Brooke Rollins

USDA scheduled the Santa Teresa livestock crossing to reopen on September 24. Bloomberg reported that agency staff were preparing at the site, while an APHIS importer page last modified August 25 listed the reopening date as to be determined.

USDA packaged a set of actions aimed at getting ranchers to hold back heifers rather than sell them, including a Beef Retention and National Development endorsement for Livestock Risk Protection, a SPUR guaranteed loan programme for regional processing, and a Regional Processor Continuity Effort. The release noted that with recent closure announcements, nearly 20 percent of beef processing capacity would be available as the herd grows.

After more than a year of closure, Rollins said it was safe to reopen the Douglas, Arizona port in 30 days and resume cattle movement, with a phased schedule and a jointly agreed import protocol. Douglas would be the only crossing open, a fraction of the pre-closure trade.

The Strengthening Processing for U.S. Ranchers programme offered up to $500 million to independent and regional beef slaughter facilities, alongside a Small Processors Action Plan and a fourth $60 million round of the Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program. The theory was that more places to sell cattle would weaken the Big Four's hold on the market.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Department of the Interior, Department of Health and Human Services, and Small Business Administration announced actions for the American beef industry. The announcement identified the role of American ranchers in national security.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins suspended imports of live cattle, horses and bison through every port of entry on the southern border, after the flesh-eating parasite was found on farms about 700 miles from the US line. Mexican feeder cattle had supplied roughly 5 percent of US feedlot placements, and the closure removed that supply just as the domestic herd was already shrinking.