Dissection results from 50 beef type and 50 dairy type carcasses ranging from 280 to 355 kg in carcass weight, with type defined by a panel of retail buyers, identified a small but statistically significant (P < 0.01) superiority of beef carcasses in percent yield of boneless trimmed lean cuts. In terms of potential retail value this amounted to a 2.9% advantage for beef type. There was no evidence that relative distribution of low vs. high value cuts differed between types. Greater bone content (1.7% ± 0.2) and a higher proportion of lean trim (0.7% ± 0.2) were observed for the dairy type carcasses. Regression analyses established that carcass weight and rib-eye area accounted for the largest proportion of the variance recorded for yield and value of the carcass and its component primal cuts. Addition of thickness of round and leg length provided a further reduction of variance for some traits, but the regression equation was not measurably improved by adding any other measurements. Type class per se had predictive accuracy equal to carcass weight and rib eye for percent lean of carcass, but was inferior for predicting value of most of the component primals.