How feeding for flavour starts with nutrition in the paddock
- niamh552
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
Behind every bite of grain fed beef is a science-backed nutrition program designed to support animal health, optimise growth, and elevate eating quality for consumers.
While genetics and maturity set the foundation for meat quality traits like marbling and tenderness, nutrition plays a vital role in helping cattle reach their full potential, from their performance in the paddock to the flavour on your plate.
To understand more about the role of nutrition, we spoke to leading livestock nutritionist and production consultant, Rob Lawrence from Integrated Animal Production (IAP) Nutrition. Based out of Tamworth, Rob works with an extensive client base of grain fed producers across Queensland, Northern New South Wales and Western Australia, helping them achieve optimal performance through diet.
Feeding the animal and the microbes
Unlike humans or other monogastric animals like pigs and chickens, cattle rely on the microbial population in their rumen to ferment and break down feed before it gets digested in their actual stomach. That fermentation process is what allows them to convert a high-fibre diet into usable energy and protein.
“For high performance, cattle need the right balance of energy and protein in the rumen, and cereal grain provides the most efficient source of fermentable energy.”
“What I try to do is make the energy as high as possible with grains, but then I need to account for ensuring there's enough fibre in the diet to promote rumination. After that, depending on the animal itself, you know, their age, their turn-off weight and what market they are going to, we then might have to look at incorporating additional protein into the feed. However, Australia is primarily based on winter cereals (wheat and barley), which are grains that generally have sufficient protein, so we don't often need extra protein sources.”
Nearly 90% of protein needs are met by feeding the microbes in the rumen, not the animal directly. Therefore, a healthy rumen microbiome is essential, more chewing leads to better fermentation, faster passage of feed through the digestive system, and improved energy extraction from the diet, all of which support consistent weight gain.
“Simply, if the rumen is not working well, then the cattle are going to have digestive issues.
As a welfare issue, an animal health issue and a production issue, grain fed producers cannot afford to have animals with digestive upsets.”
Creatures of habit = fussy eaters
Maintaining a consistent feed is key to flavour and animal wellbeing, but also one of the biggest operational challenges for grain fed producers. Cattle thrive on routine, and even minor changes in feed formulation, moisture levels, or aroma can reduce intake and disrupt digestion.
“The cattle are fed each day, so that means that producers have to have all the right proportion of ration ingredients on site to produce the same fresh feed every day. It's like making a cake. The same cake every day.”
“However, one of the challenges of grain fed production is that cattle are creatures of habit. They love being the same, so they’re extremely fussy. Any variation, variation in ingredients, variation in how the ingredients are manufactured, how the rations are delivered, or even a weather change, can cause problems with feed intake.
“The longer the cattle are on feed, the fussier they become.
I’ve had clients using the exact same ration for five years, because the fewer changes you make, the better."
Fat is flavour
When it comes to flavour, it’s all about fat, driven by weight gain. In grain fed cattle, energy-dense rations help deliver this result consistently.
Once the animals' maintenance requirements and growth potential are met, any extra energy available is stored as fat. This is deposited either as subcutaneous fat (under the skin), intermuscular fat (between muscles) and intramuscular fat (within muscles, known as marbling).
“Some flavours are created when you cook the meat because you’re affecting the protein, but the majority of the different flavour characteristics come from the fat itself and the different fatty acid compositions within the beef.”
“We want the cattle to eat above their maintenance energy level to gain weight. As the animal eats higher and higher levels above maintenance energy, they eventually hit a biological limit to how much protein can be deposited. When the limit is exceeded, the excess energy turns into fat.”
But the real magic happens at a cellular level.
As animals approach maturity, marbling cells begin to fill. The presence and activity of specific enzymes, like stearoyl-CoA desaturase (SCD), influence how that fat is deposited. SCD, for example, converts saturated fats into monounsaturated fats, which are softer, have a lower melting point, and contribute to that delicate “snowflake” marbling appearance and buttery flavour consumers love.”
What cattle eat can influence fat colour and flavour too. Grain diets contain very little active carotenoids (natural pigments found in green plants), which results in the bright white fat associated with high-quality grain fed beef. It’s also not just the amount of fat, but its composition.
“Interestingly, while grain fed diets provide the energy needed to express these flavour traits, the components of the diet (such as oils or fats) are transformed during rumen fermentation. This means it's the animal’s enzymes, not the feed’s fat profile, that determine the final composition of deposited fat and therefore end flavour.”
“The rumen’s anaerobic environment changes the fat, and this environment can vary among breeds.
That’s why we can taste different flavour profiles depending on the breed.
For example, Wagyu, which has enzymes that convert saturated fats into unsaturated fats, produces richer and more complex flavours than other breeds.”
Socialising to support flavour and wellbeing
Beyond the science, practical cattle management matters too, as this can also affect feed intake. Cattle are social creatures, and therefore, they must have the space to develop herd mentality to support feeding behaviour and health outcomes.
“If you bring cattle from all different backgrounds together, they have to adapt to the change in group dynamics, which can affect their appetite.
If they’ve grown up together, they’re more resilient.
It’s all about minimising stress and letting cattle do what they do best, routinely socialise and eat.”
To support socialising and positive herd dynamics, grain fed operations have pre-conditioning and backgrounding programs that enable them to effectively create cohesive and robust groups of cattle.
Balancing nutrition, health, and welfare
In the world of grain fed beef, nutrition is performance, and flavour starts long before it hits your plate. It’s the result of expert nutrition, thoughtful management of the cattle, and a deep understanding of ruminant biology.
“The diet is one thing, that is trying to make sure feed intake is as high in energy as possible to promote peak performance, but at the same time, we've got to be respectful that the cattle are ruminants.
That’s why the grain fed feeding system has been designed to match cattle’s natural feeding activity
and their unique digestion, which is a daily feeding pattern at sunrise and afternoon, and chewing cud at midday.”
With each grain-based ration delivered, feedlot teams and nutritionists are nourishing not just efficient and healthy weight gain, but a consistent and quality eating experience for both the cattle and consumers.
