Beef prices set records this year after the nation’s cattle supply dropped to a 75-year low, leading to record prices for meatpackers such as JBS to buy cattle to slaughter, despite benefiting from the climbing prices.

WHY IT MATTERS: The strike at JBS’s Greely, Colorado site has weighed, somewhat, on U.S. beef prices.

The union representing about 3,800 plant workers said the new round of talks would resume on April 9 and 10 after last month’s strike to press for wages that reflect inflation and a halt to company charges for replacing protective equipment.

“Workers remain united and will continue to fight until JBS fully ends its unfair labor practices,” said Kim Cordova, president of the local union representing the Greeley workers.

It is calling for a contract offer that protects workers, shows them the respect they deserve, and pays them a livable wage, he added in a statement.

There had been no new deal or change to the original offer, a JBS spokesperson told Reuters.

“We are pleased to welcome our team members back and are preparing to resume and ramp up operations at the Greeley plant next week,” the spokesperson added in an email.

The strike dealt a blow to U.S. processing capacity, after Tyson Foods closed a beef plant in Nebraska this year and reduced operations at a Texas facility.

The dispute with the workers, represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 union, comes as meatpackers typically seek to boost efficiency by running plants at peak capacity to offset hefty running costs.

— Reporting by Gnaneshwar Rajan and Chandni Shah in Bengaluru

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The $2.26 million payment will support processor Atlantic Beef Products in Albany, P.E.I. to upgrade it’s packaging technology, cleaning and safety equipment, and to increase meat yield.

Atlantic Beef Products processes about 750 cattle per week and employs around 180 people.

The federal government flagged the investment as in line with its Buy Canadian Policy, which includes measures to support small and medium-sized Canadian businesses.

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The proposed settlement in the federal lawsuit was disclosed on Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs — grocery stores, food distributors and other businesses that bought beef products directly from Tyson — said in the filing that they are working on a final settlement agreement to present to a judge for approval.

Tyson, and the attorneys for the beef purchasers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The buyers had accused Tyson and several other major beef producers of conspiring to charge inflated prices for retail sale-ready consumer cuts or edible boxed beef between 2015 and 2022.

The plaintiffs include Pennsylvania-based Redner’s Markets and Mississippi-based R&D Marketing.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs estimated thousands of so-called direct purchasers are part of the proposed class.

The Tyson accord is the second for the direct purchasers, after JBS USA agreed to pay $52.5 million. The company denied any wrongdoing in agreeing to the deal, which was approved by a judge in 2022.

Tyson and JBS are the two largest defendants. Two remaining defendants, Cargill and National Beef, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Arkansas-based Tyson, the largest U.S. meat company, settled related price-fixing claims from consumers in the beef litigation for $55 million.

Tyson also separately agreed this year to pay $85 million to settle a proposed consumer class-action accusing it of conspiring with rivals to inflate pork prices.

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The closure in the heart of cattle-feeding country signalled that supplies will remain tight, forcing meatpackers to pay steep prices for cattle to process into steaks and hamburgers.

Beef prices have set records due to low supplies and strong demand, raising costs for consumers. President Donald Trump said last month that he was working to bring down prices.

Tyson said it will also reduce operations at a beef plant in Amarillo, Texas, to a single, full-capacity shift, affecting about 1,700 workers.

“Tyson Foods recognizes the impact these decisions have on team members and the communities where we operate,” the company said in a statement.

Tyson said the changes were expected around January 20 and that it will increase production at other facilities to meet customer demand.

Beef business loses big

Beef prices soared this year as cattle supplies dwindled and meatpackers increasingly competed for limited supplies of livestock.

Ranchers slashed their herds after a years-long drought burned up pasture lands and hiked feeding costs. Some have slowly started to rebuild their herds, though it takes at least two years to raise full-grown cattle.

Tyson’s beef business suffered adjusted losses of $426 million (C$601.1 million) in the 12 months ended on September 27 and $291 million over the previous year. The meatpacker projected the unit will lose $400 million to $600 million in the 2026 fiscal year.

“We all expected a plant to be closed at some point in 2026,” said Rich Nelson, chief strategist for Allendale.

“I’m a little surprised they’re doing it preemptively.”

Losses in Tyson’s beef business were a turnaround from the fat profits it and other processors reaped during the COVID-19 pandemic, when meat prices soared as infections among plant workers slowed output.

Closure threatens local economy

The Lexington plant can process roughly 5,000 cattle per day, or about five per cent of total U.S. slaughtering, but it has already been operating below capacity, said Matt Wiegand, commodity broker for FuturesOne in Nebraska. Its closure will shock the city of about 10,000 residents and hurt local feedyards that fatten cattle, he said.

“Tyson’s announcement will have a devastating impact,” said U.S. Senator Deb Fischer of Nebraska.

“It’s no secret that just a few years ago, packers like Tyson were making windfall profits while the rest of the industry was continuously in the red.”

In Amarillo, Tyson’s plant can slaughter roughly 6,000 cattle per day, according to industry estimates.

The White House had no immediate comment.

Trump has sought to boost beef imports from countries such as Argentina to ease prices for U.S. consumers, angering American ranchers. On Thursday, he removed 40 per cent tariffs he had imposed this summer on Brazilian food products that slowed imports of beef used to make hamburger meat.

Trump has also accused meatpacking companies of driving up U.S. beef prices through manipulation and collusion, and ordered the Justice Department to investigate.

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In South Dakota, Troy Hadrick kept 16 more heifers on his farm than he did last year to be used for breeding, rather than sending them to be slaughtered for beef.

More than 1,400 miles south in Texas, the biggest cattle-producing state, Fausto Salinas was also preserving heifers to increase his herd.

In major U.S. livestock regions, some ranchers have slowly begun taking the first steps to boost cattle production after the nation’s inventory shrank due to a years-long drought that dried up pasture land used for grazing and hiked feeding costs.

By the beginning of the year, the herd had dwindled to 86.7 million cattle, the smallest number for the time period since 1951, according to U.S. government data.

When grass failed to grow on pasture land that turned from green to brown and as feed grains became too expensive, ranchers began to ship off more cattle to be slaughtered. Some producers searched miles away for hay to nourish their remaining animals.

The drop in supply drove U.S. food companies to increasingly import beef from other countries, including Australia and Brazil.

Record-breaking cattle prices

Though in its early stages, the herd expansion is now a sign of hope for consumers shelling out for expensive steaks and for meatpackers losing money buying high-priced cattle to slaughter.

“Cattle availability should improve in coming years,” Tyson Foods CEO Donnie King said during an earnings call this week.

Farmers’ cautious plans to rebuild mark a turning point after a continuous downsizing of the herd for six years in a row pushed beef prices to record highs in 2025.

Cattle prices reached records too, slashing the profits of processors like Tyson and providing income for farmers who also grow grains and have struggled to turn a profit from selling crops.

Cattle production is the nation’s most important agricultural industry, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which said the sector consistently accounts for the largest share of total cash receipts for farm commodities.

After delays due to persistent dryness, improved rains are motivating the expansion, along with expectations that cattle prices will remain lofty during the long rebuilding process, ranchers said.

In Nebraska, the second biggest cattle-producing state, the portion of the herd in areas suffering from drought dropped to 19 per cent in late July from 79 per cent two years earlier, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

Near Cozad, a city of 4,000 people where Uden works with his son-in-law, rains have not quit since starting around Mother’s Day in May, Uden said. Grass conditions look the best since 2011, he added.

The dramatic improvement comes as a record U.S. corn harvest is expected to boost available feed supplies.

“Everything has kind of fallen into place,” said Uden, 64. “The cattle will have plenty to eat this year.”

Ranches in South Texas also benefited from one of the greenest summers in years, a welcome reprieve after the punishing drought turned forage brown and dry and killed some cattle.

“Right now, we’re in the process of rebuilding,” said Salinas, a rancher in Rio Grande City, Texas, who sold cattle during the drought.

Temporarily tighter supplies

When ranchers retain heifers, beef production temporarily slows because the animals are not being sent to be slaughtered; it will also likely push meat prices even higher before they come down, agricultural economists said.

Consumers have shown resilience to the climbing cost of beef, but increased prices will test demand, they said.

It takes about two years before beef output rises after ranchers make initial moves to expand because that is how long it takes to raise full-grown cattle, ranchers said.

U.S. cattle and beef supplies are set to decline even further after President Donald Trump’s administration halted imports of Mexican livestock in July to keep out New World screwworm, a devastating pest.

U.S. beef imports from Brazil, a key supplier of meat used to make hamburgers, are also expected to fall after Trump imposed a 50 per cent trade tariff on Wednesday.

Meatpackers lose big

Beef producers such as Tyson and Cargill have waited years for ranchers to begin rebuilding herds because companies must increasingly compete with one another to buy limited supplies.

Processors were losing about $300 on each head of cattle they slaughtered on Tuesday, according to livestock marketing advisory service HedgersEdge.com.

Farmers have worried a processor may shutter a beef plant due to hefty losses, though Cargill told Reuters it had no plans to do so.

“It’s not overwhelmingly glaring that, ‘Hey we’re starting to rebuild the cow herd,’ but I think there are quite a few signals,” said Jarrod Gillig, senior vice president of Cargill’s North American beef business.

For one, strong prices for heifers at a major video livestock sale in July signaled the animals will be retained on farms, Gillig said.

In rural feedlots, about 4.2 million heifers were being fattened for slaughter as of July 1, down five per cent from 2024, according to USDA data. The decline likely reflects that ranchers are keeping at least a few more heifers on farms to reproduce, analysts said.

Tyson said a 16 per cent drop in beef cow slaughtering from January to June was another early indicator of ranchers retaining heifers on their farms. The meatpacker reported cattle costs climbed by about $560 million (C$770.4 million) in the quarter that ended on June 28, compared to a year earlier.

Herd rebuilding will begin in earnest next year, and the beef business will see benefits in 2028, King said.

Forgoing immediate profits

Ranchers who retain heifers must make a difficult decision to forgo immediate profits from selling cattle for slaughter in a bet that prices will stay high. Many are cautious about passing up the opportunity because they remember when prices tanked following a rapid production increase in 2014.

High interest rates also discourage farmers from expanding operations.

Hadrick, 49, said he would have liked to hold back more than 16 cows at his farm in Faulkton, South Dakota, but he was spooked by a lack of moisture earlier this year. High cattle prices encouraged him to expand a bit now that his son has returned home from college and provides extra help.

“The market’s screaming for more cattle,” Hadrick said. “We’re dipping our toe in.”

— Additional reporting by Heather Schlitz in Rio Grande City, Texas.

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Due to CFIA privacy laws, that’s about as much as Manitoba Beef Producers (MBP) president Matthew Atkinson knows about the case.

However, he would still like the operation impacted by the incident — as well as any who may have such a problem in the future, be they beef or dairy operations — to reach out to the dairy industry or MBP for help, including the communication of compensation details if necessary.

“The hardships that they are going through can’t be shared with us. We don’t know what’s going on and so we can’t provide support unless somebody reaches out and asks for that support, but we are here as that resource to help them through that.”

WHY IT MATTERS: Manitoba industry and officials spent significant effort to stamp out bovine tuberculosis and, until 2025, it had been well over a decade since the last cattle case in the province.

Labs found the bacteria responsible for the disease June 9 in samples taken from a seven-year-old cow at a federally registered abattoir in the province, according to a CFIA news release. The finding was confirmed June 13 and the CFIA released a notice to industry June 16.

The processor was later confirmed as the True North Foods plant at Carman, Man., by the company’s chief executive officer Calvin Vaags.

The CFIA said the originating farm was identified using DairyTrace, Canada’s national traceability program for the dairy industry. The herd has been quarantined pending “further testing and depopulation,” said the agency.

Atkinson said he sympathizes with any farmer whose operation has been quarantined, especially if there’s a possibility of depopulation due to a disease that requires reporting to the CFIA.

“The livestock on our farms are a lot more than livestock or a tool to make a living from,” he said.

“It’s unimaginable the mental toll of having to see herds depopulated as well as the loss of all those years worth of bloodlines on those herds and good breeding.”

Better compensation

On June 18 the Government of Canada announced increases to its maximum compensation amounts for cattle that are ordered destroyed.

An amendment to the Compensation for Destroyed Animals and Things Regulations (CDATR) increased the rates by up to $16,500 per head for registered (purebred) cattle (up $10,000 from the previous rate set in 2015) and up to $10,000 per head for commercial cattle (up from $4,500).

“It is important to note that the actual amount of compensation to be paid to an owner or producer is calculated based on the current market value of the animal,” wrote the CFIA in an email.

Bovine TB incidents handled quickly

Although Canada is considered free of the disease, isolated cases in cattle may — and have — transpired, federal officials say.

That disease-free status doesn’t change with this incident because the infection was quickly acted on, says Atkinson.

“They all get a clean bill of health before anything’s moving. So that’s really the great length that the CFIA goes to ensure that the rest of us maintain that TB-free status.”

The incident is a case study in the fact that CFIA inspections work, said Atkinson.

“(They) found it at point of slaughter and that’s a good thing to know.”

The CFIA will be tracing the movement of animals to and from the farm in the past five years so that testing can be arranged, read an email from the CFIA.

Can lie dormant for years

Bovine tuberculosis can be tricky. According to the agency, the bacteria can lie dormant in an infected animal for years without causing clinical signs or progressive symptoms. However, it can reactivate in older animals or during periods of stress in younger ones.

Initial signs of the disease include enlarged lesions found in animal tissue, including lymph nodes on the head and thorax, lungs, spleen, and liver.

When progressive disease occurs, the general signs include weakness, loss of appetite, weight loss and fluctuating fever. Extensively diseased, lungs there can result in an intermittent, hacking cough.

Atkinson says the disease is challenging to detect on-farm, especially in its early stages.

“It’s often something that doesn’t show much for symptoms.”

Movement between herds a critical vector

The disease is spread among animals by a number of means, says the CFIA. They shed the bacteria in respiratory secretions and aerosols, feces, milk and sometimes in urine, vaginal secretions or semen.

Other animals can contract the disease by inhaling micro-droplets in aerosols from already-infected animals and the ingestion of contaminated food and water.

Moving cattle from one herd to another with subsequent extended close contact increases transmission risk, writes the CFIA.

“In addition, where infected wildlife are a reservoir of disease, there is the potential for ongoing transmission to livestock.”

Trade action doubtful, but vigilance recommended

Atkinson doesn’t think the incident will affect trade either internationally or interprovincially thanks to quick action on the part of the agency.

“We are currently addressing and eradicating anything that is there and so that’s really part of the reasoning why we need to make sure that those folks get really fairly looked after and compensated, because realistically, they go through an awful lot of hardship that allows the rest of us to maintain (that) trade status.”

Trade and bovine tuberculosis

Andre Steppler is a purebred cattle producer from Miami, Man., in the western Pembina Valley.

He’s a little more vigilant on the possibility of trade disruption considering the tempestuous political climate between Canada and the U.S., despite the fact U.S. cattle producers struggle with TB as well.

“In this climate that we have with our politics now, we don’t want to give any excuse to shut a border. And when it comes to disease it’s a pretty justifiable excuse to shut a border if there’s a disease risk.

“I’m not saying we have a disease risk here with TB, but it opens the door for some conversations.”

Something Steppler finds odd is how a cow could have contracted TB in the Pembina Valley in the first place considering the area’s relatively light wildlife pressure compared to other Manitoba regions.

Areas around Riding Mountain National Park in Manitoba’s northwest were the more typical area for the disease, historically.

Wildlife testing in the late ’90s and early ’00s found cases in the region’s wild elk. The wild vector led the CFIA to establish the Riding Mountain TB Eradication Area around the park, which came with additional scrutiny and requirements for farmers moving cattle in and out of the zone.

The Pembina Valley doesn’t exactly have a thriving elk population.

“We’re predominantly a grain land type area, so we don’t see elk herds like people do in other parts of the province or Canada. I feel that we are a little bit less at risk because of that,” Steppler said.

The fact it occurred in a dairy herd opens up more questions, he says.

“With it being a dairy herd where there’s more control (over) those animals where they just don’t have as much chance to run … They just don’t have the same exposure to wildlife as maybe a beef operation would.”

The elk population is mushrooming in Western Canada, says Steppler, and he’s frustrated by what he sees as a reluctance on the part of the government to survey the wild animals and find out how many there are.

Complicating matters is the fact dairy cows and elk can get along quite well.

“The elk will actually hang out with cows if the cows will allow it. So there is that cross-contamination of feed sources or nose-to-nose contact with the cows themselves.”

Spread to humans rare, but possible

The CFIA describes bovine TB as a chronic, contagious bacterial livestock disease. It’s occasionally found in other mammalian species infected with the Mycobacterium bovis (M. bovis) bacteria.

Despite its cross-infection potential, human cases of bovine TB in Canada are very rare.

However, the agency says exposure can still occur by the passage of fluids to open skin sores, extended close contact with animals infected with active respiratory TB, or consuming raw or unpasteurized animal products — such as unpasteurized milk — from an infected animal.

Owners and handlers of infected cattle may be at elevated risk. The CFIA recommends anyone exposed to an infected animal seek medical advice. Bovine TB — which presents itself in humans similarly to human TB — can be treated successfully with antimicrobial drugs. Untreated infections have the potential to be fatal.

“Currently the risk to the general population in Canada is very low due to pasteurization of milk and livestock surveillance and testing programs,” wrote the CFIA.

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The farm has launched Juno Bites, dog treats made from beef organs that previously had no market.

Why it matters: Diversifying into animal treats adds a new facet of direct marketing for Nerbas Bros. Angus, and dovetails with the farm’s values around sustainable farming and waste reduction.

Juno Bites feeds into growing consumer demand for natural, nutritious pet products. The farm came up with the idea after finding few buyers for organ meat.

“Customers would maybe take a liver, but that was pretty much it,” said Arron Nerbas, co-owner of Nerbas Bros. Angus.

The farm tries to derive as much benefit as possible from each animal it processes, so the Nerbas team explored alternative uses for organ meats.

They initially considered the human supplement market, where freeze-dried organ meats have gained popularity due to their nutritional benefits. However, regulatory hurdles, particularly with Health Canada, made that route impractical.

Pet products were a more viable option.

Juno’s Bites

Nerbas Bros. Angus launched the dog treats in July, named after the family’s beagle. Juno Bites are now displayed at the farm’s retail space, The E Butchery on Main, in the nearby community of Russell. Made primarily from freeze-dried liver and other organ meats, the treats are simple, Nerbas said.

“There’s a health aspect. The dog likes it, it tastes good for them.”

The process of freeze-drying each batch can vary, depending on moisture content of the organs. It requires constant monitoring to ensure the perfect final product.

Customer response has been overwhelmingly positive, Nerbas said, and social media played a crucial role in promotion.

“People that have tried it love this stuff,” he said. “It’s crazy. They come back.”

It’s proven popular enough that the farm has decided to expand the venture. It is also revamping the website, set to launch alongside an online custom ordering system in October.

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Total inventory decreased by two per cent year-over-year, wrote FCC senior economists Justin Shepherd and Leigh Anderson on Sept. 11.

Heifers intended for beef replacement increased by one per cent while mature beef cows declined by two per cent.

“Given that both groups contribute to future calf productions, this indicates 2025 may not yet be the year for herd growth,” they wrote.

Beef cows and heifers accounted for 48 per cent of slaughter in the first six months of the year —the largest percentage since 2012. The ratio of heifers placed on feed has declined compared to 2023, “but it is too early to call it a trend,” Shepherd and Anderson wrote.

Cattle prices have trended significantly above the five-year average with cow-calf producers seeing the largest gains.

“High calf and cow prices could be fueling small operations to exit at an opportune time, and while larger operations will take up some of the herd, the data yet does not signal that producers in aggregate are ready to grow,” Shepherd and Anderson wrote.

With fewer animals in production, processing plants are relying on heavier cattle. In the first six months of the year, Canadian federally-inspected carcass weights rose six per cent —averaging 963 lbs, which is 100 lbs heavier than a decade ago, FCC said.

This means that Canadian plants produce five per cent more beef per year than in 2000 while slaughtering ten per cent fewer cattle.

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Jewish organizations and companies had appealed the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) regulations in court, claiming they made kosher slaughter difficult, which resulted in a disruption in supply of kosher meat in Canada.

The applicants say the CFIA requirements reduced the supply of kosher beef by 55 per cent and veal by 90 per cent.

Federal regulations require that an animal be unconscious before it is hung after it is ritually slaughtered and that requirement will continue to be enforced the CFIA said in a note to ritual slaughter licence holders on Aug. 2.

However, three specific unconsciousness measures will no longer be enforced. They include:

• Absence of rhythmic breathing
• Absence of palpebral reflex (eye movement)
• Absence of corneal reflex

The CFIA had specific requirements around timed measurement of these indicators of unconsciousness, which were created in 2019 but weren’t enforced until June, 2023. The extra time to comply with the three measures has meant that some meat production licence holders have stopped ritual slaughter due to the decreasing in efficiency.

Animals that are conventionally slaughtered are stunned using gas or captive bolt, which are accepted methods of rendering an animal unconscious. The applicants argued that the three measures weren’t an indicator of unconsciousness, but of death.

Kosher and halal slaughter have other requirements around how animals are slaughtered, which don’t allow stunning before slaughter.

In the decision, Justice Guy Régimbald wrote in a decision released July 24 that the CFIA standards were unnecessary as there are other ways in which kosher slaughter had proved unconsciousness over many years and that the applicants’ rights to freedom of religion and equality under the Charter of Rights and Freedom were impaired.

The applicants were the Jewish Community Council of Montreal, Kashruth Council of Canada, Rabbi Abraham Banon, and kosher meat distribution companies Mehadrin and Shefa.

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Nearly 1,000 unionized employees at Cargill Dunlop in Guelph ratified a new collective agreement on Saturday July 6. The workers, represented by Local 175 of the United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW), began strike action after turning down a deal on May 26.

The UFCW said in a release the new agreement includes:

• Wage increases totalling $3.75 per hour over the course of the agreement, which includes $2 per hour in the first year. That $2 will be paid retroactive for all hours worked, including overtime, since January 1, 2024. In addition, members receive a contract renewal incentive payment in the form of a $500 lump sum.
• Dental coverage improves to $2,000 per year, and members also benefit from the removal of lifetime caps on a number of dental services.
• Short Term Disability (STD) now has a maximum of 70 per cent and will provide up to $143 more per week. This means members can receive up to $668 per week while on STD leave.
• Bereavement leave entitlement for members will now be five days, up from four, for the death of a spouse, child, or parent.

The Beef Farmers of Ontario (BFO) said in a statement it is relieved to hear that an agreement has been reached between Cargill Guelph and Union officials. “We will continue to monitor as the facility reopens and returns to normal operation,” the BFO said.

Cargill’s Guelph facility processes approximately 75 per cent of the cattle in Ontario and plays a significant role in the Ontario beef supply chain. The Cargill Guelph Dunlop facility fills 67 per cent of the federally inspected processing capacity in eastern Canada, according to the BFO.

—Updated to say workers return to work today.

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