Three trials involving 34 half carcasses evaluated meat sawdust as a predictor of carcass chemical composition. Sawdust was defined as (a) the material that collected inside and on the table surface of a band-type meat saw and (b) the material which could be readily removed from sections produced by sawing through the carcass at 2.54 cm intervals at the angle established by and parallel to the cut surface of the longissimusmuscle at the 12th to 13th rib separation.In trial 1 with 20 bull carcasses averaging 282 kg, correlations between the chemical composition of the carcass and of tissue sawdust were 0.82, 0.94, 0.64 and 0.68 for moisture, fat, protein and ash, respectively. Least-squares means for these components were similar.Twelve carcass sides from six Holstein calves averaging 138 kg were used to evaluate two storage methods (chilling vs.freezing) and two types of sawdust (cross section vs.retail cut) for estimating carcass composition.