WASHINGTON, D.C. (RFD-TV) — Beef prices are high because supplies are tight and shoppers keep buying. Years of drought shrank the national herd to the smallest since the 1950s, lifting cattle and boxed-beef values that flow through to the meat case.
At the White House, officials said they are working on steps to bring prices down. A new joint effort targeting antitrust enforcement in agriculture is in the works, and President Donald Trump promised crowds at the White House on Thursday that the agreement is nearly complete and will lead to lower beef prices. However, details have not been released.
The heart of the deal, which aims to monitor market activity and ensure competition in key farm sectors, is garnering reaction from industry leaders. According to R-CALF CEO Bill Bullard, it could be a turning point for producers if it leads to real enforcement.
“We’re going to continue working with them to have them look at the other side — the output side of agriculture — to look at our beef and cattle markets, and of course, there is litigation going on to address antitrust activities in the hog industry, the poultry industry, and the beef industry; and those cases are continuing,” Bullard explained. “We know the Justice Department still has an ongoing investigation looking into the conduct of the meat packers and determining whether they had violated antitrust laws back during the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, so we applaud this action by the joint action by the Department of Justice and USDA to begin enforcing our antitrust laws to ensure that we have robust competition in U.S. agriculture.”
The comments come as President Trump says a deal to lower beef prices is “nearly done,” and Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins confirms the administration is working to rebuild the U.S. cattle herd, which is now sitting at a 70-year low.
Retail checks show elevated levels — roughly $6-plus per pound for ground beef and low-to-mid teens for popular steak cuts — and relief has been slow.
Near-term levers matter most for hamburger: imported lean beef from Brazil is blended with well-marbled U.S. trim to raise lean percentage — it doesn’t replace U.S. steaks, it balances fat. Tariff relief would add lean trim and could initially ease burger prices. By contrast, Mexican feeder cattle — currently halted over a livestock pest — go to U.S. feedlots and finish with more marbling, so they do not directly help the ground-beef market.
Longer term, ranchers are beginning to retain heifers, but biology is slow — beef output typically takes about two years to grow after rebuild starts. Without added lean imports or softer demand, price easing will likely be gradual.
And herd expansion across the country is moving slowly.
Kansas State University beef expert Dr. Jason Warner said producers are balancing market opportunity with long-term management and costs. According to Warner, national trends indicate limited growth, and scale is essential when producers consider retaining more females.
“As herds get larger, we’ve got more economies of scale there and potentially, a greater potential impact of seeing an economic benefit there -- being able to keep those females back,” explained Dr. Warner. “Generally speaking, as we see it, relative to where our Cattle-on-Feed numbers have been and the proportion of females that we have that are in feed yards right now, you’re just not seeing a lot of general signs right now.”
Warner added that producers should weigh their costs, land resources, and reproductive efficiency before making expansion decisions.
