Lucerne-derived flavour in sheep meat as affected by season and duration of grazing

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Abstract
Merino wether lambs and yearling sheep grazed irrigated lucerne or grass pastures in the period immediately before slaughter. Some of the sheep grazed continuously on the lucerne or grass for up to 6 months, while others grazed grass and then lucerne in the 4 weeks immediately before slaughter, over this same period. A laboratory taste panel compared the flavour of the meat from the grass and lucerne-fed sheep.The intensity of the flavour characteristic of cooked meat from lucerne-fed lambs or sheep was found to increase in intensity with increasing length of time of grazing the legume. In addition, both 4-week and continuous-lucerne grazing treatments exhibited significant seasonal effects, in which the intensity of the lucerne-derived taint was found to vary throughout the year, with a maximum intensity appearing when lucerne was grazed in the cooler months.