The objective of this work was to evaluate the weight gain, feed efficiency and carcass characteristics of dairy steers. Sixteen Holstein dairy steers with initial average age and weight of 20 months and 202,0 kg were used. The animals were divided into four groups. One group of animals was slaughtered at the beginning of the trial (AI) and three groups were ad libitum fed (AL-1, AL-2 and AL-3) and they were slaughtered when the individual weights of 250.0, 300.0 and 350.0 kg were reached, respectively. The diet contained 1:1 forage to concentrate ratio on dry matter basis with 12.48% of crude protein. Feed intake per kg of live weight gain increased as live weight increased, from 250.0 to 350.0 kg. There were no differences in live weight gain among the three groups AL-1, AL-2 e AL-3 (respectively, 1.26, 1.14, and 1.01 kg/day). There were also no differences among the three groups regarding to the proportion of muscle and fat tissues, and bones in the carcass. There was a tendency of decrease in the percentage of bones, as animal live weight increased. No differences were observed among the groups for carcass dressing and their primal cuts yield. Linear regression equations that allowed good estimates of empty body weight, in function of the live weight and of the carcass weight and in function of empty body weight, were obtained.
carcass characteristic; weight gain; prediction equation; Holstein; steer