WASHINGTON, D.C. (RFD NEWS) — U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins announced the Ranchers First Initiative, a package of actions aimed at rebuilding the Great American Beef Herd and putting American ranchers at the center of the nation’s food supply.
The initiative builds on USDA’s October 2025 Plan to Fortify the American Beef Industry.
“Until President Trump took office, America’s ranchers were treated as a problem with policy geared toward their eventual extinction. The consequences were devastating: a war on beef, a cattle herd at a 75-year low, and the loss of tens of thousands of family operations,” Rollins said. “President Trump promised to put the American ranchers first, and the Ranchers First Initiative delivers on that promise. We are investing real dollars to rebuild the Great American Beef Herd, giving producers the risk management tools they need, cutting the red tape that has squeezed small and independent operators, and demanding transparency in a marketplace that has been consolidated and foreign-owned for far too long. President Trump will make certain the men and women who raise our cattle can hand their operations to the next generation, and that American families can put safe, high-quality, American-raised beef on the table.”
The initiative includes a new Beef Retention and National Development (BRAND) endorsement for Livestock Risk Protection. The endorsement would allow producers to insure the economic value of retaining a heifer for breeding over two years.
USDA will also allow producers to use the Emergency Conservation Program on Grassland Conservation Reserve Program acres to speed recovery following wildfires and other natural disasters.
The agency is creating a SPUR Guaranteed Loan Program to support regional processing, including processor cooperatives, expanded small-business footprints and increased animal protein processing. USDA will also establish a Regional Processor Continuity Effort to strengthen regional processing capacity.
Another part of the initiative will prioritize federal procurement of locally processed American beef across federal and state institutions, including prisons and hospitals.
USDA also plans to establish an initiative focused on Beginning and Veteran Farmers and Ranchers Affairs, while working with the Department of War and Department of Veterans Affairs to leverage programs such as SkillBridge to connect departing servicemembers with ranching and farming careers.
The Ranchers First Initiative builds on several USDA actions taken since 2025, including the SPUR Program, expanded grazing access on public lands, the FIELDS fertilizer program, expanded awareness of the Product of USA label, and the Harvest to Hallways initiative.
Ranchers Push Back on Beef Imports as USDA Announces Processing Changes
Rollins’s message comes after President Trump took to social media last week, saying he is working to break up the processing monopoly. Trump said he was signing paperwork to allow farmers and ranchers to process their own food.
Rollins says starting on Monday, there will be announcements involving cutting red tape in processing, expanding a rancher’s ability to sell across state lines, improving technology around safety data, and more.
Cattle producers gathered recently in Oklahoma to discuss President Trump’s plan to bring in cheaper beef. Oklahoma Agriculture Secretary Blayne Arthur says the plan likely will not move the needle on consumer prices.
“You know, I think that’s the unfortunate thing. We always are very attentive to consumers. That, you know, here in America, we provide the safest, most affordable food supply in the world, right? And we care a lot about that mom at the grocery store. I reference that personally. That’s me in my household, right, at the grocery store? And, you know, I think the intent of bringing in this beef to lower the price for that consumer, I don’t think that we ultimately get there for the consumers.”
Producers have been very vocal since the plan was released, and Arthur says many are not happy right now.
“In the animal protein sector, we just want the market to determine what that price should be. We produce the best beef in the world, and we’re very proud as American beef producers to do that. It is a quality product, and so we want those consumers to say we really value this product, and for the consumers to be setting that price, and the market to be setting that price as opposed to adjusting that with the approach that they’ve decided on with importing that, and then setting that 25 percent less and so, very challenging and ultimately, I don’t know, a policy that really is as beneficial as I think the intent maybe was.”
The first round of reduced-tariff beef will enter the U.S. beginning tomorrow. It is for 100,000 metric tons of ground beef, and there is no specific origin for these imports.
The order allows all eligible countries to access the 90-day increase in tariff-rate quotas in three batches. `This follows the president’s announcement that he would allow 300,000 metric tons of beef to lower consumer prices.
The cattle industry wants more processing capacity, but industry leaders say there is a problem: not enough cattle to fill it.
Food industry specialists say adding beef processing capacity does not make sense until cattle supplies recover. Unlike poultry and pork, cattle take years to move from birth to slaughter.
Analysts point to the producer-owned beef plant near Amarillo, which is targeting a late-2028 startup. They say that slower timeline could make sense while cattle supplies remain tight.
