United States Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins unveiled the government’s promised and Trump-touted plan to rebuild the beef industry, but ranchers and packers were far from thrilled by the modest proposals.
“At USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) we are protecting our beef industry and incentivizing new ranchers to take up the noble vocation of ranching,” Rollins said.
“Today, USDA will immediately expedite deregulatory reforms, boost processing capacity, including getting more locally raised beef into schools, and working across the government to fix longstanding common-sense barriers for ranchers like outdated grazing restrictions.”
For the third prong — “Building Demand Alongside Domestic Supply” — the document states only that school nutrition programs will be encouraged to use locally grown foods including beef, and the 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) will be released by Dec. 31.
For packers, the big-ticket promise is no overtime for meat inspectors staffing relatively small packing plants.
For deregulation, the main promise relates to leases on government lands, but the details will come in mid-November.
And Brooke said her officials will set up meetings to listen to farmers and ranchers concerns and ideas.
The U.S. beef herd has hit an historic low, cattle prices set records, packers are losing money and retail beef prices are high.
To encourage young people to take up ranching, Brooke announced that USDA’s Risk Management Agency is widening the availability of premium subsidies to newer ranchers.
But the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association said it cannot support the Trump administration as long as it relaxes import controls on beef from Argentina.
