If you're chowing down on a chunk of Christmas beef today, enjoy it while you can.

The latest Beef Quarterly report from Rabobank shows strong global demand for the meat is continuing, and supplies are tight.

Cattle prices in the United States are at record highs as disease and drought squeezes supply, and that's under pinning our beef industry as Americans import more and more of it.

Rabobank economists expect record New Zealand beef prices to continue well into the new year.

It's a cheap beef bonanza across the Tasman though, with a dry Australian summer keeping slaughters high, flooding the market.