Short duration lairage boosts productivity and profitability

In Australia, typical lairage time is anywhere between 12 to 24 hours. New research (in a project titled ‘Effect of short duration lairage on ante-mortem inspection, carcase characteristics and microbiological status of feedlot cattle during winter conditions’), led by the University of New England (UNE), has identified short duration lairage (a period of less than 5 hours) could enhance productivity and profitability.

What is lairage? 

Lairage is the period of time from when animals arrive at a processing facility until they are slaughtered.

This period allows animals to rest and recover after transportation and be washed, plus time for vet ante-mortem inspections and the emptying of gut contents.

The time also allows for logistics to be coordinated, particularly from a trucking perspective, and ensures there is enough cattle on-site to meet the daily kill schedule.

Dr Emma Lynch was one of the lead researchers on a project investigating the effects of short duration lairage on carcase weight, carcase characteristics and microbial contamination of feedlot cattle exposed to winter conditions. She also commented on the potential impact of animals being off feed for longer periods.

“Naturally, like in humans, the longer the period of time an animal goes without food while in a new environment, results in increased stress levels. Increased stress results in muscle glycogen levels starting to deplete and a reduction in muscle hydration,” Emma said.

“In the meat business we know that this could result in a decrease in hot standard carcase weight (HSCW) and an increase in the incidence of dark cutters.

“This will begin to affect the carcase yield and overall returns.”

The big question driving this study was “Can we reduce lairage duration to maximise muscle hydration, without compromising food safety?”

What’s been found previously?

There have been previous Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) studies evaluating short duration lairage as well as studies on time off feed and the impact on effluent on trucks with varying lairage durations on feedlot cattle during summer conditions.

One of these previous studies ('Effect of feed withdrawal on truck effluent, animal welfare, carcase characteristics and microbiological contamination of feedlot cattle’) examined feed withdrawal on carcase yield, food safety and truck effluent. This study had a group of just under 5,000 heifers on feed for around 64 days.

“There were four treatment groups with different durations of feed withdrawal,” Emma said.

The withdrawals were zero, four, eight and twelve hours prior to trucking.

“It was found that between the zero to twelve hours off-feed treatment groups, there was only a 0.8 kilogram (kg)/head difference in total effluent captured.

“Reducing that twelve hours by another four hours, the difference was only 0.2kg/head.

“When looking at time off-feed, lairage and HSCW in the same study, there were also advantages discovered. By reducing time off-feed from twelve to zero hours, there was a significant advantage in HSCW of 1.8kg/head.

“Microbial contamination on the carcases was also a consideration. This references things such as total viable counts (TVCs), E. coli, coliforms and Salmonella, etc.

“It was also really important that there were no differences in microbial contamination between the different withdrawal groups,” Emma said.

“This was just one study on feedlot cattle conducted during summer conditions. There are others that also support these findings.”

Do winter conditions make a difference? 

The study which Emma and her team completed in 2024, looked at lairage duration during winter conditions. Previous studies had occurred during summertime. Summer presents greater opportunities for animal dehydration but is known to be less risky regarding cattle cleanliness because of less washing time required.

“We looked at reducing time in lairage to improve carcase weight without impacting carcase characteristics or microbial contamination (on the carcase) from feedlot cattle during winter,” Emma said.

The experiment included three different market categories:

• domestic-fed: total of 1,980 head on feed for 75 days
• mid-fed: total of 1,920 head on feed for 125 days
• long-fed: 768 head on feed for 340 days.

At 10 days before exit, animals were drafted and separated into either typical/overnight lairage duration (approx. 21 hours) or short duration lairage (less than 5 hours in lairage).

“What we saw in the domestic-fed animals was a 2.6kg/head increase in HSCW in the short lairage duration over the normal lairage duration groups,” Emma explained.

Animals from the 125 days on-feed group saw a 4.6kg/head increase in HSCW and long-fed animals saw a 1.6kg/head increase in HSCW when short duration lairage was applied. Significant differences in cold carcase weights were also seen in the domestic-fed and mid-fed cattle, suggesting the increased weight and value is realised through the boning room.

Short duration lairage advantages were seen across all the market categories.

When comparing lairage time differences for dark cutters, mid-fed animals in short lairage saw no dark cutters (pH > 5.7, 0%) compared to normal lairage (pH > 5.7, 2.32 %). The domestic animals in the short lairage saw a proportional reduction of of dark cutters (pH > 5.7, 0.3% ) compared to normal lairage (pH > 5.7, 1.2 % %).

“We also found through testing total viable count (TVC) and E.coli that short duration lairage did not compromise overall food safety.”

It is a strongly held view that clean looking cattle have less bacteria but this is not the case. Additionally, processors are greatly skilled at skin removal without carcase contamination.

Economic impact 

The project also considered the economic impact of short duration lairage.

“We worked through the potential economic impact using a partial budget focusing on the extra feed cost, the same day delivery to have feed available in the morning, the extra kilograms in HSCW and incidences of dark cutting were also taken into consideration.

“Assumptions we made were around labour and processing costs, etc.”

The results from the partial budget resulted in economic benefits for all market categories when cattle were exposed to short duration lairage (less than 5 hours).

Emma acknowledged, “Reducing time in lairage is not possible for a full daily kill schedule. However, if you could reduce any time in lairage to a portion of your daily kill schedule, even if it was 20%, it still works out to be quite a bit of extra money over a year.

“Therefore, any reduction in time off-feed pre-slaughter and reducing time in lairage will increase carcase weights.”