The objective of the study was to assess the efficacy of pre-harvest blood hemoglobin level as a predictor of pork quality in market weight swine. Market weight swine (n = 110) were harvested over three dates, following a 12 h rest in a commercial packing. Each harvest group consisted of proportional numbers of purebred Berkshire, Landrace and the reciprocal crossbred pigs. Blood hemoglobin (HB, Hemocue Hb 201) content was obtained from a sample collected 24 h prior to harvest via the anterior vena cava. Carcass backfat (BF), loin muscle area (LMA) and loin quality traits, including Minolta L* and a*, visual color (C), marbling (MARB), firmness (F), wetness (W), and pH were measured at 24 h post-harvest. Warner-Bratzler Shear (WBS) force assessment of the loin was completed on a chop aged for 7 d post-harvest. Data were analyzed using multi-trait analysis of variance for dependent carcass and pork quality measures. Fixed effects included breed combination and sex with a random harvest date effect. Residual correlations were estimated after accounting for model effects to determine associations among traits and simple correlations were estimated. After adjusting for breed, gender and harvest date effects BH was only associated (P < 0.05) with WBS (r = 0.23). Significant simple correlations were observed between HB and WBS (r = 0.22, P < 0.05) and pH (r = -0.28, P < 0.01) with the simple correlation between Minolta a* (r = 0.17, P < 0.06) approaching significance. The results indicate blood hemoglobin level, collected prior to harvest was not a good indicator of subsequent pork quality and would not be an effective tool for selection of live pigs as breeding animals to improve pork quality