USDA late Friday announced it would begin a phased reopening of the U.S. border with Mexico to live cattle imports on Aug. 24, ending a moratorium that’s been in place for a year if Mexico adheres to a joint plan for combating New World Screwworm.
The announcement will give cattle-market participants another factor to consider when trade re-opens Monday morning on the heels of Friday afternoon’s semiannual cattle inventory report and July cattle-on-feed and placement numbers that were viewed as price-neutral while showing very slow progress toward rebuilding a U.S. herd that has shrunk to the smallest in seven decades.
An eventual reopening of the border has been widely anticipated and Friday’s announcement will remove a layer of uncertainty around the issue. Live- and feeder-cattle futures have fallen sharply from their late-June highs, stung by signs of weakening beef demand as packers responded to deeply negative beef margins. The market saw consolidation late last week as traders positioned ahead of Friday’s USDA data.
Pressure on USDA to reopen the border from some ranchers and beef producers who argued the prolonged closure was undermining the U.S. beef industry had intensified after New World Screwworm (NWS) was detected in the U.S. on June 3, but met resistance from USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins, according to news reports earlier this month.
USDA said that beginning Aug. 24 it will open the Douglas, Arizona, port of entry to cattle trade, while simultaneously initiating the operational steps necessary for subsequent openings at the Santa Teresa, New Mexico, and Columbus, New Mexico, ports. Every animal entering the United States through these ports will undergo a full USDA inspection to ensure it’s free of any signs of NWS, the department said.
“Protecting the United States from NWS and pushing this pest out of Mexico and back to the Darien Gap is a top priority at USDA and has the full attention of the Trump Administration,” Rollins said in a Friday evening news release.
“The closure of the Southern ports of entry for the last year has been a tough but necessary action to control the spread of NWS in Mexico and protect the American livestock industry,” Rollins said. “Thanks to the work across the federal government as well as state, local, and industry partners, it is now safe to reopen the Douglas, Arizona, port in 30 days to resume the hundreds year old movement of cattle.”
The U.S.-Mexico border has been closed since July 9, 2025. A temporary phased reopening that began July 7 with the Douglas, Ariz., port was short-lived with a NWS case reported July 8, 370 miles from the border, which was 160 miles northward of the sterile fly dispersal grid at that time.
National Cattlemen’s Beef Association CEO Colin Woodall, in a statement, said USDA’s efforts alongside the cattle industry to fight the spread of NWS had put the U.S. in a strong position to begin safely and gradually reopening the southern border to cattle shipments.
“This decision will help normalize business for cattle operations throughout the border states and Southern Plains,” he said. “We appreciate the continued work of USDA to support American producers and the U.S. cattle industry.”
“We support a careful, phased reopening of the border that reflects both vigilance and confidence in our response plans,” said Meat Institute President and CEO Julie Anna Potts, in a statement. “Importing cattle from Mexico allows beef packers to better meet consumer demand given the tight supply of US cattle. We will continue to support efforts to retain heifers and expand the herd as the best way to address the high price of beef for consumers.”
R-CALF, however, said the decision risks exposing the U.S. to an unnecessary risk of additional NWS infestations.
“Until and unless the U.S. can stop the northward movement of both legal and illegal cattle from Central America, as well as within Mexico, opening the border will incentivize the northward transport of cattle from southern Mexico, where the screwworm remains endemic,” said R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard in a statement on X. “The border should not be reopened until Mexico eradicates the pest within its borders and can demonstrate that the pest is once again contained in Central America. It is Mexico that failed to maintain the mitigation measures needed to resist the pest. The U.S. should not now assume the risk caused by Mexico’s failure.”
Derrell Peel, Oklahoma State University livestock extension specialist, has said that prior to an initial border closing in August 2024, Mexico an average of 1.2 million head of cattle per year over the last 25 years, representing 14% to 16% of the calf crop. Meanwhile, Mexico’s beef production has risen an average of 2% a year in the last decade due to rising cattle slaughter and carcass weights.
The prolonged closure of the border is seen as likely having a long-term effect on what’s been a rapidly evolving Mexican beef industry and a changing U.S.-Mexico trade relationship.
“Not exporting feeder cattle to the U.S. means that more cattle are staying in Mexico to be finished for beef production,” Peel wrote in a recent Cow-Calf Corner newsletter. “It also likely means that fewer cattle are being imported from Central America, which has been a source of supplemental cattle supply in recent years. Mexican beef imports will likely decrease, and beef exports will increase in the absence of cattle exports. Production systems and supply chains will continue to evolve in Mexico.”