MISSION, TEXAS (RFD NEWS) — The South Texas farming community is set to receive long-overdue water payments from Mexico, following renewed enforcement of a decades-old treaty. U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins traveled to the region to discuss how payments will be delivered, joining Texas leaders to outline next steps.
RFD NEWS Correspondent Frank McCaffrey was in Mission, Texas, where state and federal officials addressed growers and producers at a roundtable event hosted at a citrus grower’s facility. He shows us how welcome news was all around.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott credited federal leadership for advancing the long-standing issue of Texas’s water rights under the 1944 water treaty with Mexico.
“We are very, very grateful to Secretary Rollins, to Secretary Rubio, and of course, to President Trump for stepping up and really doing more than any president has ever done to enforce the treaty and the deficit that Mexico has owed to Texas for the water for a long time,” Gov. Abbott said.
Abbott said the issue has challenged multiple administrations in Texas and emphasized the significance of the progress now being made.
Secretary Rollins outlined specific commitments Mexico has made to address both current obligations and past deficits.
“Mexico committed to developing a plan by the end of January, which was just nine days ago, to fulfill their current treaty obligations — that includes repayment of the deficit from the previous water cycle,” Rollins said. “They’ve already committed to releasing 202,000 acre-feet prior to March of this year and increased deliveries dramatically thereafter. They’ve also committed to delivering at least 350,000 acre-feet each year, even under the driest conditions, with significantly higher volumes under wetter conditions. Committing explicitly to ending the cycle without a deficit, which will be the first time. And then monthly accountability meetings to ensure that Mexico stays on track for full treaty compliance.”
Rollins said additional steps are planned to improve water reliability and increase deliveries, noting that enforcement actions taken by President Donald Trump played a major role in securing the commitments.
“He threatened tariffs on the country of Mexico and other enforcement mechanisms to ensure that our farmers are protected here, and he has every intention of using those tools,” she said.
Rollins also acknowledged the toll that years of limited water access have taken on agriculture in the Rio Grande Valley.
“With what this area of Texas has seen in the last few years, the closing of the farms, the closing of the sugar mill, the shrinking of the crops under growth and under production is unacceptable,” Rollins said.
U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), whose district includes much of the Rio Grande Valley, said the situation underscores the need for long-term solutions beyond reliance on the Rio Grande.
“So we cannot depend on the Rio Grande anymore. We have to do two things. One, we’ve got to look at secondary sources of water or the technology of desalination, and also we’ve got to do a better job on both sides for conservation,” said Rep. Cuellar (TX-28). “We just can’t open up the water and then, you know, there’s no insulation, no drip technology that, you know, that we should be using a lot more.”
While long-term challenges remain, Rollins said progress is being made and emphasized the importance of continued cooperation with Mexico. Now, though, Secretary Rollins says the current administration in Mexico has been easier to deal with than previous administrations. She adds there is still a long, long way to go when it comes to the relationship between the two nations and water payments.
Rollins added that future food production demands make reliable access to water even more critical, especially as national production increases while South Texas has lagged behind.
“As Secretary Kennedy, our HHS secretary, and I unveiled the new dietary guidelines two or three weeks ago, the idea of eating real food, the Super Bowl had an eat real food commercial with Mike Tyson,” Rollins said. “As we’re really moving to completely change the way that Americans eat and moving back to real food, the idea that supporting these farmers and ensuring they’re able to produce, that hopefully what this will allow us to do in South Texas is to move back up to where we were two years ago, five years ago, ten years ago.”
Rollins said ensuring access to water for farmers is a matter of national importance. She emphasized that, in her view, farm security is national security.
Frank McCaffrey reporting for RFD NEWS.
Rebuilding The Herd, Argentina Imports & The Fight Against New World Screwworm
Secretary Rollins also made another stop during her trip to Texas, visiting Moore Air Base, where she cut a ribbon to open a new sterile fly facility to combat the New World Screwworm.
She says the plant will help the United States continue to stop the parasite from crossing the border. Before coming online, the U.S. produced sterile flies at a facility in Panama.
Beef producers say one of the biggest issues hindering herd rebuilding right now is the ongoing disruption of Mexican feeder cattle imports, driven by concerns over the New World Screwworm.
The latest cattle inventory report showed no signs of the herd rebuilding. Similarly, year over year, total cattle on feed are now 3 percent lower.
At CattleCon 2026 last week in Nashville, Cattlefax’s Kevin Good said new security measures were implemented at a less-than-ideal time, adding more uncertainty to an already tight market.
“In 2025, we shorted the market of basically a million head of feeder cattle that would have come in from Mexico — and that’s about 4.5% to 5% of domestic production — so, we just got to recognize you shorted the market at a time when you already were short,” Good explains. “So, as you think about this year, you look in the rear-view mirror, and we’re really not expanding the beef cow herd yet.”
Good explains that some benchmarkers on her rebuilding, such as cow slaughter, show progress, but other factors, like heifer retention, paint a different picture.
“It’s more of a flatter herd,” Good continues. “Yep, we’ve got more dairy cows. So, as we go down the road, maybe we can get a little more production out of that segment. So domestically, supply is tight for 2026 and 2027. Whenever the Mexican border reopens, the 12-month period, you probably get a million head — that means your cycle starts to turn from a supply standpoint — 2026 should see the tightest supplies. We should walk into bigger supplies in 2027, with the premise that Mexico opens this year.”
In his keynote address to cattle producers last week in Nashville, HSS Secretary Kennedy begged producers to increase heifer retention. His statement came just before news that a new U.S.-Argentina trade deal has been signed, primarily to increase ground beef imports to the United States.
“Begging you to increase the size of their herds,” Secretary Kennedy told beef industry stakeholders at CattleCon 2026 in Nashville on Thursday evening. “We had 132 head, 132 million head in 1972. We have 92 million today. And a lot of producers are now — because of fluctuations in the markets and uncertainty — slaughtering the breeding cows. And I’d ask you to stop doing that. We need a lot of beef, and we want to make it here in America. We don’t want to be importing it from other countries.”
After an announcement this week on Argentine beef imports, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller is calling for an ‘America First’ policy. He is urging the White House to address the herd shortage from within.
Miller says that while he is thankful for the efforts of the current White House, he has deep concerns about importing more beef, arguing that it is not “America First.”
Miller wants to see a long-term fix that addresses consumer beef prices while also rebuilding the U.S. supply. He notes that ranchers are ready to get that rebuilding process underway. One major factor hindering the U.S. herd rebuild is the pause on feeder cattle imports from Mexico due to the outbreak of New World screwworm.
The Texas Ag Commissioner has also been critical of the USDA’s plan to combat Screwworm, and the Department defended its five-point strategy in a statement to RFD NEWS.
“Check livestock, check pets, it’s going to be across the border,” Miller said. “I hate to say it, but it’s inevitable.”
Now, concern is growing in South Texas after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported that larvae found on a horse in Florida tested positive for the New World screwworm. The equine originated from Argentina, and the discovery has captured the attention of Texas leaders and the agricultural community.
