Photo: USDA
Today, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced the Ranchers First Initiative, a sweeping package of actions to continue rebuilding the Great American Beef Herd and put America’s ranchers back at the center of our nation’s food supply.
USDA is going offer the new Beef Retention and National Development (BRAND) endorsement for Livestock Risk Protection (LRP). The BRAND endorsement will allow producers to insure the economic value of retaining a heifer for breeding over a two-year period. The endorsement would establish a protected value based on the expected slaughter value of the heifer at the time of enrollment. If, at any time during the endorsement period, the heifer’s projected or realized slaughter value exceeds the economic value of retaining her as breeding stock, the policy would provide for the difference.
USDA will allow producers to use the Emergency Conservation Program (ECP) on Grassland Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) acres to speed recovery after wildfires and other natural disasters.
Following up on the Strengthening Processing for U.S. Ranchers (SPUR) program to support small and regional beef slaughter facilities, USDA is creating a SPUR Guaranteed Loan Program to help support regional processing, including establishing processor co-ops, expanding small business footprints, and increasing the variety of animal proteins being processed. USDA will also establish a Regional Processor Continuity Effort designed to strengthen regional processing capacity and improve business resilience across the agricultural supply chain.
USDA will also prioritize federal procurement of locally processed American beef by encouraging purchasing across federal and state institutions—including prisons, hospitals, and related facilities.
Source: USDA
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