One of the biggest federal slaughterhouses, Tyson’s Beef has announced an upcoming closure of a Nebraska supply plant and potentially another in Texas. The move could slash U.S.’ beef output by at least 7-9% – and it is already creating market uncertainty.
The announcement on November 21, 2025 continues to draw shock reactions from the sector.
Tyson’s plans a January 2026 shutdown on the Lexington-Nebraska plant, home to 3,200 workers in a city of 11,000 people.
The entity tersely links ageing infrastructure that could be costly to modernize along with financial losses to the move.
There are also plans to remove one of two working shifts supporting 1,700 jobs in another plant in Amarillo, TX.
The Lexington abattoir will have the most impact because it manages the slaughter of 5,000 animals daily and it’s demographically important.
Rarely does a processing plant change a town as Tyson’s Beef did when it started operations in 1990 in Lexington. It went on to employ almost 1/3rd of the residents, and helped nearly double the city’s population via immigrant recruits.
Tyson’s Uncertainty & Brazil Tariff Removal Affect Cattle Prices
Meanwhile, cattle rates in the United States fell in the week of the announcement due to uncertainty. Support came from the removal of Brazil’s beef import tariff.
Cash prices lost by $4-5 a hundredweight (cwt), to a maximum $224/cwt in the southern states, per the Beef Magazine.
The northern states meanwhile shed $7/cwt week-on-week, to around $218 a cwt on cash payment basis.
Although the weekly slaughter rose to 585,000 head, the count was 50,000 below those of the corresponding week in 2024.
Tyson’s announcement means another 5,000 head of cattle absent in slaughter daily after the Lexington exit. This could perhaps have a long-term price comeback effect.
For now however focus is on Brazil after the United States scrapped an earlier additional duty on beef imports.
Upon which, live futures of U.S.’ cattle lost by $1.70 per cwt weekly by November 21, as traders courted oncoming glut.
Brazil now looks on to supply the bulk of some 20% of the annual beef orders by the U.S.
In 2024, the South American country accounted for 24% of all federal beef imports that year.
Despite Brazil’s post-tariff comeback, Tyson’s shocker continues to generate attention. Clay Patton, the VP of Lexington area’s Chamber of Commerce summed up the upcoming closures as a “gut punch.” And as the following stats indicate, it is federal plants like this one that drive domestic beef supply.
United States’ Domestic Federal Beef Supply Statistics
Although the United States avails 20% of its beef supplies from foreign origins, national sources are the real measures of supply health. In 2024, the country produced 26.98 billion pounds of beef at home and expected to produce 24.5 billion pounds in 2026. This high volume makes the United States the biggest beef producer worldwide.
Statewide, Texas leads output at 6.2 billion pounds (2023), followed by Nebraska at 5.6 billion pounds. Nebraska and Texas host Tyson’s Beef plants, some of which could close in 2026, potentially lowering federal beef production by 7-9%.
The tables below, via the USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) offer sample previews of domestic beef production and utility:
| Year | Utility [pounds] |
| 2024 | 20.1 billion |
| 2022 | 19.7 billion |
| 2021 | 19.6 billion |
| 2014 & 2015 | 17.3 billion |
| 2013 | 17.8 billion |
| Year | Production [pounds] |
| 2024 | 27 billion |
| 2022 | 28.3 billion |
| 2021 | 27.9 billion |
| 2019 & 2020 | 27.2 billion |
| 2018 | 26.9 billion |