Steers from the Iowa Beef Tenderness and Carcass Evaluation Project were harvested and carcass data, including Warner-Bratzler shear force values, were collected. The heritability estimate of tenderness in this data set was .04, and the phenotypic correlation between tenderness and marbling was -0.26. Steers with more intramuscular fat were more tender. The data set used to develop this heritability and correlation is very small. If additional data result in a low estimate, it may not be cost effective to progeny test sires for tenderness.