Abstract: The indices of bovine growth traits, meat quality traits and carcass traits were studied to analyze the correlation within/between the 3 groups and reveal the interaction between traits in each groups. The phenotypic values of 17 traits from 327 steers were used to analyze the correlation in-depth study by ordinary correlation analysis and canonical correlation analysis. A total of 74 pairs of traits were highly significant ordinary correlation between 17 traits (P<0.01), and most correlation coefficients were below 0.5.The canonical correlation analysis showed that highly significant correlation coefficients of the first、second and third canonical correlation were obtained between the 3 groups(P<0.001). The first and second canonical correlation coefficients between growth traits and meat quality traits, growth traits and carcass traits, meat quality traits and carcass traits were 0.525 and 0.350，0.993 and 0.623，0.698 and 0.394, respectively. The canonical correlation analysis can more accurately reflect the correlation between traits of 3 groups than ordinary correlation analysis, and benefit for breeding and selecting of beef cattle.

Key words: cattle; growth traits; meat quality traits; carcass traits; canonical correlation; ordinary correlation