenderness (P<0.05) and significantly influenced intramuscular FA composition (P<0.05), but overall, forage effects on FA profiles were limited compared to effects of oilseed.

MATERIALS
Product Number
Brand
Product Description

Supelco
Linolenic acid, analytical standard
Sigma-Aldrich
Linolenic acid, ~70% (GC)
Sigma-Aldrich
Linolenic acid, ≥99%