{"id":832155,"date":"2026-08-31T18:08:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T18:08:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/832155\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T18:08:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T18:08:24","slug":"american-ranchers-are-irked-by-trumps-efforts-to-bring-down-beef-prices-this-is-a-mistake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/832155\/","title":{"rendered":"American ranchers are irked by Trump\u2019s efforts to bring down beef prices: \u2018This is a mistake\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

https:\/\/ipmnewsroom.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/borderCattle.mp3<\/a><\/p>\n

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The Trump administration has tried to lower beef prices for months, but demand, drought and a parasite have foiled its efforts. Some ranchers are frustrated with the administration\u2019s latest moves.<\/p>\n

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Want more news about agriculture?\u00a0Sign up for the Harvest newsletter<\/a>\u00a0for our latest reporting, plus behind-the-scenes exclusives.<\/p>\n

In its quest for a cheaper burger, the Trump administration has drawn the ire of ranchers across the country.<\/p>\n

Cattle raisers are frustrated by recent decisions the Trump administration has made about their industry. That includes a\u00a0plan to suspend tariffs<\/a>\u00a0for more than 300,000 metric tons of imported ground beef over 90 days, and sell it below market price.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very disappointed in that decision by the president,\u201d said Cooper Little, executive director of the\u00a0Independent Cattleman\u2019s Association of Texas<\/a>. \u201cWhoever seems to be advising him or, I guess giving him the impression that this is going to reduce beef prices at the retail counter, we disagree.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beef prices have hovered around record highs for months. The average price for one pound of ground beef is $6.89,\u00a0according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics<\/a>. President Donald Trump,\u00a0who\u2019s floated the idea<\/a>\u00a0of upping beef imports before, has said that bringing those costs down is a priority.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to get the beef prices down, so we\u2019ll get them down a little bit. And that\u2019s what people want, that\u2019s what the voters want, and that\u2019s what I want,\u201d\u00a0Trump said to reporters<\/a>\u00a0on Aug. 21. \u201cThe ranchers are great, they\u2019re my people. I love the ranchers, they\u2019ve done a fantastic job. But they admit we need a little help to get the prices down, so that\u2019s what we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Little and others in the cattle industry are also frustrated by the\u00a0U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s choice<\/a>\u00a0to start accepting imported livestock from Mexico again for the first time since 2024. The first port reopened in Arizona on Monday.<\/p>\n

Ports of entry on the southern border had been mostly closed to cattle and horses to slow the spread of the New World screwworm,\u00a0a parasitic pest<\/a>\u00a0that poses a serious risk to livestock.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe U.S. Department of Agriculture is proposing to prematurely relax our important mitigation measures against this disease by phasing in border openings,\u201d said Bill Bullard, CEO of the sheep and cattle producer group\u00a0R-CALF USA<\/a>. \u201cWe believe this is a mistake. We believe it\u2019s dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first U.S. screwworm case in years was reported on June 3 in Zavala County, Texas. The USDA has since reported\u00a0another 45 cases<\/a>\u00a0between Texas and New Mexico.<\/p>\n

\"\"USDA Although there were active New World screwworm cases in both Mexico and the United States, the USDA started reaccepting imports of Mexican cattle on Aug. 24.<\/p>\n

New World screwworms\u00a0were contained<\/a>\u00a0as south as Panama for decades, but started spreading northward toward the U.S. in 2022. They lay eggs in the open wounds of mammals, and the larvae then burrow into the animal\u2019s skin. Serious infestations can be fatal.<\/p>\n

Ranchers in counties where the pest is active must spend time and resources monitoring their livestock for infection or treating them. Plus, these areas are subject to extra regulations like movement restrictions.<\/p>\n

Some ranchers feel that reopening the border to Mexican livestock unnecessarily risks further spread of the screwworm.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really unfortunate,\u201d Little said. \u201cThe organization I represent and its members were very, very disappointed for a number of reasons, but primarily because of the animal health and safety risks that it burdens producers here on this side of the border.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0
\nReopening the border<\/p>\n

The USDA is reopening the border to livestock in phases. If the port in Arizona goes smoothly, and if Mexico continues to make progress fighting screwworms, the agency then plans to open two more ports in New Mexico.<\/p>\n

There are no plans to reopen ports in Texas at this time because of the high screwworm activity just south of its border, according to a USDA spokesperson.<\/p>\n

\"\"Rachel Osier Lindley\/The Texas Newsroom Cows graze outside Canadian, Texas in 2025. The area is home to many cattle feedlots, which will benefit from Mexican cattle entering the U.S. once again.<\/p>\n

USDA promised to\u00a0bolster their screening measures<\/a>\u00a0for livestock crossing the border. That includes inspecting each animal individually at the crossing, and assigning them an electronic ID for tracking.<\/p>\n

But Bullard is skeptical it will be enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a mitigation measure to reduce the risk. It is not a measure that will eliminate the risk,\u201d Bullard said. \u201cThe wound that a New World screwworm fly can lay its eggs into can be as small as a needle prick. And so visible inspection is not sufficient to eliminate the risks of introducing the fly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bullard praised the USDA\u2019s response to screwworm overall, however.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has committed billions of federal dollars to fight the pest. That includes developing new techniques and technologies, as well as producing more sterilized screwworms, which help suppress their population.<\/p>\n

U.S. screwworm cases have gone down each month since their discovery in June. There were only two active cases as of Aug. 26, both in sheep from southwest Texas.<\/p>\n

Although the Mexican imports make up a relatively small part of the U.S. cattle herd, the decision to keep them out financially hurt U.S. feedlots, where animals gain weight before slaughter, as well as meatpackers. That\u2019s been exacerbated by the country\u2019s\u00a0decades-low cattle population<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese tight supplies, our own domestic plus Mexican imports not being there, really put a lot of these cattle feeders really behind the eight ball,\u201d said David Anderson, an agriculture economist at Texas A&M University.<\/p>\n

Tyson, one of the country\u2019s few major meatpackers,\u00a0announced on Aug. 13<\/a>\u00a0it would close some plants and shift schedules at others \u201cto create a more competitive footprint amidst one of the most historic cattle shortages the country has ever experienced.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mike Deering, executive vice president of the Missouri Cattlemen\u2019s Association, said reopening the border to livestock could help reverse this trend. His group has confidence in the USDA\u2019s decision to do so.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that decision is going to normalize business for cattle operations throughout the border states and the southern Plains,\u201d Deering said. \u201cI don\u2019t have any complaints on how they have handled this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0
\nBringing down beef prices<\/p>\n

Deering was more critical of the Trump administration\u2019s plan to import lower-tariff beef and sell it at a discount, however.<\/p>\n

Trump\u00a0posted on Truth Social<\/a>\u00a0on Aug. 21 that he\u2019d \u201cconcluded a deal\u201d to import ground beef that \u201cwill be sold at 25 percent below current market prices.\u201d He\u00a0signed a proclamation<\/a>\u00a0to bring in the additional beef on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is market manipulation and it\u2019s wrong and we\u2019re fully opposed to it,\u201d Deering said.<\/p>\n

Additional details of the plan are scarce. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins would not say where the beef would come from\u00a0when asked by reporters on\u00a0<\/a>Tuesday. The administration is considering additional policies to help calm ranchers\u2019 concerns,\u00a0Politico reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"Texas A&M AgriLife Cattle graze on an irrigated pasture southwest of College Station, Texas, on the Texas A&M AgriLife Research Service farm.<\/p>\n

Taken together, agriculture economist Anderson said the additional imports of ground beef and Mexican cattle could eventually help lower beef prices for consumers, although by how much is unclear.<\/p>\n

But significant rain in cattle country might help as much as any government intervention, Anderson said. Major beef cattle states such as Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska and South Dakota are all\u00a0struggling with drought<\/a>\u00a0to various degrees.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s the biggest factor holding cattle producers back from expanding, is drought conditions,\u201d Anderson said.<\/p>\n

Growing herds\u00a0could help bring down beef retail costs<\/a>\u00a0and stabilize conditions for feedlots and meatpackers. Ranchers can\u2019t do that if their pastures haven\u2019t received enough rain to support more animals, though.<\/p>\n

Sudden swings in policy, like the president\u2019s recent announcement, also disincentivize holding onto cattle instead of selling them, said Deering of the Missouri Cattleman\u2019s Association.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you add uncertainty in the marketplace, that really dissuades producers to want to expand or grow because they\u2019re waiting to see how everything shakes out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u00a0
\nPolicy preferences<\/p>\n

To help expand the country\u2019s beef herd, Bullard, from the sheep and cattle group R-CALF, would prefer to see the government take on policies such as limiting beef imports into the U.S., mandating labels that show meat\u2019s country of origin, and enforcing antitrust laws in the meatpacker industry.<\/p>\n

Rancher advocates like Bullard have long called for closer scrutiny of the meatpacking business, most of which is controlled by four companies: JBS, National Beef, Tyson and Cargill.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur failure to enforce our antitrust laws, our pursuit of failed trade policies are what have caused our serious reduction in the size of our U.S. cattle herd,\u201d Bullard said.<\/p>\n

Little, with the Independent Cattleman\u2019s Association of Texas, said he hoped the Trump administration would try to reduce reliance on imported beef as much as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to become more secure with our supply and be able to produce it ourselves and not be dependent on cheap beef that is produced with subpar standards,\u201d Little said.<\/p>\n

This story was produced in partnership with\u00a0Harvest Public Media<\/a>, a collaboration of public media newsrooms in the Midwest and Great Plains. It reports on food systems, agriculture and rural issues.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipmnewsroom.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/borderCattle.mp3 \u00a0 The Trump administration has tried to lower beef prices for months, but demand, drought and a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":832156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-832155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=832155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/832156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=832155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=832155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=832155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}