R-CALF CEO Bill Bullard testifies June 24 before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Bullard told senators concentration in the meat-packing industry hurts ranchers. (Courtesy of Senate Judiciary Committee)

R-CALF CEO Bill Bullard got a sympathetic and bipartisan reaction as he told a Senate committee that beef and sheep ranchers are being exploited by meat-packers, a claim disputed by a trade group that represents the packers.

Bullard testified June 24 at a hearing on competitive markets held by the Senate Judiciary Committee. He said a handful of meat-packers have all but eliminated competition in the beef and sheep industries.

“Ranchers at one end of the supply chain and consumers at the other are being exploited,” Bullard said. “Our cattle and sheep markets are fundamentally broken, and we ask Congress for its intervention in rigorous enforcement of our antitrust laws and the Packers and Stockyards Act.”

The packers’ trade group, the Meat Institute, was not represented at the hearing. Institute spokeswoman Sarah Little said in an email that industry figures show packers lost money per head in 2024 and losses have continued so far in 2025.

“On the other hand, cattle producers are making record profits,” she said. “This is due to simple supply and demand. There are not enough cattle to meet strong consumer demand.”

Bullard agreed in a post-hearing interview that cattle prices are high because consumers want beef, while the U.S. cattle herd has shrunk. But ranchers have seen prices spike before and then collapse, he said. “That doesn’t happen in a competitive marketplace.”

Four companies handle 85% of all steers and heifers, according to the USDA Economic Research Service. Bullard said market concentration and “unrestrained globalism” have thrown the cattle industry into a crisis.

“For decades, our ranchers have been dropping like flies,” he told senators.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, agreed with Bullard’s take on the marketplace.

“If you’re a cattle rancher, you’re not getting paid for your product. If you are a consumer at the grocery store, you’re paying an arm and a leg for some hamburger,” he said. “Who’s really making out like a bandit here? It’s the monopolists. It’s the four companies that control 80% of beef processing. That’s not competition.”

New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, the committee’s top-ranking Democrat, said he agreed with Hawley.

Bullard said he was encouraged that senators from both parties were sympathetic.

“Clearly, there is an awareness of what the cattle industry is facing,” he said.

Bullard shared the witness table with four others, including Roger Alford, principal deputy attorney general in the Department of Justice’s antitrust division.

The Justice Department is suing Agri Stats, alleging the Indiana-based data consulting firm is violating the Sherman Act by monopolizing information that allows packers to control the meat supply.

“We absolutely agree that agriculture and antitrust are fundamentally important,” Alford said.

Congress passed the Packers and Stockyards Act in 1921 to prevent meat-packers from taking advantage of thousands of ranchers. The Biden administration proposed making it easier for individual ranchers to bring claims under the act, but withdrew the rule.

While R-CALF supported the new regulations, other farm groups, including the American Farm Bureau and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, argued the rules would prevent meat packers from offering tailored contracts to individual producers.