For Immediate Release: July 3, 2025
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 why the Ag Secretary should wait until Mexico eradicates New World Screwworm before reopening the Mexican border to live cattle imports. It is in three formats: written, audio and video. Anyone is welcome to use it for broadcasting or reporting.
Too Early to Resume Mexican Cattle Imports
Commentary by Bill Bullard, CEO, R-CALF USA
R-CALF USA supports Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, and we want to continue supporting her. Within just months of her confirmation, she took decisive action to end the nightmarish criminal charges the U.S. Department of Agriculture had leveled against the Maude family in South Dakota, and she closed the Mexican border to cattle, bison, and equine imports when the New World Screwworm–previously detected in southern Mexico–was detected about 700 miles south of the U.S. border.
We breathed a sigh of relief, believing Secretary Rollins was going to work to strengthen the family farm system of agriculture in the United States. In other words, we believed Secretary Rollins would cease the decades-long practices of her predecessors to side with big agribusinesses whenever there was a conflict between Big Ag and independent farmers and ranchers.
Here are some examples:
Big Ag wanted to import beef from Brazil and Paraguay, countries not free of foot-and-mouth disease. Independent producers said no. The previous agriculture secretary’s analysis concluded that not only would importing beef from these countries increase the then–current risk of introducing FMD into the United States, but also the expected imports were forecasted to lower domestic cattle prices, with Brazilian imports causing independent cattle producers to incur a loss of more than $216 million and Paraguayan imports causing them to incur up to $24 million in losses. In both cases, the previous agriculture secretary sided with Big Ag and approved the importation of beef from Brazil and Paraguay, despite the increased risk of FMD and despite the economic harm the decision was known to inflict on family–scale farmers and ranchers.
Another example is the recent electronic identification eartag mandate. Big Ag wanted it, but independent cattle producers did not. The agriculture secretary estimated the mandate would cost Big Ag nothing, as all the costs–$26.1 million worth of them–were to be borne by cattle producers. Again, the agriculture secretary sided with big agribusinesses.
And now, despite our hopes and expectations that our new agriculture secretary would begin shifting the USDA’s helping hand away from Big Ag and toward independent cattle producers, it appears its déjà vu all over again.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins recently announced the U.S. would resume imports of live cattle from Mexico as early as July 7 through an Arizona port, with four more ports scheduled to reopen between July 14 and Sept. 15. Mexico has not yet eradicated the New World Screwworm. In fact, the secretary’s news release clearly indicates that Mexico is still experiencing outbreaks stating, “We have not seen a notable increase in reported NWS cases in Mexico … over the past eight weeks.”
For reasons the secretary does not explain, there was an explosion of New World Screwworm outbreaks in Panama in 2023, with detections increasing from 25 cases per year to more than 6,500 cases in one year. And just one year later, in 2024, the New World Screwworm made its way into Mexico. We don’t yet know what caused that explosive increase just two short years ago.
While we applaud the U.S. for helping Mexico eradicate the New World Screwworm, we don’t understand why the secretary is exposing the U.S. cattle herd to this unnecessary and avoidable risk by reopening the U.S. border to Mexican cattle before it completely eradicates this dangerous pest. If the mitigation measures currently deployed are as effective as the secretary says, then Mexico should be able to eradicate the pest in short order. We see no justifiable reason that our domestic cattle herd should be exposed to any additional risk until we know definitively that the pest can, in fact, be eradicated in Mexico.
At the very least, the secretary should issue a proposed rule and provide all its research and findings regarding why she believes the border should be reopened so quickly. This will give independent cattle producers an opportunity to carefully consider the secretary’s position and to provide thoughtful comments before this action is taken.
A big part of the push to reopen the Mexican border is coming from Big Ag, which wants to achieve trade continuity, also known as trade normalization, enabling access to lower–cost Mexican cattle despite the higher risk.
But waiting until the risk is completely neutralized is a better option–one that would incentivize the rebuilding of our U.S. cattle herd and encourage new entrants into our industry. This will only happen if the price point for cattle remains at a level that provides domestic producers with the opportunity to be profitable. We must sever our nation’s dependency on foreign supply chains for our food, and by prioritizing the health of our U.S. cattle herd, the marketplace will help us rebuild and strengthen our domestic beef supply chain.
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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.