AFBF - American Farm Bureau Federation
08/24/2026 | News release | Distributed by Public on 08/24/2026 15:51
Importing Foreign Beef Could Make Rebuilding U.S. Cattle Herd More Difficult
John Newton, Ph.D.
Vice President of Public Policy and Economic Analysis
Chad Smith
Associate News Service Editor, NAFB
A new plan from the White House to import foreign beef could deal a significant blow to U.S. cattle ranchers. Chad Smith has details.
Smith: The Trump administration has announced a new plan aimed at lowering beef prices in the grocery stores, but the plan will negatively impact the farm economy. John Newton, the vice president of public policy and economic analysis at the American Farm Bureau Federation, says the plan calls for importing a large volume of foreign beef.
Newton: Over the next 90 days, he plans to allow imports of up to 300,000 metric tons of beef into the U.S. market, with the goal of trying to lower ground beef prices. Three hundred thousand metric tons of beef is equivalent to over 600 million pounds of beef, so this is a very big deal for farmers and the cattle industry.
Smith: He said importing such a significant volume will negatively impact U.S. cattle ranchers.
Newton: We've already seen cattle prices fall about 15 percent over the last two months. Prices were down on this news. It can't come at a worse time for ranchers as the herd is at a 50-year low, and they're trying to rebuild the herd. And this takes away any economic incentives to invest and rebuild the herd when we're trying to lower cattle and beef prices.
Smith: Newton said the market was already providing incentives for producers to begin rebuilding their herds, but that doing so will take time.
Newton: We start to see farmers start to retain heifers so that we can begin to rebuild the herd. The cattle cycle is a 10-year cycle. It takes years and years and years to rebuild the herd, but we need to make sure that any plans to import beef don't undermine the ranchers and the farmers that are going to rebuild our herd.
Smith: Stay tuned to fb.org for updates. Chad Smith, Washington.
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