Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins met with more than 500 Forest Service employees last week in a historic meeting. Her simple message? Ranchers come first. The meeting was geared toward pushing the administration’s grazing plan on national forests. Few outlets have reported it. According to Rollins: 🐂 278,000 head months of grazing have been restored in 2026, more than halfway to the 2028 goal 📋 165 vacant allotments are being processed, with a goal of issuing them by Jan. 1 💵 More than $8 million in new funding is going toward grazing The push comes as the U.S. cattle herd sits at a 75-year low and ground beef is up 7.4% from a year ago. Environmental groups have filed a federal lawsuit. Read the full story at UNWON 👇 americaunwon.com/p/in-histor…

R-CALF USA Establishes New Committees to Address Federal Lands Issues, Engage Young Producers r-calfusa.com/r-calf-usa-est…

Subsidies are only needed because competitive market forces have been purged from agricultural markets by anticompetitive and antitrust practices of dominant corporate agribusinesses and failed trade policies. R-CALF USA does not seek government subsidies or price supports for the cattle and sheep industries. We seek genuine market competition and trade policy reform.

R-CALF USA Witness Urges USITC to Save America’s Family Sheep Ranches r-calfusa.com/r-calf-usa-wit…

Weekly Address–Back in Court: The Fight to Stop Mandatory EID The government’s reply brief is due October 16, and a hearing is scheduled for November 18 in Rapid City, South Dakota. R-CALF USA, the South Dakota Stockgrowers Association, the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance, and ranchers Kenny and Roxie Fox and Rick and Theresa Fox are represented by the New Civil Liberties Alliance. Our case challenges a rule requiring electronic eartags for certain cattle and bison moving across state lines, subject to exceptions. Our central argument is that USDA imposed an expensive mandate without adequately explaining how its requirements solve the problems the agency identified. Click below to read the full commentary. r-calfusa.com/weekly-address…

Weekly Address: Cattle Markets Are Disappearing. Washington Must Act USDA and DOJ should obtain the records now: original slaughter schedules, revisions, purchasing instructions, company communications, operating costs, and the alternatives considered before closure. Evidence must be preserved before equipment disappears and reopening becomes harder. The packers’ efficiency claims must also be tested. While better utilization may reduce processing costs, reduced competition may also let a packer pay less for cattle. Investigators must distinguish those effects and measure the expenses and risks transferred to producers. Click below to read the full commentary. r-calfusa.com/weekly-address…

For too long, American ranchers have watched wolves kill their livestock, threaten their livelihoods, and devastate family operations built over generations. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. Under @POTUS, we are putting RANCHERS FIRST. 🇺🇸 We are working directly with states to strengthen wolf management, expand protections for livestock, and ensure ranchers have the tools they need to defend their herds — including lethal removal when authorized by law. Our ranchers deserve the right to defend their herds and the livelihoods they have worked generations to build. We will ALWAYS stand with the American rancher. ⬇️ usda.gov/about-usda/news/pre…

R-CALF USA Files Brief Detailing Harm from Lamb Imports r-calfusa.com/r-calf-usa-fil…

I've been working on this story for years. It's about my hometown, my family, and the water that built Northern California. It's the most important piece I've reported. If they take the dams, I want there to be a record of what happened. 🔗 americaunwon.com/p/the-mount…

If you haven’t watched Mike Rowe’s episode with @SecRollins @BrookeLRollins , you need to. She’s more connected to agriculture than many give her credit for. The slop she inherited at USDA was stacked to the ceiling. Many fixes require Congress. One Secretary can’t undo decades overnight.

Washington Appeals Court Stays King Ranch Administrative Proceeding r-calfusa.com/washington-app…

This is how we rebuilt the American cattle herd. Market fixing solutions. Worth a listen. open.spotify.com/episode/708…

The negotiated cash market is where producers and packers bargain directly over price. Those transactions also establish benchmarks used to price cattle sold through other arrangements. But as more cattle are committed in advance through unpriced formula contracts, fewer remain available for independent cash bidding. Packers can draw on contracted supplies before buying cash cattle, reducing their need to compete in the market that establishes their contract prices. USDA data show formula purchases increasing from 33.2% in 2005 to 63.3% in 2025. Over the same period, negotiated cash purchases fell from 52.1% to just 17.8%. These arrangements can also discourage aggressive bidding. A higher cash bid can raise payments on cattle already secured under contract, while a lower benchmark reduces those payments. The consequences reach beyond the feedlot, as lower returns on finished cattle can reduce what feeders pay for feeder cattle, transmitting harm to stocker operators and cow-calf producers. R-CALF USA’s position is clear: Contracts that bind producers before establishing a base price, then tie that price to future negotiated cash transactions, should be prohibited. Packers and feeders can retain the benefits of a contractual relationship with a known base price. Requiring a firm base price preserves those benefits while protecting the producer’s opportunity to compare competing offers before committing cattle. Congress should put these protections into law, while USDA and the Justice Department pursue the actions available under existing law. Establish the base price while producers can still seek another buyer. Preserve contractual benefits and restore bargaining power throughout America’s cattle industry. Do you think cattle should have a firm base price before a producer commits them to a packer? Watch 📷: Unpriced Contracts: How Packers Weaken the Cash Cattle Market

Weekly Address: The Shrinking Cash Cattle Market – Why It Matters to Every Producer r-calfusa.com/the-shrinking-…

America’s entire cattle industry depends on a market that is disappearing before our eyes: the negotiated cash cattle market. Whether you sell finished cattle, yearlings or calves, this market affects your livelihood. Yet the national negotiated cash share of cattle purchases fell from 52.1% in 2005 to just 17.8% in 2025, a decline of nearly two-thirds. Producers need competing bids and reliable information to evaluate them. A thin market puts both at risk, weakening price discovery and producers’ bargaining power throughout the cattle production chain. As USDA and the Justice Department carry out the President’s executive order calling for stronger enforcement of the Packers and Stockyards Act, restoring the negotiated cash market must be a priority. Success must be measured where it matters: Can producers obtain competing bids, sell cattle promptly, and evaluate offers using reliable prices? The President has called for stronger enforcement. USDA, the Justice Department, and Congress must now deliver meaningful competition for America’s independent cattle producers. Watch 📺 The Shrinking Cash Cattle Market: Why It Matters to Every Producer

I would like to challenge everyone, to watch an unedited two minute clip from the Farm Progress Show on Sept. 1. Secretary Rollins is speaking directly to farmers, and telling them her goals, and vision for the USDA. Watch this and then ask yourself who hates this new direction of the USDA the most? Who wants to tear her down, and see her fail the most? As she talks about putting farmers and ranchers first, and “decades of bad policy.” Ask yourself, who did the old USDA put first? Who gained the most from the bad policy? During my lifetime the USDA has worked alongside the corporate agriculture machine to consolidate the entire agriculture industry and put hundreds of thousands of farmers and ranchers out of business. Secretary Rollins wants to change that. She is the biggest threat to the corporate consolidation of agriculture that I have seen in my lifetime. This is what you need to remember when you see media trying to tear her down, remember who they are teamed up with and why. God Bless. Jim

Today's show: How imported beef is harming ranchers and enriching the meat packing cartel without even helping the consumer Guest: Bill Bullard @RCALFUSA piped.video/dyJBNOqo6pE

Weekly Address: Cattle Country Needs a Change of Direction r-calfusa.com/weekly-address…

RT @RCALFUSA: The Senate Agriculture Committee has advanced the 2026 Farm Bill out of committee with MCOOL for beef included. 🇺🇸 This mark…

“You know how it works, Jake. You ride with an outlaw, you die with an outlaw. I’m sorry you crossed the line.” -Augustus McCrae We have said repeatedly that JBS, the world’s largest and most corrupt beef processing corporation, sponsored the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s convention. Recently we were asked for a source. Here’s what Google AI said.