The amount of beef produced in the United States has dropped sharply this year, as cattle farmers who have struggled to turn a profit continue shrinking their herds, according to a Bluffton, Georgia, farmer and federal data.
U.S. Department of Agriculture figures show commercial beef production totaled about 14.4 billion pounds from January through July 2026, down from roughly 15.2 billion pounds over the same stretch in 2025. The number of cattle commercially slaughtered fell too, from about 17.5 million head in the first seven months of last year to 16.2 million this year.
Will Harris, a fourth-generation cattle farmer who owns White Oak Pastures in Bluffton, said the decline traces back to years of thin margins that pushed producers to sell off their herds.
“Cattle farmers have for so long not made a profit that they have liquidated their herds, and the numbers are just not here anymore,” Harris said.
Normally, higher cattle prices would prompt farmers to rebuild their herds and expand. Harris said that isn’t happening this time.
“What’s different is the higher prices the farmers are getting is not causing them to go back into business,” he said.
High Cost of Entry
Harris pointed to the steep upfront costs of land, equipment and livestock as a major barrier keeping new producers out of the business, even with strong prices.
“There’s so much money involved in owning land and equipment and livestock that it’s just very hard for a person who is not producing to say, ‘I think I’ll start a farm,'” he said.
He also raised concerns about the country’s growing reliance on beef from abroad.
“What is happening is that the United States is becoming a larger and larger net importer of beef,” Harris said.
The U.S. both imports and exports beef, with the balance shaped by domestic production levels, consumer demand and conditions in global markets, according to USDA data.
A Farmer’s Own Shift
Harris has watched cattle farming change dramatically since he graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in animal science in 1976 and returned to run his family’s farm. He initially followed conventional methods, including chemical fertilizers, antibiotics and growth-promoting technologies, before moving away from them.
“They offered a performance boost in the short run,” Harris said. “In the long run, they were literally damaging my land, my farm, my community.”
White Oak Pastures now operates under what Harris calls regenerative agriculture, an approach he says is built around working with natural cycles rather than conventional monoculture farming.
Harris said consumers looking to understand how their beef was raised shouldn’t rely on labels alone.
“It’s increasingly important that that consumer knows something about the farm that the food is raised on,” he said.
He encouraged shoppers to research producers directly and buy closer to home when they can.
“I wish that consumers would find a more local producer that they could do business with, they could support to help that guy stay in business,” he said.
Fox News Digital, which first reported this story, said it reached out to the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association for comment.
