https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4347884/posts
What's funny is seeing President Trump castigate cattlemen as if they are somehow oblivious to tariffs and foreign competition.
As I've pointed out, American consumers aren't exactly starving for lack of meat: poultry and pork prices are where they were a decade ago (unadjusted for inflation, meaning they're actually far CHEAPER.)
So the cattle guys aren’t getting their share of $5 pound ground beef? Who’s getting the money?
Evidently we have a 73 year low in cattle. I assume it’s due to some government regulation . Maybe we should do something about that so prices aren’t so high
I want Trump to address the bio-weapon for making people alergic to red meat talked being talked about.
I like Argentine beef.
Different breed of cattle and generally grass feed. Uniquely different flavor.
Does that mean I’ll stop buying American beef? No! I enjoy both and appreciate having the variety.
Besides, I like what is finally happening in Argentina. A good example for South America in general. Be nice to help them out a little and get some good beef, wine and dulce de leche in return.
Brother and I raised cows for a bit. Cow calf operation. We made money. How can you not?
Has he been wrong yet?
And they will! Nothing cures high prices like high prices.
But it won't happen overnight. And, when the dust settles, more of the supply will be American.
McDonalds only sources 45% of its beef from the US.
McDonalds only sources 45% of its beef from the US.
Which is it:
Support US beef producers in some way?
Import beef to help reduce beef prices?
Can both be achieved?
If so, how?
The high prices of beef and really all food commodities are due to low supply more than anything else. If you do some web searching for the number of livestock culling that have been mandated by the U.S. and other nations over the last 5 years, you’ll immediately notice that the livestock levels are now at all-time lows. And it’s not limited to beef. The culling were mandated mostly for health and safety reasons - parasites, diseases, etc. - but some were also mandated for climate change policy reasons (thanks Europe) /sc. Seeking supply elsewhere is smart given the circumstances. Waiting for ranchers to increase supply isn’t smart since they will be incentivized to keep that supply low for profitability.
In our neck of the woods, gas price fell to about $2.70, but now, it is over $3.50, highest in years.
Beef is outrageous. Prime ribeye steaks at Costco were $30 lb last weekend. Last year, I think they were $15.99. Not so long ago, I could buy prime sirloin tri tio steak for the same price as choice NY strip steak, both under $10/ lb..
I can’t imagine markets will allow this to last for long, because with the price of gasoline so high, who is going to pay those prices for beef , especially at a restaurant.
Price of gasoline and beef doubled one time in recent memory. ...ie under lightweight Obama, after 2009. Producer inflation hit about 8%, but consumer markets could not bear the price increase, so it resulted in a job meltdown, and the unemployment rate rising fron 7.5% to 10%, which con artist Obama blamed on Bush ,claiming “ it’s worse than we thought.” ,even though the recession ended by June 2009, more than six months earlier than Obama’s people predicted. Obamacare then thwarted the recovery ,along with the rising prices.
Obama had 0% fed funds rate for 8 years, but he ran up twice as much debt as Bush did after inheriting a recession, 6.5% fed funds rate, then getting hit with 9-11, and Bush went on a spending binge from 2007-2009 because Pelosi, Reid, Schumer, Obama and Biden voted for all that spending. Obama then got away with lying and claiming he fixed the deficit, when in fact, he promised to balance the budget and did not even come close after 8 years of growth and low interest rates. Bush’s Bernanke was part of the problem.
Biden did lasting damage to energy markets, so I don’t blame Trump....but what is going on with beef? Did Trump kill the supply by tariffs? If so, he needs to tell leople tariffs are a targeted tax increase and remind voters that he cut their taxes and kelt them low, A tax is not inflation, it’s a tax. Trump could cut the corporate income tax to 10% or eliminate it tk help producers and importers now. We do NOT want a recession, which will lead to social and economic chaos and only will make inflation worse by bigger deficits and more soending, followed by more Fed easing. Businesses lose money dumping products for clearance prices, then take an ax to their workforce. Nothing gets solved by allowing a recession.
Consider the sources. The Daily Fail is trotting this out, too.
Scolding individual producers in a competitive market is stupid. It’s the kind of thing a socialist would do. Trump just needs to shut up sometimes. He’s not going to get the vote of socialists stupid enough to think such statements are reasonable, and he’s just annoying everyone else.
There’s currently a shortage of and a monopoly on processing facilities. That’s the real reason why prices are high.
-SB
Billionaire upset because people are making money
Feed prices and drought have doubled the price of live cattle.
https://farmpolicynews.illinois.edu/2025/07/us-july-cattle-herd-smallest-since-1973/
If you want to preserve an American Cattle industry, double your chicken and pork consumption. And an extra pot of beans.
And DO NOTHING in the beef markets.
This is temporary...a near doubling of live cattle prices due to feed prices and drought.
The US beef market will recover if we do nothing.
But the import of Beef from Argentina or anywhere else will do great harm and weaken the US market further.
The whole thing is incredibly complex.
I live right between two big cattle ranches in NM. (no drought here in the last four years. Our little local micro-climate has been way wetter than usual; My field grass was 6 feet tall last year and 7 feet tall this year despite a paucity of sunny days.)
During ‘Covid’ and the Biden Administration the neighbors vastly reduced their herds because of new government rules and interference, and because they couldn’t get their cattle processed into store-bought consumer meat.
They started building their herds back up last year. and something I noticed a few weeks ago... Back pre-Covid, the herds around here were 85%-90% Black Angus and a mix of other southwestern types of cattle. Now the herds seem to be about 85% Hereford types, and only about 15% Black Angus.. (and a couple of Texas Longhorn hybrids I see occasionally.)
I don’t know why that would be, unless the Herefords are more suited to the current climate, whether they reproduce faster, gain weight faster so can get to market sooner, or maybe that is the only types of breeding stock that they could get to rebuild their herds.
And despite being in the middle of cattle country, Hamburger in the stores is up to $8 a pound for the lower grade stuff and $9.00 a pound for the medium grade stuff. I don’t even look at the price of steak anymore. And I don’t believe that is the ranchers’ fault. I blame the government and the oligopoly of just a few meat processors.