Hopes for an expansion in the canadian cattle inventory may be coming to fruition, as stats canada reports the first year over year increase in cattle herds since 2012.

Canfax Manager of Research Services, Brenna Grant, says it's a pretty minor increase at one-point-three per cent from last year.

She says the biggest increases came from beef heifers for breeding, which were up four-and-a-half per cent, and calves, which were up three-point-nine per cent.

"Those two are actually the really key piece of this report because it really shows that even though we had drought last summer and thing's were really tough, producers were able to manage their feed stores well and retain heifers."

Grant says a more important number in the stats can report is the four-point-five-per cent increase in beef heifers held for breeding, although she notes this is a soft number.

"These are breeding intentions for producers. They are still going to be preg checking in the fall and selling some of those heifers. So that is one where if the prices this fall on feeder calves don't look so good then they may say well I am going to sell more then I had originally planned."

Grant says it's good to see producers have been able to retain more beef heifers, but this remains two per cent below the 10-year average, and 15 per cent below the 20-year average.

In addition Grant notes the U-S is already in its expansion phase, which has been pushing cattle prices down in North America.