“Ag has changed yesterday, it’s changing today, and it will surely change tomorrow,” U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said in a speech to attendees at the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA) Convention on April 12. “What has stayed the same for far too long are the broken systems in Washington, D.C. – including systems at the USDA that haven’t been updated in decades.”

One of my best childhood friends was named Fred. I trusted Fred implicitly, and never once did he let me down.

USDA's most recent Cattle on Feed report indicated 1.82 million head of cattle were placed in feedlots in January 2025, up 2% from 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.

When Kee Jim talks, people in the cattle world listen. He has spent a decades-long career refuting the notion that a jack of all trades is the master of none, offering his extensive expertise to help feedlot operators become as efficient and profitable as possible.