Table 2.

Carcass traits, age and live weight of Wagyu cross steers that were blood sampled for metabolomics analysis at different days on feed.

	Days on Feed			P-Value
	65	119	163	DOF	Breed	Generation	Sire
No. Animals	69	63	49	—	—	—	—
Aus-Meat Marble Score	6.2 ± 0.56	5.8 ± 0.52	5.9 ± 0.52	0.279	0.404	0.384	0.002
Camera marbling (%)	25.8 ± 2.22	25.4 ± 2.07	24.0 ± 2.07	0.182	0.996	0.599	0.008
Rump Fat (mm)	27.6 ± 1.06A	27.2 ± 0.97A	23.7 ± 1.01B	0.006	0.628	0.520	<0.001
Rib fat (mm)	11.2 ± 0.91A	10.8 ± 0.84A	15.8 ± 0.86B	<0.001	0.799	0.519	0.516
Eye muscle area (cm2)	40.7 ± 0.89A	36.7 ± 0.83B	41.4 ± 0.85A	<0.001	0.567	0.998	0.308
Growth rate (kg/d)	0.99 ± 0.031AB	1.00 ± 0.030B	1.05 ± 0.032A	0.009	0.097	0.009	<0.001
Carcass weight (kg)	428 ± 5.4B	449 ± 6.0A	434 ± 5.2AB	0.007	0.784	0.755	0.044
Age at Induction (days)	688 ± 29.9A	666 ± 28.0A	721 ± 28.0B	0.001	0.021	0.066	<0.001
Age at Slaughter (days)	1111 ± 18.1A	1112 ± 17.2A	1147 ± 18.9B	0.026	0.030	0.065	<0.001
Induction Live Weight (kg)	326 ± 3.1A	336 ± 2.8B	321 ± 2.9A	<0.001	0.373	0.310	0.028
Exit Live Weight (kg)	745 ± 9.0B	783 ± 8.3A	766 ± 8.6AB	0.003	0.816	0.402	0.054
Wagyu content (%)	72.6 ± 0.76	73.2 ± 0.71	73.0 ± 0.71	0.254	0.004	<0.001	0.002

^A,B,CMeans within rows without a common superscript differ (P < 0.05).