08/22/2026
Please Read! And support your local ranchers.
Will removing tariffs on beef and allowing more imports actually help grow the American cattle herd?
Long post as I explain what these new beef tariffs actually do, and what we could do instead to help raise the American herd back up! 🇺🇸
Short answer is basic economics 101: supply and demand. We have a large demand for US beef but because of drought, fires, even COVID, our herd is at an all time low so our supply is low. BUT WE WILL MAKE A COME BACK if the government truly supports us. Our industry is just unique because we can’t go make another cow overnight. It takes about 3-4 years to help a herd start growing, with a lot of input cost… and patience.
Let’s dive in:
I understand why importing cheaper beef sounds good. Beef is expensive right now, and families are feeling it at the grocery store.
But we need to make an important distinction:
More beef available to American consumers is not the same thing as more American beef being produced.
The U.S. cattle herd is already at historically low numbers. We can’t just decide we need more cattle and have them next month. Growing a herd takes years.
When a rancher decides to grow their herd, they have to make some pretty big decisions. Instead of selling a heifer, they keep her. They feed her, breed her, wait for her to have a calf and then raise that calf.
They’re spending money today for a return that may not come for a couple of years, given the heifer lives long.
Bringing in cheaper foreign beef can potentially help lower prices for consumers in the short term, but it does NOT create another American cow.
What most people miss:
American beef is produced under some of the strictest food safety and production standards in the world.
❌Beef that legally enters the United States still has to meet U.S. import requirements, but production practices, regulations, inspection systems, animal health requirements and approved products can vary from country to country.
American ranchers operate under a HUGE number of regulations and requirements, giving us some of the best beef quality in the world, and those standards come with real costs.
When we compare the price of American beef to imported beef, we aren’t necessarily comparing apples to apples. 🍎
What’s sometimes difficult to understand is lower beef prices and a bigger American cattle herd are not automatically the same goal.
If we want to rebuild the American herd, ranchers NEED to know that keeping those replacement heifers and investing in more cattle will be worth it years down the road.
❗️What would actually help?❗️
STOP looking only at how to make beef cheaper at the grocery store and start looking at how to make it more affordable to raise beef in America.
Think about what a rancher pays before they ever get a paycheck for that calf.
Diesel. Feed. Fertilizer. Equipment. Repairs. Transportation. Land. Water. Labor. Interest. Veterinary care. Insurance.
Every one of those costs affects the decision to keep another cow or another heifer. Sometimes it’s not even a decision but literal act of business survival.
If it costs less to raise a cow, it becomes easier to keep more cows.
Lower diesel and fuel costs would help ranchers immediately.
Lower input costs for fertilizer and feed would help.
Reducing unnecessary regulatory costs would help.
Improving processing capacity and making it easier for smaller and regional processors to operate would help.
Protecting and expanding markets for American beef would help.
Making sure ranchers have access to the land and water necessary to raise cattle would help.
And most importantly, ranchers need confidence that the market will still reward them for expanding their herds several years from now.
Rebuilding cattle numbers isn’t like turning on a factory.
A rancher keeps a heifer.
That heifer grows.
She gets bred.
She has a calf.
That calf grows.
After almost FOUR YEARS of keeping the heifer, that calf becomes the beef on someone’s plate, finally rewarding the rancher and putting money back in the ranch.
That’s years of investment before the end product ever reaches the grocery store.
🚨 Yes, we should care about keeping beef affordable for American families. But we also need to care for the American families who are raising that beef.
❗️How do we make it more affordable and profitable for American ranchers to raise that beef?
You can’t import your way into having more American cows. You rebuild the American herd by making it possible for American ranchers to raise more cattle. 🐮
Lower the cost of production. Support American producers. Maintain strong safety standards. Improve processing. Protect markets. 💪🏼
And then….
let American ranchers do what they do best.
Raise high quality AMERICAN cattle. 🐄🇺🇸
Ps…. Compared to unit price, beef isn’t that much more than many other food items and nothing packs as much vitamins and minerals in no place other than an egg 🥚
