2024 in the rearview mirror

2: USDA continued shelling out money to help expand the nation's independent meat processing capacity. More than $450 million was provided though the Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program (MPPEP) and the Local Meat Capacity (Local MCap) Grant Program. The grants ranging from $10,000 to $10 million went to scores of projects in 48 states and Puerto Rico. Over $1 billion was allocated for the two grant programs under President Biden’s American Rescue Plan.

3: From artificial intelligence (AI) to virtual fencing, high-tech management systems poured into the beef supply chain. AI was used to predict cattle feed intake and make feeding recommendations. Other high-tech companies demonstrated remote sensing to track animal health, fertility and forage intake while managing grazing to promote opportunities for regenerative beef production.

Related: Special Report: Winter storm update with Greg Soulje

4: Drought was widespread across the Midwest, tightening forage and feed supplies for hundreds of the region’s farmer-feeders. USDA declared 23 Ohio counties natural disaster areas because of severe drought. Nearly one-third of the nation was listed as experiencing drought. Ranchers across many areas of the country experienced irrigation water shortages and severe wildfires.

5: By late spring the U.S. beef herd was predicted to be the smallest since 1961. Weather problems and surging costs forced farmers and ranchers to send more females to slaughter. The higher prices paid for cull cows helped fuel liquidation. The shortage of beef cattle has gotten so acute that some dairy producers are breeding hybrid dairy-beef calves to sell into the low-inventory meat market.

6: Macroeconomic forces like the Russia-Ukraine war, higher wages and rising costs of inputs, tighter credit, and increased energy costs combined to fuel broad-based inflation throughout the beef supply chain. Against this challenging backdrop, the consumer demand for beef remained remarkably resilient. “Consumers have taken some heavy punches but they’re still standing,” said Tom Bailey, senior consumer foods analyst at Rabobank.

7: Beef producers continued to be blamed for contributing to climate change and for driving global deforestation. A team from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln launched a project to develop technology to accurately measure greenhouse gas emissions from grazing cattle. Dozens of private companies and non-profits emerged to help producers measure the ecological processes aimed at improving soil health and increasing carbon sequestration.

Related: Weather Update: January 3, 2025

8: The 2024 presidential election went the way most beef producers in the U.S. wanted. Those in the West believe Interior Secretary nominee Doug Burgum will bring rancher-friendly policies to public lands. Ag Secretary nominee Brooke Rollins will likely be beef-producer friendly. President-elect Trump promised to impose higher tariffs and negotiate better ag trades deals, but as election rhetoric subsides producers are waiting to see how and when those things will happen.

9: In November, Mexican animal health authorities detected a screwworm in a cow at an inspection facility at the Mexico/Guatemala border. The discovery of this troublesome pest prompted the closure of the U.S./Mexico border to all northbound feeder cattle. As the year closes, there’s little indication trade of when trade will resume. Meanwhile hundreds of Mexican ranchers await the fate of their feeder steers.

Related: Farm Progress America, Jan. 2, 2025

10: A Texas federal court judge issued a nationwide injunction effectively nullifying the controversial Corporate Transparency Act. Judge Amos L. Mazzant said the CTA fell outside of Congress’s authority to regulate interstate and international commerce. Farmers and ranchers as well as their business counterparts in town saw the law as an intrusion into their right to privacy.