It may be desirable to change the genetic selection program of cattle to make them produce less myristic fatty acid (alternatively C14:0) in milk and adipose fat, providing food products to consumers with enhanced health attributes. As phenotypic measures on an industry-wide basis are not practical, a genomic test related to levels of C14:0 would provide a viable method to enhance animal selection programs. It is thus important to identify genome segments and nucleotides that control the trait. The study reported herein was able to locate a region of ~250Kb on chromosome 26 that accounted for 26.47% of the phenotypic variation in C14:0. Two of eight haplotypes of this region were found to reduce C14:0 significantly in subcutaneous fat of beef cattle.