C a r c a s s d a t a are reported in Table 3. No
cluded marbling, texture, color, and firmness.
Significantly h i g h e r ( P < .01) marbling scores
were o b t a i n e d f o r the steers and the 1,000-1b
weights. Steers were subjectively scored higher
(P < .05) in t e x t u r e t h a n bulls, which indicated
t h e y had finer, closer-grained muscles
and consequently were more desirable in this
quality c h a r a c t e r i s t i c . The differences between
texture scores were not as great at 800 lb as
at 1,000 lb and a significant i n t e r a c t i o n ( P <
.05) s u g g e s t s t h a t at the h e a v i e r w e i g h t s the
texture differences were considerably greater.
Hiner (10) r e p o r t e d t h a t the s m a l l e r d i a m e t e r
of beef nmscle and, therefore, the more de-