For Immediate Release: May 5, 2026
Contact: R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard
Phone: 406-252-2516; r-calfusa@r-calfusa.com
Please find below R-CALF USA’s weekly opinion/commentary that explains how our cattle and sheep industries have fared while operating under a free market theory without guardrails for the past several decades. It is in three formats: written, audio and video. Anyone is welcome to use it for broadcasting or reporting.
Priorities of the U.S. Cattle Industry
May 5, 2026
R-CALF USA’s board, several members and staff traveled to Washington, D.C., to inform Congress and the administration about what needs to be done to incentivize the expansion of our domestic cattle and sheep herds and to establish conditions under which the livestock producers who do expand will have a meaningful opportunity to be profitable.
We asked Congress and the administration to use their respective authorities to i) pass laws to promote competition, ii) promulgate rules to implement and enforce existing pro-competition laws, iii) free cattle producers from inappropriate government mandates, iv) establish meaningful tariff-rate quotas and tariffs for imported beef and lamb, and v) confirm that maintaining self-sufficiency in beef and lamb production is a national security priority.
To promote marketplace competition, we asked Congress to pass mandatory country of origin labeling (MCOOL) for beef in the Farm Bill, so consumers can buy beef from the country of their choice and American cattle producers can showcase their superior beef to American consumers.
The Packers and Stockyards Act, passed over 100 years ago, is an existing pro-competition statute. It prohibits dominant packers from engaging in unfair practices against individuals and unfair practices that reduce competition in the marketplace. A clear example is the global beef packers’ use of cattle procurement contracts that require cattle feeders to deliver their cattle to the packer without ever knowing what even the base price of those cattle will be until after delivery. These contracts, known as formula contracts, are inherently anticompetitive, as they allow packers to circumvent competition.
So, we asked the administration to promulgate rules to clarify that formula contracts that do not contain at least a negotiated base price are an unlawful means of fed cattle procurement under the Packers and Stockyards Act.
While both MCOOL and Packers and Stockyards Act rules will promote marketplace competition that will help incentivize the rebuilding of America’s livestock herds, America’s cattle producers need to be freed from mandatory government programs that force them to pay for programs that are contrary to their financial interests. The beef checkoff program is one such misguided government mandate, as it forces producers to pay a tax that is used by global agribusinesses to prevent market reforms, including MCOOL, and to support trade policies detrimental to the financial interests of American cattle producers. Reform of the beef checkoff program by the administration and/or Congress, including a prohibition against the use of checkoff funds by any organization that is in the business of lobbying on agriculture issues, is the third priority on our list.
The other misguided government mandate we seek to reverse is the recently implemented mandatory electronic identification rule that uses disease traceability as a pretext for the government’s real goal of wanting more control over America’s cattle producers, their cattle, and their farms and ranches.
Now, the fifth priority on our list is essential for rebuilding our U.S. livestock herds. It calls for tariff-rate quotas, which are volume limits on imports, and tariffs to accomplish two goals: First is to give America’s cattle and sheep producers sufficient space to rebuild their herds by protecting the domestic supply chains from excessive, price-depressing imports. This is what volume limits would do. Second is to level the playing field so imports that are allowed under the volume limit are not priced at levels that undercut domestic production.
These first five priorities will incentivize the rebuilding of our decimated cattle and sheep inventories, but we also need to look at what is needed to impart staying power within our domestic livestock industries. This means we need to impart in the minds of current and aspiring livestock producers the confidence that they will have a long-term, meaningful opportunity to operate profitable cattle and sheep operations. Importantly, they must know that their opportunities will not be undercut by misaligned, self-interested groups and people whose objectives are opposite that of securing national security by achieving self-sufficiency in beef and lamb production.
To achieve this, Congress and the administration must make clear that they will protect and defend the property rights of landowners, which, of course, includes water and grazing rights on federally managed lands. And both Congress and the administration need to demonstrate their resolve to meaningfully address ongoing and emerging threats to America’s livestock operations. This means that preventing the introduction of foreign animal diseases and pests must remain a nonnegotiable government priority. And, given the ever-increasing threat posed by the proliferation of wolf populations, Congress and the administration must take action to substantively reduce injuries that wolves are causing to the economic viability of America’s livestock operations.
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R-CALF USA’s weekly opinion/commentary educates and informs both consumers and producers about timely issues important to the U.S. cattle and sheep industries and rural America.
Ranchers Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America (R-CALF USA) is the largest producer-only trade association in the United States. It is a national, nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring the continued profitability and viability of the U.S. cattle and sheep industries. For more information, visit www.r-calfusa.com or call 406-252-2516.