It will be to the benefit of the feedlot industry if poor performing feeder cattle can be identified at an early stage during fattening and eliminated. This would require a close relationship between early performance and overall performance in the feedlot. The data of 280 steers in three experiments involving 19 treatments were used in analysis. Less than 40% of overall live mass gain was explained by the variation in the live mass gain in the first 5 weeks, whilst no consistent pattern in feed intake and feed conversion emerged which could be used in prediction.