Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton opened an investigation into the beef industry over potential anticompetitive conduct among the nation’s largest meatpackers, joining a federal probe to protect the beef market, he announced on May 15.

“Texans deserve fairly priced beef and our state’s cattle ranchers deserve to be paid fairly for their hard work,” Paxton said in a statement. “If major meatpackers manipulated the market to underpay ranchers while forcing families to pay higher prices at the grocery store, we will hold them accountable.”

Paxton said his office plans to investigate any violations of antitrust law to protect fair competition, ranchers, and the state’s consumers.

Over the past four decades, weak antitrust enforcement and a wave of corporate mergers have allowed monopolies to acquire a stranglehold on the industry, according to the nonpartisan anti-monopoly organization Farm Action.

Four companies—JBS S.A.; Tyson Fresh Meats, Inc.; Cargill, Inc.; and National Beef Packing Company—control more than 85 percent of the nation’s beef processing market.

Paxton, citing news reports, alleged that the firms “may have used their dominance” over the market to decrease the prices they pay to cattle ranchers while also driving up beef prices for consumers. He encouraged industry participants who have concerns about antitrust violations to contact his office.

The Epoch Times reached out to the companies for comment but received no response.

Texas remains the top state for beef producers, although the number of cattle has dropped in recent years. The state has an estimated 4 million head of beef cows, about 300,000 fewer than in 2022, according to the U.S. Cattle Report.

Retail beef prices continue to climb as nearly every category sets new records. In April, the overall retail beef price increased from $8.93 per pound in March to a record $9.28 per pound in April—up $0.35 in one month, according to the cattle report.

More than 140,000 farms—or 7 percent of farms in the United States—closed between 2017 and 2022, according to the American Farm Bureau.

“The results are devastating,” Farm Action reported in September 2025. “While beef prices at the grocery store climbed in recent years, cattle ranchers saw their share of every dollar shrink.”

Ranchers now get less than 30 cents of every retail beef dollar, which is a historic low, while meatpacker profits have soared, Farm Action reported.

Cows at the Diamond W Cattle Company ranch in Palmdale, Calif., on April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Thousands of independent cattle operations have been forced to close, concentrating production into fewer operations, and consumers are paying the price, according to the organization.

Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche confirmed earlier this month that the Justice Department was looking into meatpacking companies that were allegedly driving up the price of beef through illegal collusion practices and price fixing.

In November 2025, President Donald Trump directed the department to investigate possible anti-competitive practices in the industry.

Trump signed an executive order creating food supply chain security task forces for the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission in December.

Mike Williams, owner of Diamond W Cattle Company, drives past cattle on his ranch in Palmdale, Calif., on April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

In the order, the president directed the attorney general and the Federal Trade Commission chairman to take actions to remedy any anti-competitive behavior after an investigation into the industries and bring new enforcement actions or propose new regulations.