For Immediate Release
Contact: R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard
Phone: 406-252-2516; r-calfusa@r-calfusa.com
WASHINGTON, Oct. 26, 2026 – R-CALF USA urged the U.S. International Trade Commission to find that increased lamb imports are a substantial cause of serious injury to America’s lamb industry. Its October 23 posthearing brief argues that imports displaced available American lamb, constrained prices paid to ranchers, and weakened the industry’s ability to sustain production.
“Americans are buying more lamb, but our own producers are losing ground,” said R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard. “The record shows customers switching to cheaper imports even when American lamb was available. That lost business reaches back to the ranch through fewer buyers and lower bids.”
From 2021 through 2025, Commission data show U.S. lamb consumption increased 17.3 percent while reported shipments made from domestic lamb fell 10.5 percent. Imports undersold domestic lamb in 144 of 154 quarterly product-price comparisons.
“Every time our prices start to recover, imported products cap them,” testified Carson Jorgensen, a Utah sheep rancher and chair of Protect American Lamb. “I’ve had processors ask me to cut my price to match imports.”
At the Commission’s October 16 hearing, Australia argued that drought and longstanding production constraints created a supply gap that imports filled. New Zealand likewise portrayed its lamb as complementing American production and supporting market growth. R-CALF USA countered with testimony that Superior Farms lost a major retail account to cheaper imports despite being able to meet the customer’s needs.
New Zealand representatives also emphasized smaller, grass-fed cuts serving distinct customers. R-CALF USA pointed to American producer Greg Gunthorp, who sold smaller, grass-fed lambs yet still lost customers on price and stopped processing lamb.
R-CALF USA witness Michael Bardsley of John Espil Sheep Company described the consequences at the ranch. In 2022, a longtime buyer stopped buying lambs, and others could no longer bid on his lambs. An established feeder relationship allowed his operation to sell half its lamb crop that fall.
“For the lambs we did sell, we received less than half the price per pound we received the previous year,” Bardsley testified.
“The import price is the ceiling, and everything I can pay a rancher sits underneath it,” testified Charlie Hollenbeck, president and CEO of Cowboy Meat Company in Forsyth, Montana.
The brief also challenges an economic model presented for the Australian industry that omitted profits and flock size. R-CALF USA argues those omissions leave critical questions about financial injury and the industry’s ability to rebuild unanswered.
Australian industry representatives argued that growers and feeders should be excluded from the domestic industry. R-CALF USA countered that federal law recognizes direct competition between products at different processing stages, including live market lambs and lamb meat, when imports have a comparable economic effect on producers.
New Zealand industry counsel asserted that U.S. producers generally achieved expected profit margins. The Commission’s financial data, however, show that 10 of 33 reporting U.S. lamb-meat producers had operating losses in 2025. Breeding ewe numbers and replacement breeding lamb inventories also declined between January 2021 and January 2026.
R-CALF USA asked the Commission to assess the full record, including lost sales, financial strain and declining breeding inventories. It maintains that increased imports are an important cause of serious injury, no less important than any other cause. Alternatively, it requested a finding of clearly imminent serious injury.
The Commission is scheduled to issue its injury determination by November 13, 2026. If it makes an affirmative determination or is equally divided on injury, a hearing on potential remedies is scheduled for December 1, 2026. The President ultimately decides whether to provide relief and what form it will take.
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Ranchers Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America (R-CALF USA) is the largest producer-only lobbying and trade association representing U.S. cattle and sheep producers. It is a national, nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring the continued profitability and viability of the U.S. cattle and sheep industries. Visit www.r-calfusa.com or call 406-252-2516 for more information.