The carcass quantitative characteristics of feedlot finished Charolais or Nellore steers, receiving three levels of concentrated in the diet: 35; 50 and 65%, were evaluated. Sorghum and corn silages were used as roughage. A significant interaction (P<.05) between treatment and genetic group for subcutaneous fat thickness (EG), EG per 100kg of carcass (EG100) and arm length was observed, where no effect of the concentrated level (NC) was observed on EG (3.33mm) and EG100 (1.7) for Charolais steers, while for Nellore steers the regression equation was quadratic for these two characteristics (EG = 23.62 - 0.759NC + 0.007NC²; EG100 = 14.51-0.473NC + 0.004 NC²). For arm length, Nellore steers had any variation (38.97cm), while on Charolais steers, had linear addition with the increment of the concentrated level in the diet (CBR = 31.98 + 0.098NC). Any effect (P>.05) of the concentrated level for the others characteristics studied was observed. The Charolais steers had presented higher slaughter weight (372.2 versus 325.6kg), hot carcass (201.1 versus 180.0kg) and cold carcass (196.6 versus 175.5kg), saw cut weight (52.0 versus 43.6kg) and side cut weight (42.4 versus 11.0kg), carcass length (118.4 versus 111.8cm), cushion thickness (25.4 versus 23.3cm), arm perimeter (39.1 versus 34.6cm), conformation (11.3 versus 9.5 points), Longissimus muscle area (66.4 versus 53.8cm²) and saw cut percentage (52.0 versus 49.4%). The Nellore steers presented higher leg length (68.5 versus 58.1cm) and fore quarter percentage (38.1 versus 35.5%).
charolais; subcutaneous fat; Nellore; dressing carcass
