Animal acceptance of a protected tallow product (PT) and its effect on performance was evaluated with 180 steers (average weight 350 kg). Animals were assigned by weight and breed stratification to three treatment groups, each replicated twice with 30 animals per pen. Treatments consisted of: (1) a high energy flaked corn and corn silage-based control (C) diet; (2 + 3) partial replacement of flaked corn in the C diet with PT and corn silage to provide (2)5% supplemental fat (medium fat, MF) and (3) 10% supplemental fat (high fat, HF). All diets were formulated to contain equal amounts of metabolizable energy. Live animal performance of steers fed the MF diet was superior (P<.05) to that of the HF-fed steers, as evaluated by the following parameters: feed intake (C, 9.6 kg DM/day; MF, 9.8, and HF, 9.1), live weight gain (C, 1.45 kg/day; MF, 1.50, and HF, 1.38) and feed efficiency (C, 6.61 DM intake/ gain; MF, 6.49, and HF, 6.59). Steers fed the diets containing PT had a lower (P<.05) percentage retail yield based on carcass measurements (C, 50.7% retail yield; MF, 50.0, and HF, 49.9), with dietary fat influencing kidney and pelvic fat percentage the most. The percentage of carcasses that graded Choice or higher did not differ significantly among treatments. Specific gravity measurements indicated that PT-fed steers were fatter (P<.01) than C-fed steers evaluated on a constant carcass weight basis (C, 29.1% empty body fat; MF, 30.7, and HF, 30.4). Animals fed the MF diet ate the most and yielded about 6% more empty body energy (P<.01) than animals given the other treatments (C, 1,759 Meal empty body energy; MF, 1,872, and HF, 1,782). HF-fed steers ate less and were not as heavy at slaughter as C-fed steers but yielded nearly equal amounts of empty body energy.