-Feed intake and average daily gain (ADG) in Nellore cattle were determined to calculate residual feed intake in two performance tests: first during the growth phase (RFI growth ) and then during a measurement of the methane emission phase (RFI met ). During the RFI growth test, 62 males and 56 females were classified as low-, medium-, and high-RFI. Enteric methane emission was measured in 46 animals; 23 males used for RFI met measurement plus 23 females (22 low-RFI growth and 24 high-RFI growth ). Diet consisted of Brachiaria brizantha cv. Marandu hay (445 g/kg DM) and concentrate (555 g/kg DM). During the RFI growth and RFI met phases, DMI was lower in the animals with low RFI, with no difference in ADG. Residual feed intake was −0.359 and 0.367 kg DM/d for low-and high-RFI animals. Enteric methane emission (g/d, g/kg BW 0.75 and g/kg ADG) did not differ between RFI growth classes. Enteric methane emission (g/d) was higher in high RFI met and lower in low RFI met males. Spearman correlations among traits obtained during both tests, which were high between metabolic BW (r = 0.959) and between DMI (r = 0.718), and zero between ADG (r = −0.062), resulted in moderate correlation between RFI growth and RFI met (r = 0.412). However, it is not possible to confirm that high-efficiency animals release less enteric methane, since different results were obtained when enteric methane was compared between the RFI growth and RFI met classes.