The USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) is supporting the U.S. beef industry with guaranteed loans for smaller meat processors and access to some conserved land for grazing after natural disasters and wildfires, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Monday. The steps follow President Donald Trump’s pledge to let ranchers process their own cattle and challenge what he called a "nasty monopoly" among major meatpackers. U.S. consumers are paying record beef prices as drought and wildfires have reduced the cattle herd to 75-year lows. Trump also signed an order last week expanding lower-tariff beef imports to help reduce prices, a move that angered farm groups. Rollins said the USDA intends to rebuild the beef herd, provide producers with risk-management tools, reduce regulatory burdens on small and independent operators, and improve transparency in a market she described as consolidated and foreign-owned.