by Beef News | Mar 10, 2026 | Policy, Farm Policy, Imports
The last time America had this few beef cows, Eisenhower was president. The USDA NASS January 2026 Cattle Report confirmed it in plain numbers: 27.6 million beef cows that have calved — smallest since 1961. Total cattle and calves at 86.2 million, a 75-year low. The...
by Beef News | Mar 9, 2026 | Policy, JBS
The clock on the wall of JBS’s Greeley, Colorado flagship plant reads midnight on Sunday, March 15. That’s when the contract extension dies. That’s when 3,800 workers — 99% of whom already voted to walk — can legally hit the bricks. And that’s...
by Beef News | Mar 7, 2026 | Policy, Farm Policy
The American beef industry is colliding with two realities at the exact same moment. The first is physical.The second is political. Physically, the United States cattle herd has fallen to 86.2 million head, the lowest level since the early 1950s. The national cow base...
by Beef News | Feb 24, 2026 | Imports, Business, Policy
For seventy years, Lubbock Feeders stood as one of the foundational engines of the South Plains cattle economy — a 50,000-head yard that fed more than five million cattle and anchored an entire local ecosystem of corn growers, truckers, veterinarians, packers, and...
by Beef News | Jan 9, 2026 | Policy, Business, Health
Everyone’s talking about restored grazing access. Few are asking: how are ranchers supposed to stock that land if they can’t afford the cattle? In October 2025, the Trump administration—via Secretary Brooke Rollins (USDA), Doug Burgum (DOI), and RFK Jr. (HHS)—formally...
by Beef News | Nov 26, 2025 | Smuggling, Health, Policy
In the heart of the Nicaraguan rainforest, cattle are being branded inside a UNESCO biosphere. They’re herded across Indigenous land torched by settlers, passed through corrupt checkpoints, and escorted straight into the export economy. Branded bulls raised on illegal...
