U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins appeared Tuesday evening on NewsNation and said, “There is a really big announcement coming tomorrow on what we’re going to do to restore and revitalize our beef herd in America, which ultimately will bring the prices down.”
When encouraged to share the news during the episode of The Hill last night, she declined, saying that she will likely be at the White House today to be part of the announcement and implied she didn’t want to spoil that moment.
Rollins’ statement coincides with President Donald Trump’s words last week about beef prices being “higher than we want it” and that his administration had a plan to bring them down “pretty soon.”
The U.S. cattle market ended last week in turmoil as futures tumbled in reaction to Trump’s comments, which were then followed by a weekend statement that the U.S. could import beef from Argentina. Both live and feeder cattle contracts fell sharply lower and left producers and traders searching for clarity.
“We can rebuild our beef herd, which is at its lowest in 75 years, which is why the prices are so high, right?,” Rollins said on the network. “Demand is moving up as people want more protein, and the supply is moving down.”