Under Trump, US cedes its share of China's beef market to Australia

[nitpicked]

4. NPR had a slightly different take on the US beef market

https://www.npr.org/2025/09/18/nx-s1-5534424/beef-prices-record-high-cost

Why beef prices are higher than ever (and shoppers are finally resisting)

(snip)
How has the price changed since before the pandemic?
Up 51% since February 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
(snip)

In July, the U.S. Department of Agriculture continued to record a shrinking number of U.S. cattle and calves, forecasting that beef production would decline 4% over this year and another 2% in 2026.

Meanwhile, foreign imports are also down. Brazilian beef faces a 76% tariff. Fears about the screwworm parasite have led the USDA to block livestock from crossing from Mexico to the U.S. to safeguard the nation's food supply.
(snip)

Repopulation is still going very slowly — for new reasons. Facing ever-higher operations costs, ranchers are leery of investing in an expansion. And the record values that cattle can fetch mean that it's often more profitable to sell young females (called heifers) for meat than to keep them for breeding.
(snip)