Abstract:Context. Uninterrupted nutrient uptake and the use of bulls with high genetic merit for carcass traits may increase the likelihood of producing high-quality retail cuts for different markets. Aim. The objective of this experiment was to evaluate the combined effects of level of nutrition during the 104-day post-weaning winter period (WADG; low-L:0.2 vs high-H:0.6 kg/calf per day) and level of expected progeny differences (EPD) for ribeye area (REA; high-H or average-Av) on carcass traits and retail cuts of Hereford steers. Methods. Three crops of calves (n = 317) were selected according to REA (H-REA vs Av-REA), blocked for weaning weight (WW) and randomly allotted to one of the two WADG treatments (L-WADG vs H-WADG) for 104 days. Experimental design was a completely random block and the treatments were the combination of two factors (2 · 2). After winter (L-WADG and H-WADG groups), all calves grazed on improved pastures (herbage allowance:5% of liveweight (LW) per day). The finishing was done on a feedlot and started when the group average of animals reached a full LW (FLW) of 350 28 kg. Cattle were harvested at a constant final FLW of 525 40 kg. Key results. No interaction was observed (P > 0.05) between WADG and REA for carcass traits. Animals with H-WADG presented higher (P