Concentration in the beef processing sector has long been a hot-button issue for cattle producers. Several groups have been fighting to break up the “monopoly,” including R-CALF. After 18 years, the organization hopes the Department of Justice (DOJ) will finally fix the problem. This optimism comes after President Trump’s request for DOJ to immediately begin an investigation into meatpackers for driving up the price of beef.
R-CALF CEO Bill Bullard says their ongoing lawsuit is based on the premise the meat-packing monopoly has resulted in price fixing.
“We have alleged that the meat packers had unlawfully colluded in order to artificially depress cattle prices, while at the same time raising or inflating the price of beef to the consumers,” he explains.
Currently 85% of the U.S. beef packing industry is owned by four entities, and Bullard says the meat packers are in clear violation of antitrust law.
“Both the producers on the beginning of the supply chain and consumers at the end of the supply chain were exploited as a result of this monopolistic marketing structure that we have in the cattle industry and beef industry today,” he says.
Could High Beef Prices Just be Supply and Demand?
Bullard refutes the current high beef prices are just a function of supply and demand, including the historic low in the cattle herd due to drought.
“It wasn’t until the economic shock, that straw that broke the camel’s back, that our cattle prices started to chase those beef prices upward,” he adds.
But Beef Packers are Losing Money
Bullard also discounts packers such as JBS showing nearly $300 million of losses in the second quarter of 2025 as evidence the packers aren’t making money from the high beef prices at the consumer level.
“Perhaps some of the losses that they made on their slaughtering side were made up from the margins of buying cheaper imports and passing it off to unsuspecting consumers as if it were a domestic product,” he predicts.
What Makes This Investigation Different?
However, the DOJ investigated packers in 2019 after the Holcomb, Kan., plant fire and again during COVID when consumers paid record beef prices while producers received record low cattle prices. So what makes this investigation different? Bullard says he thinks this is part of that ongoing probe.
“It’s our understanding or belief that the investigations that were first started under Trump administration one are continuing today,” he explains. “So the President’s recent announcement, I think, will encourage and incentivize the Justice Department to culminate their investigation and actually take enforcement action in order to protect independent cattle producers and consumers alike.”
Although he’s not sure what enforcement might look like, or if the packers could be broken up as a result.
“We’re hopeful that’s what we’ll see, we’ll see the Department of Justice actually file a lawsuit, alleging the beef packers have violated the Sherman Act, Clayton Act, and Packers and Stockyards Act, to the detriment of independent producers and U .S. consumers,” he says.
While they’ve been waiting six years for their suit to be heard in court, he thinks the President will fast track the action and finally fix a market that has been fundamentally broken for years.
For more on Bullard’s conversation with Michelle Rook, listen to AgriTalk:
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