## 1 Introduction  
In Germany, the classification of beef carcasses focuses almost exclusively on the European EUROP system, which includes the semi-quantitative estimation of conformation and fat score according to weight, age and sex of animal [1]. This system was developed in different European countries as a basis for common trade of carcasses and to have comparability in the amount of saleable meat from each carcass [2]. Although limitations and disadvantages of the EUROP concept have been criticized at length for the subjectivity of the assessment and having no link to meat quality traits [1, 3, 4], German industrial beef classification still disregards quality attributes such as marching scores and the instrumental assessment of carcass traits in the slaughter line. Furthermore, European beef breeders primarily produce highly musced beef carcasses with moderate fat, which is well known for contradicting sensory quality attributes [1, 3]. As the subjective assessment of carcass conformation no longer fulfills the increasing demand for quality attributes on the European market, [PERSON] et al. [1] and [PERSON] et al. [3] emphasized the need for additional traits and the implementation of objective systems to better classify, and in the long term, increase the value of high-quality beef carcasses within the industrial slaughter line. It is not by accident that marching has become the determinant trait in international beef grading systems as it is highly correlated to the sensory traits of juiciness, tenderness and flavor of meat [5; 6; 7]. In Australia, Japan, the United States (US), Canada and South Korea, grading systems based on yield and quality grades, including video-image analysis (VIA)-based solutions, have been implemented since the 1980s to assess carcass traits at different rib positions of _longissimus thoracis_ within the slaughter line without any destruction to the carcass [8; 9; 10; 11]. As the demand for highly marbled beef increases in Germany, and at least a few European countries are already trying to explore improved grading schemes based on Meat Standards Australia (MSA) [12] for the assessment of carcass traits, the need for a viable solution for the assessment of marbling score as well as yield grade is evident. Besides a general hesitation to include meat quality traits in the EUROP classification system, the use of video-image analysis in the German process line is also hampered by varying cutting positions. While US beef carcasses are ribbed and graded at the 12 th/13 th rib position of _longissimus thoracis_, the German beef market does not demand any standard rib-eye cutting position. carcass cuts differ due to regional and marketing reasons as well as different processing steps [13]. Therefore, comparability of quality and yield traits between European carcasses is not given. To adapt the VIA system to different cutting systems, information about the comparability of assessed marbling scores at different positions is necessary, but has been insufficiently studied [14; 15; 16; 17; 18]. Instead, most recent research is concerned with the comparison of intramuscular fat content and visual appraisal of marbling. In a previous study, the correlation of VIA marbling scores at the 10 th/11 th rib-eye position and the 12 th/13 th rib-eye position was assessed on carcasses of young heifers [18]. But as this study included only carcasses of heifers, information about marbling scores of bulls' carcasses representing the German industrial beef market is needed. As the German beef market is mainly dominated by carcasses of young bulls and heifers only represent a small number of carcasses slaughtered in Germany, additional information about marbling scores and yield grade traits from carcasses of bulls which differ in conformation score to optimize the validation of the VIA system is inevitable.