Trump 47

[Polds4OSU]

Texas ranchers and state Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller are pushing back on President Donald Trump's suggestion that the United States import more beef from Argentina to combat high domestic prices.

Miller, a Republican and longtime Trump ally, wrote on X Tuesday morning that increasing beef imports would hurt ranchers.

"There doesn't need to be a conflict between our beef producers and consumers," he wrote. "If we want to lower prices (and we should), we should be importing breed stock to increase our domestic herds, benefiting consumers and producers!"

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/14NEfVr4UEC/

 

[cowboyinexile]

Texas ranchers and state Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller are pushing back on President Donald Trump's suggestion that the United States import more beef from Argentina to combat high domestic prices.

Miller, a Republican and longtime Trump ally, wrote on X Tuesday morning that increasing beef imports would hurt ranchers.

"There doesn't need to be a conflict between our beef producers and consumers," he wrote. "If we want to lower prices (and we should), we should be importing breed stock to increase our domestic herds, benefiting consumers and producers!"

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/14NEfVr4UEC/

Im not advocating one way or the other but importing breeding stock isn't going to do anything for consumer beef prices in the near term. We could bring in 20 million bred heifers right tomorrow and we won't see the impact at the grocery store until 2027.

Long term Im not arguing against him because the problem right now is cattle inventory as much as anything. If you are a cow calf guy you usually retain replaced heifers for breeding stock. The problem is you don't see a return on that heifer until she has a calf and you sell it. You can sell your heifer right now and make a bigger return per animal than you have seen in your entire life. Holding her back and maybe the market 18 months from now isn't so hot when her calf goes to the sale barn.

To Trump's point, beef imports could help alleviate supply and therefore price issues right now, but that comes with a few problems. One, you are screwing over ranchers who are very very happy with cattle prices right now. Two, when the beef enters the supply chain it's probably going to pass through the packer and definitely through the grocer. Both of those industries were notorious in the past few years for using everything from covid to inflation as excuses to maximize profit. So there is no way to be sure the consumer will see the cost savings after the product goes into the food supply.

Trump could force the supply chain to move product through at a discount to help the consumer but that's way more socialist than anyone since FDR has done. The most capitalist answer is the cure for high prices is high prices. The consumer is going to have to reduce beef consumption to the point where the packer and grocer have to start discounting to move product. That will force prices down back up the supply chain and eventually we see $3 ground beef again. The problem with that is its painful and with mid terms coming up the Republicans don't want people griping about food the way they were a year ago. But sometimes the best answer is to accept that will happen and just deal with it.