Korean beef cattle inventory has slowly begun to drop as small sized breeding farms are giving up raising cattle due to high feed prices and low calf prices. This will drop further in 2014 due to lower semen sales, increased cow slaughter ratio, and a 11 percent drop in cattle numbers under 1 year old during the first half of 2013. As a result of the drop in slaughter numbers coming from low herd size, total 2014 beef production is projected to decrease by 5.7 percent over the 2013 level. Beef imports are projected to increase slightly in 2014 to make up for the drop in domestic production but
will face severe competition from low priced domestic beef.
