Meat quality of six endangered cattle breeds native to Norway

The six Norwegian endangered cattle breeds considered in this Master Thesis were close to extinction thirty years ago; fortunately, these cattle populations have been growing steadily in numbers over the past decade. The data show a greater increase in cattle for meat production, although the breeds were traditionally dairy. In detail, in the range 2012-2021 the total population of the six local breeds increased from 2042 to 4489 breeding cows, of which cows kept in suckler/meat production increased from 658 to 3197. The increase in the numbers of local endangered breeds in the decade in which the cattle population nationwide declined by 20 % clearly indicates that local endangered breeds are important resources for the resilience of livestock systems, and that there is an interest in their farming. The above suggests the need to identify the marketing benefits associated with meat production. However, this is a challenge in an industry where red meat has been associated, albeit erroneously, with lifestyle diseases such as colon cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. The study compared the meat quality of the predominant Norwegian Red (NRF) breed with 6 native endangered breeds (Dola Cattle, Eastern Red Polled Cattle, Sidet Tronder and Nordland Cattle (STN), Telemark Cattle, Western Fjord Cattle, and Western Red Polled Cattle). For the purpose, 14 loins per breed were sampled for Warner-Bratzler shear force (WBSF) determination, fatty acid profile and mineral content of the meat.