The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is supporting the beef industry through 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 measures follow President Donald Trump's pledge to help ranchers process their own cattle and challenge what he called a "nasty monopoly" among major meatpackers. U.S. consumers are paying record beef prices while drought and wildfires have reduced the cattle herd to a 75-year low. 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's broader effort includes rebuilding the Great American Beef Herd, providing producers with risk-management tools, reducing regulatory barriers for small and independent operators, and increasing transparency in a market she described as consolidated and foreign-owned.