Three methods of assessing the fat finish of marketable beef cattle were compared using Bos indicus crossbred cattle. The methods were: the Queensland Livestock Market Reporting Service, the National Beef Recording Scheme and a modified tactile method (MT) of the Meat and Livestock Commission. None of the three methods was able to predict accurately the fat depth at the 13th rib of the carcass. The highest correlation between finish score and fat depth was r = 0.568 for one operator using the MT method. However, wehn data from the MT method were examined it was found that mean fat depth at the 13th rib increased (P<0.05) with increasing finish score in two of the three liveweight categories studied. It is suggested that scoring individual animals on finish is no more accurate than weighing and allocating them to finish categories on the basis of liveweight
