USDA Launches Ranchers First Initiative

The USDA is rolling out a broad package of programs aimed at rebuilding America’s beef herd and strengthening the nation’s cattle industry.

Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins says the Ranchers First Initiative will support producers through several new and expanded programs. A new Beef Retention and National Development, or BRAND, endorsement would allow ranchers to insure the economic value of keeping heifers as breeding stock for up to two years. USDA also plans to let ranchers use Emergency Conservation Program funds on Grassland Conservation Reserve Program acres following wildfires and other disasters.

“Until President Trump took office, America’s ranchers were treated as a problem with policy geared toward their eventual extinction," Rollins said during this week's announcement.  "The consequences were devastating: a war on beef, a cattle herd at a 75-year low, and the loss of tens of thousands of family operations.

"President Trump promised to put the American ranchers first, and the Ranchers First Initiative delivers on that promise.  We are investing real dollars to rebuild the Great American Beef Herd, giving producers the risk management tools they need, cutting the red tape that has squeezed small and independent operators, and demanding transparency in a marketplace that has been consolidated and foreign-owned for far too long.  President Trump will make certain the men and women who raise our cattle can hand their operations to the next generation, and that American families can put safe, high-quality, American-raised beef on the table.” 

The department is expanding support for small and regional beef processors through guaranteed loans and a new processor continuity effort. USDA also plans to prioritize American beef in federal purchasing and expand assistance for beginning and veteran farmers and ranchers.

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