BEEF consumption in Australia was falling; two excellent reports by Donald MacPherson in 2004 and Laura Mitchell in 2013 tell how the Australians turned things round.

The latest OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) report predicts that beef consumption in the UK will reduce by 15% per person by 2024. It may be worthwhile looking at what the Australians have done on farm to improve sales.

Maybe our EUROP grading system, which rewards lower fat cover and extra muscularity, is leading to consumer dissatisfaction with the steaks they are sold or served.

My own experience, and that of many I speak to, is that our steaks are more variable and often less tasty than those in Australia and North America.

Mention of this in my last article has provoked an extreme reaction from the local meat trade, from some local butchers and a local farmer. John Gilmour, a wholesale butcher, has declared that my knowledge of the red meat sector is zero. Ironically, a great deal of what I do know came from many conversations with him at my own kitchen table when he often told me what he bought and why.

S Withers, a nearby farmer, declares that over a 25year period he has never seen me at the local prime stock market at St Boswells.

How could I possibly know the kind of cattle being traded? We won the championship at the Christmas Show three years ago, another champion was sired by one of our bulls and we regularly receive bulletins, both on paper and on the mart website which gives details of the animals traded, their buyers and their sellers.

Ignorant though I may be according to Mr Gilmour in the treatment of a beast at slaughter and the processing of its meat after that, I have in fact read a great deal about what is involved and have toured several of the most efficient abattoirs in the country where the procedure was explained.

I suspect that my ignorance is rather less than the average consumer who just wants a steak which he enjoys!

Donald MacPherson’s report through the Nuffield Farming Scholarships Trust titled 'Tender, Tasty Beef – Every Time' is comprehensive and ranks the beef industry in Australia and North America 10 to 15 years ahead of our own terms of eating quality.

Laura Mitchell’s report, funded by The Roy Watherston Trust, 'Trip to Australia and New Zealand looking at eating quality based grading systems' is much shorter, however has value in its recency.

Both came to a similar conclusion which is that, disregarding the handling and cooking of the beef which no-one disagrees can enhance or reduce its palatability, a vital part of a five star eating experience is genetic.

This has led to a different mix of popular breeds and different criteria of excellence within the breeds themselves in USA, Canada, Australia and South America, from those in Great Britain. .

The finer points of the meat trade may elude me, however I would certainly claim some knowledge of what lies under the skin of the live animal.

We have ultrasonically scanned between one and two thousand potential sires and dams over two decades for subcutaneous fat, eye muscle area and intra muscular fat or marbling.

What we have found, with some overlap, is that our native breeds, the Aberdeen-Angus and Shorthorn, marble best and our Limousins, as is visually obvious, are more muscular and will yield better at slaughter.

Our own findings correspond with those throughout the world and are reflected in the greater popularity of the Continental breeds in Britain where carcases are graded on the EUROP system than in other countries where judgement is made on eating quality by assessing the marbling in the carcase.

Consumer tasting panels worldwide (Donald MacPherson details one of these involving 55,000 tasters assessing 350,000 samples for tenderness, juiciness, flavour and overall liking) consistently indicate that tenderness is the main quality consumers value in a steak.

The primary enzyme in the meat which speeds up tenderisation by breaking down muscle fibres post slaughter is calpain. Another enzyme in each carcase, calpastatin, inhibits calpain from doing its work.

The more calpastatin in the beast's DNA, the tougher will be its beef. The type of muscle fibre and the presence of connective tissue also have a role in tenderness or toughness.

Within all breeds, there is a significant variation in the level of tenderness. The genes responsible for the level of calpastatin have been identified and in North America, in some of the more popular breeds, this has resulted in an EBV for tenderness in potential seedstock.

After tenderness, the next biggest contributors to a superb steak are juiciness and flavour which are directly correlated with marbling.

Surprisingly, marbling has only a correlation of between five and 15% with tenderness. No individual gene predominates in its influence on marbling so genomic assessment is limited at present.

We do, however, have one significant tool in the box. Unlike with tenderness, we can ultrasonically scan for marbling in the live animal.

Again in North America, an EBV for marbling has been calculated. Their grading system rewards handsomely carcases which display a high level of marbling because of its effect on juiciness and flavour, so this EBV is of the greatest importance when ranches select their bulls.

It is possible, post Brexit, that our beef market will be increasingly accessed by product from overseas. It will probably be cheaper than our own.

The question remains are, as the meat trade say, Scotch (even better local), high welfare standards and traceability enough to keep the consumer happy or must we follow the example of other successful beef producing nations in improving the consistency and flavour of our beef by moving towards a more moderate type of animal.