US beef prices to recover before year-end

US beef prices should start to recover before the end of the year amid high dairy cow slaughter, according to a USDA analyst.

USDA livestock analyst Shale Shaggam said the dairy cull estimate this year is about 250,000 head but the excess cow beef supply should disappear quickly.

The inventory is getting smaller and hopefully conditions will become favourable as it moves into 2010, at least to hold cows back, Shaggam said.

That and the beef trim used in hamburgers that Australia sells to the US should support cow prices as early as the end of this year, he said.