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Members of the cattle industry say Argentina plan isn’t the way to lower beef prices

The CEO of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association says President Trump’s plan to import more beef from Argentina undercuts America’s farmers and ranchers.

“That what he’s asking for is for us as cattle producers to take less money for our cattle.”

Colin Woodall tells Brownfield producers have been struggling for years. “We need to be able to allow producers the opportunity to make a little money to try to get made whole from previous years and we know from previous experience that government intervention in the marketplace does not work.”

Derrell Peel, livestock marketing specialist with Oklahoma State University says the U.S. is already importing record amounts of beef, and it hasn’t helped to lower beef prices. “Argentina is not the market to look at. They’re a tiny, tiny fraction of our total imports. Even if we doubled imports from Argentina, wouldn’t have any significant impact.”

And, he says, “It really smacks mostly our political moves, not so much really intended to address any significant economic problems in the US.”

Nebraska rancher Barb Cooksley tells Brownfield she’s a supporter of the free market and the plan has more questions than answers. “Is it going to be live cattle? Is it going to be beef? Is it going to be both? What are we going to get in a trade that’s going to better for us? There are too many unknowns.”

Cooksley says the agreement doesn’t mean consumer prices would move lower but consumer demand has been strong. ““They’ve been very loyal to us as these prices have increased.”

Several U.S. senators representing beef producing states met with members of the Administration including President Trump on Tuesday.

During a call with reporters on Wednesday, Nebraska Senator Pete Ricketts said he told the President one solution is resuming live cattle imports from Mexico. “My remarks to the President were directly around trying to address the issue at the southern border with the New World screwworm. That’s a market-based solution to help address the issues, and if we can get a normal trade back from Mexico with their beef, they’re a long-term trading partner.”

In a social media post on Wednesday, the President said cattle producers don’t understand tariffs and they need to reduce their prices. Ricketts said he read the post and his message is the same. “We’re going to continue to work with Administration officials and the President to find market-based solutions to help him address what he wants to accomplish to get beef prices down.  That’s the long-term way to do it.”

Cattle futures closed sharply lower following the President’s social media post.

Brownfield’s Meghan Grebner contributed to this story.

Barb Cooksley: