BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) - Canada has shipped nearly 250,000 cattle to U.S. feedlots and slaughter plants in the three months since a ban on cattle from that country was lifted by a federal appeals court.

It hasn't been the flood some U.S. ranchers had feared, and remains below levels seen before the case of mad cow disease that led to the ban two years ago, economists and industry leaders say.

Cattle prices in the United States are also holding firm, buoyed by strong demand and tight cattle supplies, said John Marsh, a professor of agricultural economics at Montana State University.

"Does that mean that Canadian cattle coming in had no impact? No," he said. However, over time the market had adjusted to a certain number of Canadian cattle, and "that dent that people expected from Canadian cattle coming in just didn't materialize," he said.

A number of factors are at play, including a limited availability of trucks, threat of continued litigation and a slaughter capacity that's grown in Canada since 2003 and is expected to grow more by the end of next year, experts say. In addition, Canada can only ship younger cattle due to ongoing trade restrictions.

Dennis Laycraft, executive vice president of the Canadian Cattlemen's Association, said the group estimated that Canadian imports to the United States would hit 700,000 to 900,000 head during the first year that trade resumed, and he expects that to be hold true.

In 2001, Canada shipped about 1.3 million cattle to the United States. In 2002, a drought year, the number was closer to 1.7 million, said Ron Gustafson, a livestock economist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service.

In May 2003, the United States banned Canadian cattle imports after Canada reported a case of mad cow disease.