I've been thinking about what the government can do to help ranchers. Research shows that the U.S. cattle inventory has dropped to 86.2 million head which is its lowest level in 75 years. If you look it up, you'll see that some folks are blaming this problem on multi-year droughts in the West, high feed and production costs, and economic liquidations.
Frankly, that's partially true. Recent grazing conditions have been terrible because of severe consecutive years of dry weather across the West's major cattle-producing regions. There is no argument about how droughts have drastically depleted available pasture and forage. Add that to ever higher costs to ranchers in the form of soaring prices for feed, non-alfalfa hay, fuel, and equipment, and anyone with half a brain can see how that's cut profit margins for multi-generational and independent ranchers, big and small alike.
We should all understand how droughts are a real problem. We should understand how they are cyclical. Let's look back at how droughts affected the Great Cattle Die Up of 1886 when ranchers were hit with almost 10 years of droughts before getting slammed with a historically cold and wet winter. That event killed hundreds of thousands of cattle. The Great Cattle Die-Up of 1886, also called the Big Die-Up, was a historic disaster of Biblical proportions on the Great Plains.
In the Great Die Up, ranchers made it through years of droughts to watch hundreds of thousands of cattle freeze and starved to death across Montana, Wyoming, and the Dakotas due to severe blizzards, bitter cold, and severe overgrazing. While ranchers made it through by rebuilding, that was the event that marked the dramatic end of the open-range cattle industry.
Of course, American ranchers also made it through the droughts that created the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, and they survived the horrible drought that we experienced in the 1970s. I remember how some folks at the time didn't think America's cattle industry would ever come back from that. Thankfully, through shear determination of ranchers who didn't know the word "quit," they rebuilt their herds.
We survived and even prospered, but it sure wasn't easy. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, we faced severe "stagflation" which was a terribly painful mix of high Inflation, super high Unemployment, and incredibly high Interest Rates. While some folks out there have memory lapses about the numbers, I remember how Inflation, Unemployment, and Interest Rates reached staggering levels.
Friends, official numbers say Inflation peaked at an annual rate of almost 15% in March of 1980. Official Unemployment numbers reached a recession high of 11% in 1982. But frankly, that 1982 Unemployment figure is a lie.
Since Americans were only able to collect Unemployment Benefits at the time for a maximum of 12 weeks, while proving that you were trying to find a job, at the end of those 12 weeks you fell off the rolls whether you found a job or not. The government "assumed" you must have found work even if you hadn't. That made it look like you were employed when you weren't.
Just as what took place during the Great Depression in the 1930s, during the severe early 1980s recession, the official U.S. unemployment rate peaked at 10.8% in December 1982. However, unofficial or broader alternative estimates incorporating discouraged workers and the underemployed, made those numbers surge past 20% for total labor impact. This is absolutely what took place, including in specific hard-hit sectors like construction and auto manufacturing that saw localized joblessness exceed 20% to 24%.
When folks factor in part-time workers who wanted full-time jobs and discouraged dropouts, the Unemployment numbers get pushed to the true functional hardship rate above 20%. And as for industrial being devastated, it's a fact that auto manufacturing Unemployment spiked to 24% and construction sector Unemployment hit 22% at the time.
I remember reading about how factory towns in the Rust Belt and Midwest saw localized peaks matching or exceeding Great Depression levels -- an example of that was Rockford, Illinois, that saw 25% Unemployment.
In the 1970s, the high Inflation drove ranchers and farmers to buy more land and equipment, treating real estate as a safe inflation hedge. Lenders happily pushed loans, assuming land prices would climb forever. And of course, in 1979 the Federal Reserve tried to aggressively raise interest rates to kill inflation. That never works, but they did it anyway, which sent borrowing costs as high as 21% to 24%.
As for the financial collapse that followed, the crushing debt of existing loans with variable interest rates doubled or tripled in operating cost overnight, meaning total interest payments soon exceeded net ranch income. That meant that ranchers faced collapsing asset values. And yes, land values plummeted by 30% to over 60% in many regions, wiping out the equity ranchers needed to secure operating loans.
As for the demand for beef by Americans? Because a lot of us were out of work, high Unemployment, businesses closing, factories closing or moving out of the country, frankly jobs were hard to find. And really. those who were working knew better than to quit. So, all in all, the economic slowdowns in America dropped domestic meat consumption.
People have short memories and don't remember how tough times were back then. Because the economy was in the toilet, the late 1970s saw a major spike in beef prices due to high Inflation, rising feed costs, and a sharp drop in cattle inventory after a multi-year liquidation cycle. This all made beef expensive for many families, causing a shift toward cheaper poultry and pork alternatives.
The cattle cycle is always a factor. Ranchers reduced herds earlier in the decade because of high grain costs and low profits. High overall Inflation in the late 1970s raised the cost of processing, packaging, and transporting meat. High beef prices at the stores caused average beef consumption to drop from peak levels as shoppers bought chicken and pork instead.
Here's something else, soon the supply of cattle dropped. Fewer cattle available on the market directly drove up supermarket beef prices. The result was that American families changed weekly meal plans to cope with the higher cost of living.
While Republican President Ronald Reagan did not fully save American ranchers and farmers from the severe economic crisis of the early 1980s, and the high Interest Rates and falling land values triggered a devastating Farm Crisis in America, President Reagan's broad free-market economic policies lowered national Inflation Rates while trying to rebuild our shattered economy.
And yes, in 2026, many American ranchers continue to experience financial and operational pressure stemming from previous years of government regulation, trade policies, and land management decisions. While cattle prices are at record highs in 2026 due to extreme supply shortages, the industry faces structural challenges, with producers calling for help from President Donald Trump to alleviate regulatory burdens that have accumulated over the past decades.
As for the Interest Rates at the time? The prime rate peaked at a record 21.5% in December 1980. It didn't kill us. Life still went on. And yes, it was common for Americans to buy homes with a 30-year fixed mortgage rate of 18.3% in 1981. I remember buying my first new car in 1979. I bought a CJ-5 Jeep for $3,200 at an Interest Rate of 17%. And yes, I had great credit!
Farmers and ranchers were also buying new equipment and feeding their cattle back then. And yes, they sharpened their pencils to steal from Peter to pay Paul, but they made things work on the most part.
I remember really well, how during the 1970s and 1980s, American ranchers faced severe financial strain due to soaring production costs. Prices for livestock feed, non-alfalfa hay, fuel, and heavy machinery spiked dramatically, driven by high Inflation and the 1970s energy crises. And yes, just as what's going on today, cattle and livestock prices often failed to keep pace.
The global oil crises in the 1970s caused diesel and gasoline prices to jump. This raised the daily cost of running tractors, trucks, and ranch operations. Add that to the fact that we faced drought conditions in the 1970s and high energy costs, and you see what pushed prices for grain, supplements, and non-alfalfa hay to record highs.
As for equipment expenses? Tractors, fencing materials, and replacement parts became much more expensive to buy and maintain. Now add to that how the horrible government policies coming from Democrat President Jimmy Carter in the late 1970s brought Americans double-digit Interest Rates which made debt servicing and land mortgages crippling for many family operations. Any of this sound familiar? Democrats today have the same policies.
As for the result of the Democrat policies on ranchers? Operating costs outpaced market returns for beef and other livestock. Many ranchers liquidated to regrow their herds. And yes, many long-standing family ranches were forced to sell off land or livestock just to survive. Sadly, smaller independent operators disappeared or merged into larger corporate setups.
This is all true. During the 1970s and early 1980s, Democrat policies created soaring Inflation, skyrocketing Interest Rates (peaking over 21%), and a collapsing export market -- which triggered the worst crisis for American agriculture since the Great Depression.
Don't fool yourself into thinking that I might be exaggerating things just because Democrat policies ruined our economy and almost put America into a Second Great Depression at the time. It is a fact that ranchers who had borrowed heavily to buy land and expand their operations during the 1970s boom, a boom that was promoted by the federal government to borrow money, all of a sudden faced crushing debt payments, plunging land values, and widespread foreclosures as operating costs outpaced livestock prices.
In the 1970s, the high Inflation drove ranchers and farmers to buy more land and equipment, treating real estate as a safe inflation hedge. Lenders happily pushed loans, assuming land prices would climb forever. And of course, in 1979 the Federal Reserve tried to aggressively raise interest rates to kill inflation. That never works, but they did it anyway, which sent borrowing costs as high as 21% to 24%.
As for the financial collapse that followed, the crushing debt of existing loans with variable interest rates doubled or tripled in operating cost overnight, meaning total interest payments soon exceeded net ranch income. That meant that ranchers faced collapsing asset values. And yes, land values plummeted by 30% to over 60% in many regions, wiping out the equity ranchers needed to secure operating loans.
As for the demand for beef by Americans? Because a lot of us were out of work, high Unemployment, businesses closing, factories closing or moving out of the country, frankly jobs were hard to find. And really. those who were working knew better than to quit. So, all in all, the economic slowdowns in America dropped domestic meat consumption.
Americans couldn't afford beef. It's true. Eating beef in the late 1970s became a luxury for a lot of hard working Americans who simply couldn't afford it.
The cattle cycle is always a factor. Ranchers reduced herds earlier in the decade because of high grain costs and low profits. High overall Inflation in the late 1970s raised the cost of processing, packaging, and transporting meat. High beef prices at the stores caused average beef consumption to drop from peak levels as shoppers bought chicken and pork instead.
Here's something else, soon the supply of cattle dropped. Fewer cattle available on the market directly drove up supermarket beef prices. The result was that American families changed weekly meal plans to cope with the higher cost of living.
As for Americans experiencing hard times, yes, foreclosures and bankruptcies were through the roof. As for ranchers specifically? It was a time that saw thousands of generational ranch and farm families lost their land to banks and the Farm Credit System. Add to that rural bank failures. It's true. There were a lot of rural banks that served agricultural communities that simply went under because borrowers could not pay back their massive debts.
So now, let's talk about how Republican President Ronald Reagan tried to save American ranchers from high Inflation, high Unemployment, and high Interest Rates of the horrible economy of the 1970s and 1980s.
For me, I find it interesting that he was the first president to use the term "Make America Great Again" in his 1980 presidential campaign. And yes, even though there was an assassination attempt on his life, and the Democrats tried to Impeach him right after being elected in a landslide victory, none of that stopped him from reversing years of detrimental Democrat policies, and move ahead with an "America First" policy.
While Republican President Ronald Reagan did not fully save American ranchers and farmers from the severe economic crisis of the early 1980s, and the high Interest Rates and falling land values triggered a devastating Farm Crisis in America, President Reagan's broad free-market economic policies lowered national Inflation Rates while trying to rebuild our shattered economy.
His economic policies were called "Reaganomics." Democrats hated it because he cut taxes on all Americans to get Americans to keep more of their hard earned money. He also promoted small businesses and large corporations to invest in America. He gave incentives to businesses to create jobs. Not merely create a bigger Welfare State as Democrats were doing at the time, but allowing free Americans the freedom to create wealth which created wealth for others in the form of needed jobs.
He did that by instituting sweeping tax cuts to individual and corporate tax rates via the Economic Recovery Tax Act to stimulate private investment. And, supported by the Federal Reserve's tight money policies, Reagan was able to drop Inflation from 13.5% in 1981 when he entered office -- down to 4.1% by 1988 when he left office.
And as for relieving the pain on farmers and ranchers in the way of getting those high Interest Rates lowered, President Reagan took action and was able to pass an agricultural relief emergency debt restructuring bill. He signed the Agriculture Credit Act of 1987, authorizing a multi-billion dollar rescue package to restructure farm and ranch loans over 20-year terms with lower interest rates.
He supported the creation of Chapter 12 bankruptcy in 1986, which created a custom legal shield specifically designed to protect family farmers and ranchers from total liquidation. And to get beef more affordable for Americans, he lifted the 1980 Soviet Grain Embargo on his first day in office and pushed to restore America’s status as a reliable global agricultural supplier.
As for the federal over regulations, land-use policies that restricted ranchers, Leftist environmentalist attacks and other Democrat attacks on American beef producers?
During the 1970s and 1880s, American ranchers had to contend with drought, soaring costs, and financial ruin. Add to this how ranchers faced years of Democrats adding more and more federal mandates, environmental restrictions, how the Left waged a war against the beef industry, the political assaults from the Left, the false claims that cattle were all of a sudden bad for the earth, and all of proposed updates to the Packers and Stockyards Act. That's why I say America's cattle problems started long before 2026. That's why I said, that folks our beef problems today on multi-year droughts in the West, high feed and production costs, and economic liquidations, are only looking at what's partially to blame.
Friends, besides droughts and natural conditions, and raising costs, ranchers have had to fight Washington to survive. Just the imposed heavy compliance burdens and operational uncertainty alone would put must businesses out of business.
And yes, in 2026, many American ranchers continue to experience financial and operational pressure stemming from previous years of government regulation, trade policies, and land management decisions. While cattle prices are at record highs in 2026 due to extreme supply shortages, the industry faces structural challenges, with producers calling for help from President Donald Trump to alleviate regulatory burdens that have accumulated over the past decades.
Years of drought, coupled with rising feed costs and government regulatory pressures has led to the smallest U.S. cattle herd in 75 years by 2026. Ranchers are struggling to rebuild, but the roadblocks in the way citing high costs associated with compliance are not helping them. Add to all of this, Democrat politicians who are getting huge campaign contributions from Leftist environmentalist groups are attacking ranchers in court.
That is why, earlier this year, 2026, President Trump's USDA department noted a need to protect ranchers from "politically motivated lawfare" and "unnecessary seizures of farmland." To help ranchers, President Trump has launched initiatives to reduce regulatory burdens that have hindered American beef production.
Let's hope he's successful.
Tom Correa
