The increasing sales of beef through retail supermarket outlets has been reflected in specification buying by wholesalers being more apparent. The objective of supermarket buyers is to obtain continuity of supplies throughout the year and this trend is likely to increase. Faced with these requirements producers of grass finished cattle (representing 40 per cent of beef supplies) have little objective information on which to plan their production systems. The limited scientific data available tends to be short-term with little, if any, information available on eventual carcass and eating quality.

A long-term project has therefore been initiated at Edinburgh to examine the effects of production variables on the performance and carcass characteristics of grass-finished cattle within a 20 month beef system. One aspect of this work has centred its attention on providing information on the rates of change (with time) of carcass characteristics, during the grazing season, in relation to breed, sex and variation in grass availability.