Mexico City/Chicago | Reuters — More Mexican steaks and other beef cuts are headed north of the border after the coronavirus outbreak has hobbled U.S. meat processing plants, potentially offsetting fears of shortages affecting businesses from fast-food chains to grocery stores but angering U.S. ranchers. The Mexican industry chalks up the export growth to new […] Read more

More Mexican beef headed to U.S. dinner tables as supply crunch bites
"I think we're going to leap past Canada this year"

R-CALF suit alleges U.S. packers conspired to suppress fed cattle prices
Reuters — Four of the largest U.S. beef-packing companies were accused in a lawsuit on Tuesday of violating federal antitrust law by conspiring to drive down prices they paid ranchers for cattle, even as retail beef prices hovered near record levels. Tyson Foods, Cargill, the JBS USA unit of Brazil’s JBS and National Beef Packing […] Read more

USDA plan to axe livestock pricing rule divides producers
Chicago | Reuters — The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in a filing on Tuesday said it will dismantle Obama-era rules for buying and selling livestock, a move that has divided the U.S. meat industry. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue withdrew an interim final rule and a proposed regulation of the Farmer Fair Practices Rules […] Read more

Guenther: Canada’s beef export sector waiting, watching
As speculation swirls around U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to renegotiate NAFTA, officials with Canada’s beef industry are taking a measured approach. They’re not ignoring the possibility of trade disruptions in the U.S., said Ryder Lee, CEO of the Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s Association — “but neither are we lighting our hair on fire yet at each […] Read more

U.S. watchdog to review cattle pricing, high-speed trading
Chicago | Reuters — A U.S. watchdog agency will launch a review of cattle pricing, including the impact of high-frequency trading on futures, after ranchers complained about a sharp price drop last year. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has accepted a request from the Senate judiciary committee to study the reasons for the decline, […] Read more

R-CALF’s USDA lawsuit takes aim at Canadian beef
Protectionist ranchers’ group says checkoffs promote ‘less safe and less wholesome’ imported beef
Reading Time: 3 minutes A group of cattle ranchers is suing the U.S. Department of Agriculture, claiming their checkoff dollars are being used to promote Canadian and other imported beef. The Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America — best known as R-CALF — also claims imported beef is “less safe and less wholesome.” But the lawsuit filed […] Read more