To characterize the production performance and meat quality of Xiangxi cattle at its different ages, three age groups(6, 18 and 30 months) were selected from the national conservation farms, with 10 cows in each group. Body size, slaughter performance, meat quality, amino acid and fatty acid contents were measured. The results showed that there were significant differences in production performance indexes at different ages(P<0.05) except for 6 and 18 months tube circumference, tail circumference, tail length and 18 and 30 months tail length. With the increase of the monthly age, the slaughter performance of cattle improved gradually, and the slaughter rate reached 49.98% at the age of 30 months. The moisture, crude protein, crude fat and ash mass fraction of Xiangxi cattle beef were 73.80%-76.55%, 20.45%-23.05%, 1.18%-3.75% and 1.00%-1.10%, respectively. The contents of Cu, Fe and Zn were 0.49-0.65, 10.26-17.85, 25.45-34.78 mg/kg, respectively. The differences in the contents of moisture, Cu, Fe and Zn between the 6 months and 18 months were statistically significant(P<0.05).There were statistically significant differences in crude protein, ash content, crude fat mass fraction and Fe and Zn contents between 6 months and 30 months(P<0.05). Except for Fe content, there were statistically significant differences in the contents of conventional nutrients between 18 months and 30 months(P<0.05). The total amino acid content was no significantly different between 6 months and 18 months(P>0.05), but was significantly different between 6 months and 30 months(P<0.05). The total amino acid contents were 18.43-19.60 g/(100 g) and 8 kinds of essential amino acid contents were 7.75-8.34 g/(100 g). The proportions of the essential amino acid contents in total amino acid contents were above 42% for all ages, and met the requirement of high quality meat. The contents of saturated fatty acids in the beef were 52.17%-52.59%, the contents of monounsaturated fatty acids were 39.37%-40.82% and the contents of polyunsaturated fatty acids were 4.35%-4.50%. In summary, through the detection of various performance indicators and meat quality, the beef of Xiangxi cattle contained sufficient proteins, amino acid including essential amino acid and proper fatty acids.