R-CALF USA

09/01/2026

08/31/2026

“Together, today’s and the earlier October initiative begin to address the symptomatic fallout from decades of failed trade and market protection policies, but fall short of reversing the underlying policies that caused the serious and ongoing erosion of the U.S. cattle industry.

“We recognize the Secretary’s initiatives as important steps toward reinforcing an ailing cattle industry against the policy‑driven forces that suppress marketplace competition, enable foreign capture of domestic supply chains, and erode market transparency—pressures that collectively undermine the confidence and long‑term viability of American ranchers.

“We look forward to working with the administration and Congress to reverse those policy-driven forces through such policy reforms as restoring mandatory country-of-origin labeling for beef, eliminating the beef packers’ anticompetitive buying practices, managing trade through effective import controls, and ending the massive beef checkoff program subsidy that perpetuates monopolistic control over America’s cattle industry.”

Click below to read the full statement.

For Immediate Release Contact: R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard Phone: 406-252-2516; [email protected] BILLINGS, Mont., Aug. 31, 2026 — Today U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced her Ranchers First Initiative […]

08/28/2026

R-CALF USA continues its decades-long effort to restore competition throughout the cattle and beef supply chain, by addressing excessive concentration and market power, urging strong enforcement of the Packers and Stockyards Act, expanding independent and local processing opportunities through such initiatives as the PRIME Act and Strengthening Local Processing Act, and restoring mandatory country-of-origin labeling (MCOOL) so consumers can distinguish between domestic beef and foreign beef.

Rebuilding the U.S. cattle herd requires producer confidence that investments made today to expand production will retain their value in the years ahead. Producers need a competitive marketplace that rewards domestic production and supports long-term investment in the U.S. cattle industry rather than repeatedly turning to increased imports when supplies tighten. Our persistent over-reliance on foreign beef is not the answer. Recent decisions to increase beef imports add uncertainty at a time when rebuilding the U.S. cattle herd requires greater producer confidence.

We encourage Congress and the administration to advance meaningful reforms that restore competition, strengthen producer confidence and give independent cattle producers the opportunity to rebuild America’s cattle industry, while restoring consumers’ ability to choose between domestic and foreign beef through MCOOL.

08/27/2026

R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard joined Ag Squawk to discuss how rapid beef policy changes collide with the slow cattle cycle, from increased imports and packer concentration to MCOOL, fall calf markets and rebuilding the U.S. cattle herd.

Watch the full interview below ⬇️🔗

We dig into how rapid-fire beef policy moves collide with a slow ca...

08/27/2026

“We are disappointed that the president has taken action to increase the domestic supply of beef with foreign beef that will now compete directly with beef produced by America’s ranchers. What makes this particularly concerning is that American consumers still are not afforded the means to distinguish ground beef manufactured with imported beef from ground beef produced exclusively from cattle born, raised and harvested in the United States.

“Without mandatory country-of-origin labeling, lower-priced foreign beef can enter the U.S. market and compete directly with American beef without being clearly distinguished from it at retail. This denies American ranchers the opportunity to capture the value consumers may place on U.S.-produced beef while forcing them to compete with increased volumes of lower-priced foreign beef.

“The White House itself recognizes the growing consumer awareness of the quality of U.S.-produced beef. If foreign beef is going to compete on price, American beef must be allowed to compete on its U.S. origin.

“We urge President Trump to support the immediate restoration of mandatory country-of-origin labeling for beef and urge Congress to act swiftly to make it law, so American ranchers can differentiate their U.S.-produced beef from imported beef and consumers can make an informed choice about whether the beef they purchase for their families is American or foreign beef.”

Click below to read the full release.

For Immediate Release Contact: R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard Phone: 406-252-2516; [email protected] WASHINGTON, D.C., Aug. 27, 2026 — In a proclamation signed yesterday, President Donald Trump memorialized his earlier […]

08/27/2026

It is the cow/calf sector of the live cattle industry that must initiate herd expansion, after all, that’s where the breeding cows are that produce the annual calf crop. Cow/calf operations typically have two main revenue sources: sale of calves and sale of cull cows and bulls. Their major source of revenue is from the sale of calves, but industry literature indicates that sales of cull beef cows and bulls typically represent about 15% of the cow/calf operation’s total annual revenues.

Current profitability and expected future profitability are prerequisites to making the investment for herd expansion. So, let’s look at how the president’s proposal to import an additional 661M pounds of “product for ground beef” with no over-quota tariff might impact a cow/calf producer’s profitability.

What the president means by “product for ground beef” is 90% lean beef trim, or 90s. This is the same type of product that is produced by domestic cull cows and bulls. A typical domestic cull cow will produce roughly 400 pounds of this 90s product. Now, the additional 661M pounds of imported 90s over 90 days will be the live cattle equivalent of about 1.6M domestic cull cows and bulls. This imported product is expected to arrive frozen and be stored frozen to be used over time.

In 2025, the U.S. slaughtered a total of about 2.8M cull beef cows and bulls. Importing the 90s live cattle equivalent of about 1.6M more cull beef cows and bulls will increase the virtual supply of U.S. beef cull cows and bulls by about 57%.

Now a question for cow/calf producers: What do you think will happen to the 15% of your operation’s revenues earned from the sale of cull beef cows and bulls if the virtual supply of U.S. beef cull cows and bulls increases by 57%? Is this an incentive to begin investing to expand your herds, or, do you think it will further delay meaningful expansion of the U.S. cow herd?

Click below to read the full news commentary.

For Immediate Release: August 26, 2026 Contact: R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard Phone: 406-252-2516; [email protected] Please find below R-CALF USA’s weekly opinion/commentary that discusses the anomalous changes that have […]

08/26/2026

Import volumes hit an all-time record high in 2023, and new record highs have been made each year since. For 2026, USDA is forecasting another record-breaking year, estimating that beef imports alone will be 6.1 billion pounds, before even adding the President's 300,000 metric tons of additional tariff-free imports, which would push the total to about 6.8 billion pounds, more than double what was imported just four years ago.

Two of the Big 4 beef packers have permanently closed three of their plants, another cut its second shift, and another is for sale. And the additional imports are the live cattle equivalent of about 1.6 million domestic cull cows and bulls, a 57% increase that hits directly at cow/calf producer revenue:

- The 2026 USDA import forecast
- Packing plant closures and industry consolidation already underway
- What a 57% jump in "virtual" cull cow and bull supply means for rancher revenue
- Why confidence, not just supply, drives herd expansion

Watch: Beef Supply Chain Succumbing to Record Imports, Yet More Is Expected

Have friends not on Facebook? Share this link: https://youtu.be/l9QktrSndBE

*This video was recorded on August 25.

08/25/2026

The letter argues that rebuilding the U.S. cattle herd requires restoring producer confidence that investments made today to expand production will retain their value in the years ahead. The groups warned that additional imports, combined with concentration and market power in the packing and retail sectors, will further discourage producers from making the long-term investments necessary to expand the herd.

Click below to read the full release.

For Immediate Release By: R-CALF USA Communications Director Jaiden Moreland Contact: R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard Phone: 406-252-2516; [email protected] BILLINGS, Mont., Aug. 25, 2026 — R-CALF USA and 12 […]

08/24/2026

You’ve probably heard it all over social media and in national media the last few days: “We can’t rebuild the American cattle herd by importing more beef.”

But why?

A cattle producer deciding to expand doesn’t make more beef tomorrow. We retain heifers, breed them, wait for them to calve, and then raise those calves. That means years of investment before more beef reaches consumers.

So what makes a producer willing to take that risk? Confidence in future cattle prices.

Today’s stronger cattle prices should be sending producers a signal: We need more cattle. Expand.

But when tight domestic supplies are answered with more lower-cost imported beef, that signal can change.

Our beef supply chain is multisegmented and highly concentrated. More lower-cost imported beef gives multinational packers another source of supply and can reduce demand for beef produced from domestic cattle. That pressure works its way back to the cow-calf producer, the very person deciding whether to rebuild the herd.

If producers believe imports will continue increasing whenever domestic supplies tighten and cattle prices rise, they have less confidence that today’s market opportunity will still exist when their investment reaches the market.

Meanwhile, cheaper inputs for packers do not necessarily translate into cheaper beef at the grocery store. Packers can have access to a cheaper source of beef while the consumer continues paying what the market will bear.

And without mandatory country-of-origin labeling, consumers generally can’t distinguish cheaper imported beef from beef produced from American cattle at the grocery store. American cattle producers are expected to compete against lower-cost foreign production without even having the ability to differentiate their product in their own domestic market.

That’s how record imports can fail to solve either problem: Consumers can continue paying record beef prices while cattle producers lack the market signal needed to rebuild.

So what do we do?
1. Restore transparency.
Bring back mandatory country-of-origin labeling for beef. If imported beef is cheaper, label it. Let consumers decide what they want to buy.

2. Restore producer confidence.
Implement tariff-rate quotas that give American producers the opportunity to rebuild without fearing that their years-long investment will be undercut by excessive imports.

3. Restore competition.
Address unpriced forward-type contracts that allow multinational packers to acquire cattle without establishing a negotiated base price, further reducing competition for cattle.

American ranchers are not begging to be saved. We’re begging to be let into the fight.

Read R-CALF USA’s full analysis:https://www.r-calfusa.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/260821-Revised-Response-to-Increased-Imports.pdf