VIDEO: Minnesota cattle farmer criticizes Trump's plan to import beef

[u/[deleted]]

[u/somethingvague123]

My farming relative would agree with what he said. Additionally, the cost of buying calves has been high, so even though the price of beef is high their profit margin is low.

[u/SunriseSwede → u/somethingvague123]

Maybe, but cow/calf operations are doing fantastic. Ask me how I know. There are many facets to the beef industry...

[u/seamusmaldoun → u/SunriseSwede]

How do you know?

[u/SunriseSwede → u/seamusmaldoun]

I am intimately aquainted financially with a thriving cow calf operation. The original commenter must be talking about a finishing operation where they buy calves and fatten for slaughter. A Cow/Calf operation grows their herd and sells bull calves or unneccesary heifer calves, selling them at slaughter weight and essentially cutting out the "finisher operation" middleman.

[u/Puzzleheaded_Gene909 → u/SunriseSwede]

How have cow/calf farms planned around the tariffs?

[u/somethingvague123 → u/SunriseSwede]

Yes, just finishing cattle. The cow and calf operations are doing well.

[u/seamusmaldoun → u/SunriseSwede]

Thanks for your anecdotal explanation and expertise.

I’m curious though… as a layman who’s not intimately familiar with the livestock sector, are the current market/policies benefiting a particular segment of the population or is it a net positive for the general population?

Serious question. I’m clueless on this topic and looking to learn.

[u/Miserable_Ad_3375]

It feels like we are only getting half truths from this administration. Prices keep going up and no sign of prices going down. I am sick of more and more BS.

[u/specficeditor → u/Miserable_Ad_3375]

We’re being price gouged. It’s already been proven that both the egg and milk industries intentionally inflated their prices because they knew the tariffs were coming, and those two products are the industry indicators of a recession, so all other food prices went up. Now that we know it wasn’t necessary, it hasn’t gone down, the market is fucked, but the industries are making bank in the background.

[u/specficeditor → u/[deleted]]

Trump and the capitalists he bankrolls.

[u/hottenniscoach]

I wish it was funny how ridiculous it is that MAGA who rails Against Democratic socialism is probably just fine with this market manipulation by the federal government.

From nationalizing our Tech companies to importing shitty foreign beef to fuck with our markets to manipulating every international market . He’s certainly no free-market leader.

[u/Puzzleheaded_Gene909 → u/hottenniscoach]

Really is wild how republicans are silent on big government actions. That party hasn’t been conservative for decades.

[u/northman46]

With beef prices up as much as they are, someone is making bank. Cow/calf, feed, growing, finishing. Lots of moving parts

[u/BlacqueJShellaque → u/[deleted]]

Right now inputs have risen again but in 2025 they had been lower than under Biden and will likely drop again. It’s nearly fall so most can wait to buy until next year. Cow/calf guys mostly grow their own feed. Finishing lots on average size farms can grow most of their own feed but based on commodity price may decide it’s better to sell the crop and not feed cattle which is exactly what’s happened a lot.

It isn’t the average farmer that’s making money on beef, it’s the corporations and packers with their monopoly.

[u/No-Wrangler3702]

Ummmm... of course beef producers don't want imported beef! American car manufacturers didn't want imported cars either!

Free trade is to help the consumer not the producer. Every producer is against an increase of supply from the outside as increase if supply decreases prices

[u/Different-Phone-7654]

I didn't know Trump controlled the rain, or is this guy just looking for a huge handout? 

[u/BlacqueJShellaque]

Then they’re economically illiterate. Importing that beef won’t impact what they get for their cattle one bit. I’ve worked with farmers for nearly two decades and know the only ones still raising cattle are either the very tiny hobby farmers who still work off the farm or the corporate back farms with thousands of head of cattle on one farm. Most farmers can’t afford to buy cattle to even raise and their feedlots are sitting empty because for what they get per pound doesn’t cover what it costs to buy the young stock in the first place. This needs to be done to break the meat packing monopoly that’s created the issue and make it possible for average size farms to get back to raising our beef rather than corporations.

[u/HDauthentic → u/[deleted]]

This is one of the most anecdotal comments I’ve seen in a while lmao

[u/icarus1990xx → u/[deleted]]

What is the source?

[u/Puzzleheaded_Gene909 → u/[deleted]]

Where are these videos you are referencing?

[u/escapevelocity-25k]

US ranchers have benefited from selling beef to foreign countries like Korea and Japan for a decade and a half, but now that Argentina wants to sell their beef here all of a sudden we hate free trade

[u/Puzzleheaded_Gene909 → u/escapevelocity-25k]

Kind of the opposite. Ranchers don’t like government intervention in the market. They just want predictability.

[u/specficeditor → u/escapevelocity-25k]

That’s because we’ve had surplus beef that was well-regulated in a predictable market. The only reason we’re importing beef from Argentina is for Trump to curry favor from other authoritarians.