08/25/2026
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
