The department is rolling out insurance, loans, and disaster aid aimed at increasing domestic beef supplies.
By Catholics for Catholics
Hoping to help restore the country’s diminishing cattle herds, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has unveiled a new package of measures.
The herds have fallen to their lowest levels in 75 years, according to a story by the Epoch Times.
On Monday, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced the Ranchers First Initiative, which includes new insurance options for ranchers, loans for smaller meat processors, and expanded disaster assistance for some conserved grasslands.
The initiative is expected to alleviate the continuing cattle shortage. According to USDA, the U.S. went into 2026 with 86.2 million cattle and calves, the shortest figures since the early 1950s.
But now, the new USDA initiative wants to encourage ranchers to keep more young female cattle for breeding instead of selling them for slaughter.
The rancher’s initiative comes as the Trump administration wants several policy changes aimed at both rebuilding domestic cattle supplies and lowering beef prices for consumers.
In a Truth Social post on Friday, President Donald Trump said he was authorizing the preparation of legal documents that would give ranchers the right to process their own food, which he said would help break up a “nasty monopoly” among the large meatpackers.
The USDA wants to create a new Beef Retention and National Development, or BRAND, endorsement under its Livestock Risk Protection insurance program.
BRAND would permit ranchers to insure the economic value of keeping a heifer for breeding over a two-year period. If the value of selling the animal for slaughter rises above the value of retaining it for breeding, the insurance would cover the difference.
The goal is to reduce some of the financial risk ranchers face when deciding whether to sell cattle at high market prices or hold them back to produce future calves.
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