A few hundred people packed into a tent Tuesday at one of the largest outdoor agricultural events in the U.S. The Farm Progress Show, which alternates between Boone, Iowa, and Decatur, Illinois, each year, draws in over 100,000 people across three days.
“Here at the Farm Progress Show, we don't just talk about equipment. We don't just talk about agronomy,” said Mike Pearson, Farm Progress broadcasting director. “We recognize that so much of our bottom lines are shaped by policy that can sometimes feel a little out of our control. So, we bring those policymakers here.”
After touting the administration’s cancellation of diversity trainings and rollout of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced the USDA Data Modernization Plan.
“Over the past 18 months, we have been hitting the road and hearing directly from our producers like you, here in the Heartland especially, about how we can ensure USDA continues to put out the best data possible, data that producers rely on to make informed decisions about their operations,” Rollins said.
The plan includes increasing mobile access to farmer surveys, expanding secure data sharing across the agency and exploring the use of pre-filled information to simplify administrative tasks for producers.
To improve the accuracy of crop reports, USDA will also conduct a pilot integrating satellite imagery and modeling, with farmer survey data. Rollins said the USDA is working with NASA and other federal agencies on the project.
Another goal is increasing transparency by explaining why information is requested and how it is used.
“Everything for me changed when I began to talk to farmers directly, who had just been asked to fill out the survey for the fifth time, who had been told or not told why they were asking for that survey, who had had trouble getting responses from the local offices,” Rollins said.
The USDA Data Modernization Plan builds on the “One Farmer, One File” rollout earlier this year, which creates an individual record for each farmer across agency programs. Rollins said the new system was used for the first time with the Farmer Bridge Assistance Program.
Beyond data, Rollins discussed federal investments in domestic fertilizer production, with the goal of bringing down input prices for crop farmers. She gave the example of Natural Fertilizer Products, an Iowa company that is turning food and livestock waste into fertilizer.
Natural Fertilizer Products received nearly $4 million in federal funding and recently opened large-scale composting facilities in Woodbine and near Audubon.
About beef
Rollins said the USDA’s Ranchers First Initiative, announced Monday in Nebraska, will help grow the number of cattle in the U.S.
The national herd size has fallen seven consecutive years, and hit a 75-year low in January, partly due to drought that has affected grazing lands in the Great Plains.
Rollins also blamed the previous administration’s regulations, along with consolidation in the meatpacking sector. Tyson, Cargill, JBS and National Beef own 80-85% of the U.S. beef market, according to the advocacy group Farm Action.
“The Big Four concentration of our packing has not been conducive to rebuilding the herd, to supporting our independent ranchers, to incentivizing young farmers and ranchers to get into the business,” Rollins said. “We have to do better.”
The Ranchers First Initiative includes a new federal insurance option for producers who retain their cows to grow their herd. It also opens more acres to grazing under the Conservation Reserve Program and provides more loans to support regional meat processing.
Rollins said the Ranchers First Initiative builds on the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement, the "Product of USA" label and other efforts of the administration.
“We are putting protein, we’re putting beef right back at the center of policy making in Washington, D.C.,” Rollins said. “We’ll have more announcements on labelling and some other things by the end of this week with President Trump.”
Agricultural organizations in Iowa say they appreciate pieces of the Ranchers First Initiative. But they say it should be viewed in the context of an administration sending mixed signals to producers, creating instability and chaos.
Last month, President Trump announced on Truth Social that the U.S. will import 300,000 metric tons of ground beef, 25% below the market price, to reduce prices for consumers.
Iowa Cattlemen’s Association President Craig Moss called the move “extremely disappointing,” in a statement.
"The President's comments and decisions have created unnecessary market volatility today,” Moss said. “We believe the government should avoid intervention and let the market work.”
Moss said Trump’s move was another hit to producers after Tyson Foods announced it was closing its beef processing facility in Joslin, Illinois, shuttering a plant in Utah and pursuing the sale of another in Washington.
The meatpacker closed a major beef processing facility in Lexington, Nebraska, earlier this year.
Tyson estimates the beef side of its business will lose between $500-$650 million in fiscal year 2026 and reported its third quarter beef sales by volume fell nearly 16%. The company cited higher cattle costs due to lower supply.
Moss said Iowa is “uniquely positioned” with productive pastures and grain to help expand the national herd. But the government’s interference in the market affects producers’ profitability and their decisions to raise more cattle, he said.
Similarly, Iowa Farmers Union Vice President Ryan Marquardt told IPR farmers are feeling “whiplash” and need consistency.
“One day we’re told the administration is working to strengthen American cattle producers, and the next we see policies that undercut them,” Marquardt said. “We appreciate the investments announced through the Ranchers First Initiative, but rhetoric and new spending can’t make up for policies that have weakened the programs and cut staffing farmers rely on.”
In a statement, Tommy Hexter, executive director of the Iowa Food System Coalition, said the “long-term solution cannot be choosing between affordable food for families and viable family farms and ranches.”
The Ranchers First Initiative and “stronger purchasing relationships between farmers and public institutions” through the USDA’s Harvest to Hallways could help address pieces of the challenge, he said.
“But those efforts will only make a meaningful difference if they are not contradicted by larger shocks to the cattle market,” Hexter said.
Hexter and the Iowa Food System Coalition are calling on policymakers to address consolidation and competition in the beef industry with stronger antitrust enforcement.
