A Drovers article
With the U.S. cattle inventory sitting at a 75-year low, the Trump administration is eyeing new ways to stimulate herd expansion. The latest tool on the table is a federal insurance endorsement known as the Beef Retention and National Development (BRAND) endorsement for Livestock Risk Protection (LRP).
The proposal aims to incentivize cow-calf producers to retain heifers for breeding by essentially insuring the opportunity cost of not taking them to market over a two-year period.
But according to a new report from the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and recent comments by its author, former USDA Chief Economist and AEI Nonresident Senior Fellow Joe Glauber, the product is fundamentally flawed, expensive to operate, and risks major market distortion.
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