Why the U.S. cattle herd is at a 75-year low

The article buries something interesting at the bottom:

"Herd size is down, but U.S. beef production is steady"

So the author talks about all this stuff, but probably the three big cost drivers are:

1. Input costs are higher

2. Possible price fixing by meatpackers

3. Lack of Mexican imports due to screwworm. Although it sounds like Mexican imports would increase the herd size, not the amount of beef on the market.

Not sure why people haven't been importing more beef. The article mentions tariff cuts for Argentina, but there are other places that export beef. Possibly the market is tight all over the world?

Wow, such a great text only page with news reporting, I thought these were extinct!

Sometimes back I heard many regions in US are suffering from draught like conditions. Could that be the reason?