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Contact: R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard

Phone: 406-252-2516; r-calfusa

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Within less than a year, the nation’s three largest beef packers have radically reshaped the structure of America’s beef and cattle industries by eliminating strategic marketing outlets for cattle, geographically centralizing their diminished beef production operations, and increasing America’s dependency on foreign beef production. Yesterday’s announcement marks the continued unfolding of the concentrated beef packers’ plans.

Tyson Foods initiated the structural reshaping of America’s cattle and beef industries when it closed its Lexington, Nebraska, beef facility – a 5,000-head-per-day slaughtering plant – in January. Tyson Foods’ lead was soon followed by JBS USA’s announcement to close its Souderton, Pennsylvania, beef facility – a 2,000-head-per-day slaughtering plant, which is scheduled to cease slaughtering operations today. In May, Cargill Meat Solutions locked workers out of its Fort Morgan beef facility – a 4,000-head-per-day slaughtering plant over a labor dispute. Recent reports indicate the plant remains closed today.

The Big Three beef packers have effectively and drastically reduced the nation’s slaughter capacity since 2025 by an estimated 14,000 to 16,000 head per day, representing about 18-20% of daily fed cattle slaughter in 2025.

During the decade immediately preceding this radical reshaping of the market, the Big Three beef packers were earning record margins and reporting record profits, and they were doing so while prices paid to America’s cattle farmers and ranchers were suppressed and consumer beef prices were reaching new highs.

The 2022 U.S. agriculture census shows that during the 2017-2022 period when the packers were inflating their margins and profits, over 106,000 U.S. beef cattle operations that were experiencing depressed prices during this period exited the industry, and with them went over 2.5 million beef cows in the U.S. cattle herd.

Antitrust lawsuits have been filed and are still pending against the Big Three beef packers and the nation’s fourth largest packer, National Beef Packing Co., now majority-owned by Brazil-based Marfrig, alleging the packers unlawfully colluded to suppress cattle prices and inflate beef prices within much of the period covered by the census. The Big Three beef packers have collectively already paid out over $350 million dollars to settle some of these lawsuits.

R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard stated, “We believe this is a situation where the Big Three beef packers have themselves contributed to our nation’s reduced cow herd and contracted cattle industry, and they are now using that outcome to rationalize their plant closures, which reshape the structure of America’s cattle and beef industries to maximize their profits at the expense of cattle farmers and ranchers and consumers.

“Cattle farmers and ranchers are harmed by the loss of economical marketing outlets, increased transportation costs, and reduced buying competition in the areas affected by the plant closures.

“Consumers are likewise harmed by the additional costs associated with transporting both cattle and beef longer distances, costs likely to be passed on to consumers. In addition, the geographic centralization of the Big Three beef packers will further increase their buying power while making America’s food supply more vulnerable to weather, climate, disease, and geopolitical shocks."

According to R-CALF USA President Dave Hyde, an eastern Ohio cattle producer, “This is a symptom of a system the dominant meatpackers helped create and have defended for decades, one that has allowed them to become increasingly reliant on imported beef and less reliant on American cattle. Their global supply chains allow them to source beef from around the world rather than depend on a strong, growing domestic cattle industry.

“The cumulative effect is an industry being reshaped to become less dependent on American cattle and more capable of relying on foreign beef to fill domestic supply needs. This further disincentivizes the expansion of the domestic cattle herd at precisely the time our nation should be rebuilding it.

“We need to rebuild the conditions that allow producers to remain in business and expand their herds, including by implementing tariffs or other import controls to limit the volume of imported beef and cattle and restoring mandatory country-of-origin labeling so consumers can identify and support beef born, raised and harvested in the United States and drive demand for American cattle.

“Our federal antitrust enforcers and Packers and Stockyards enforcers must intervene to prevent the alarming reduction in competition that is occurring and will continue to occur due to these actions by the dominant beef packers.


“Our nation’s food security should be built on a strong domestic cattle industry and a competitive marketplace, not on the global sourcing decisions of a handful of multinational corporations.”