The U.S. cattle herd probably shrunk to the smallest size since 1958, and the drop in beef supplies may boost prices to a record, analysts said.
Ranchers held 92.211 million head of cattle as of Jan. 1, down 1.6 percent from a year ago, according to the average estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News. That would be the smallest herd in 53 years, said Ron Plain, a livestock economist at the University of Missouri in Columbia. The government releases its semiannual report on the cattle herd at 3 p.m. today in Washington.
“Cattle producers are being squeezed by tough finances and a soft economy,” Plain said. “The supply is just shrinking. Beef prices are likely to be record high in 2011, and it should be a record that will last.”
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