The CattleFax Symposium at NCBA’s 2025 CattleCon revealed a fairly healthy supply of feed and grain in the early winter, all thanks to a record-high yield in 2024.

Brooke Rollins was confirmed on Feb. 13 by the U.S. Senate as secretary of agriculture by a vote of 72-28. She is just the second woman to serve as secretary of agriculture.

At no time in the history of livestock agriculture have producers been more efficient at producing beef than they are now. Just in the last half-century, global beef production has nearly doubled, despite a historically small herd size.

Through the first half of 2024, it looked like the U.S. might be climbing out of the drought that has plagued big chunks of the country for the last half-decade. The El Nino the ag world had been waiting for was finally here. And then, it wasn’t.

As we prepare to build back the U.S. beef herd and reduce the diseases threatening U.S. beef production, farmers and ranchers should consider how to protect their animals and operations before it is too late.

With the cattle herd is at an all-time low, we are all wondering when herd rebuilding will begin and how long this cattle cycle will last. In the past six years, 8 million head of cattle have left the herd. Even with mass liquidation, beef production continues to grow, said Kevin Good, CattleFax analyst, at the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) CattleCon 2025 in San Antonio, Texas.