President Donald Trump’s announcements that the U.S. will allow Argentina to greatly expand its low-tariff beef exports to the U.S. to reduce prices for American consumers have riled Wyoming stock growers.
Trump floated the idea of boosting imports to the U.S. market a week ago, following up with statements that Argentina would be allowed to quadruple the amount of beef it sends north under a low-tariff quota. The move brought a sharp reaction from domestic beef producers as well as markets, which saw cattle prices plunge.
“The president’s statement obviously caused us great concern and some panic in our industry,” said Jim Magagna, executive vice president of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association. “It has had an impact on current live cattle prices and our futures market.”
“The timing is so unfortunate for Wyoming. We’re at that time of the year where people are selling their calves or their yearlings.”
Jim Magagna
Magagna cautioned that details of the deal are yet to be made public — whether the plan involves live cattle or only butchered products. Regardless, “it can have a significant impact,” Magagna said of the new policy.
“The timing is so unfortunate for Wyoming,” Magagna said. “We’re at that time of the year where people are selling their calves or their yearlings.”
Gov. Mark Gordon called for domestic solutions to higher grocery prices, solutions that would increase U.S.-raised beef. “Increasing our reliance on cattle imports is not the best answer for our ranchers, farmers, or U.S. consumers,” he said in a statement Thursday.
Trump’s move is a “misguided effort,” the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association said in a statement Wednesday, calling on him to abandon the plan. The association and its members “cannot stand behind the president while he undercuts the future of family farmers and ranchers,” the group’s CEO Colin Woodall said in a release.
‘$300 millones extra’
In Argentina, headlines heralded a windfall for a troubled economy. “Inminente anuncio: la mayor cuota para exportar carne a Estados Unidos generará US $300 millones extra,” La Nación trumpeted. Translation: “Imminent announcement: Increased meat export quota to the United States will generate an additional $300 million.”
In Chicago, headlines were different. “Cattle Collapsing as Spec Longs Head for the Exits,” Barchart for Businesses wrote Monday.
“The cattle complex on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange is deepening its steep losses in early Monday trading,” Foodmarket news wrote Monday, “extending Friday’s sharp sell-off that saw all but the nearby live cattle contract end at limit-down.”
In addition to benefiting U.S. meat consumers, Trump’s beef plan augments his support for the Argentinian government, support that includes a $20 billion currency swap. The issue finds the White House trapped between consumer dread in the face of escalating costs and stock producers who are part of a rural cohort of Trump voters.
There’s been much criticism of Trump’s move from rural producers, Rona Johnson wrote Monday on The Fence Post, an ag-focused news outlet. “Most of these ranchers probably voted for Trump,” she wrote, “and were voicing their concerns in hopes that he would come to a different conclusion on how to deal with high beef prices.”
Meantime, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on Wednesday released a 13-page outline “to strengthen the American beef industry, reinforcing and prioritizing the American rancher’s critical role in the national security of the United States.” The initiative lists 18 actions, implementation plans and expected results addressing everything from grazing on federal land to compensation for stock losses to predators.
Gubernatorial candidate and State Sen. Eric Barlow, a Gillette Republican, “stands with Wyoming ranchers,” he said in a statement issued Friday. “Our producers compete honestly and deserve fair markets that reflect the true value of locally raised beef.”
Conservationists fret the issue will lead to environmental degradation as the administration relaxes oversight and control of public-land grazing and other landscape and wildlife protections.
“This administration is doubling down and making sure that America’s precious western public lands operate as a below-cost feedlot for special interest groups,” Josh Osher, public policy director for Western Watersheds Project said in a statement. The administration’s moves come “despite the growing recognition that beef is bad for the planet.”
Rollins’ proposals to expand grazing on public land come even as land-managing agencies’ data “suggest that they are unable to manage the active allotments already in use,” Western Watersheds and five other environmental groups said.
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, WildEarth Guardians, Wilderness Watch, the Center for Biological Diversity and Kettle Range Conservation Group joined in the criticism.
Bad timing
Wyoming ranchers are in a tough spot, Magagna said. Some may have sold their cattle already.
“But if you hadn’t sold them and you’re sending them to market next week, it’s definitely going to be an impact,” he said, “a short-term impact.”
Again, details of the deal will be paramount.
“The challenge that I’ve had with this is, to my knowledge, we don’t yet know what the president has in mind,” he said. “I’ve heard rumors he’s talking about importing live animals from Argentina.
“I don’t think that could be done,” he said. “It would be a major concern because of animal disease issues.”
Other programs, like importing butchered lean beef to be blended with U.S. products, could benefit the industry, Magagna said.
He’s reached out to association members, Magagna said, providing a link to comment to the administration and Wyoming’s delegation. “The last I knew — not specific to Wyoming — somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 comments had been submitted by cattle producers.”
Regarding U.S. Sens. John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis, “I know they have reached out to the White House and to the Secretary of Ag to express their concerns,” he said.
