No fat to trim: Texas beef industry profits eaten away by new threat — the screwworm James Henderson was a teenager in 1971 when he had to treat animals for a type of white maggot that ate livestock from the inside out — the New World screwworm.
“It’s a horrible parasite, and it will eat that flesh very quickly,” said Henderson, who operates the Bradley 3 Ranch near Memphis in the Texas Panhandle. “From the time that adult fly lays its eggs until you have an animal that probably needs to be destroyed can be as little as 72 hours.”
Henderson, like most Texas ranchers, has faced one battle after another in an industry already full of challenges. The return of the screwworm is the latest blow.
As inflation eats into Texas ranchers’ wallets, widespread drought and wildfires are making it even more difficult to grow a U.S. herd that has already shrunk to its smallest size in more than 70 years. President Donald Trump’s trade war in 2024 further inflamed the industry’s problems. The reduced supply of cattle is straining every link in the supply chain, making it more expensive for meatpacking plants to operate and passing those costs onto retail consumers and restaurants who are also struggling with higher prices.
According to the Consumer Price Index Report for May, beef prices nationally rose 12.9% in the past year. Texas’ beef cattle industry contributed about $7.2 billion annually to the state’s gross domestic product from 2018 to 2021, according to a study by Texas A&M ArgriLife.
“It’s a tough time for many ranchers out there,” said David Ortega, a professor in food economics and policy at Michigan State University. “Then you have this latest factor. The cost of trying to contain and prevent the spread of this, it’s just another layer.”
Ortega says screwworm is creating uncertainty in the industry and for consumers. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said recently the screwworm outbreak could continue for a few more months. The construction on the sterile fly facility — the tool most think is the solution to the outbreak — won’t be completed until November 2027.
“It just takes time,” Henderson said. “We can only ramp up so fast to get things done.”.............
https://www.texastribune.org/2026/06/16/texas-cattle-beef-prices-screwworm-inflation/
