(WASHINGTON D.C.) — On Wednesday afternoon, USDA announced it’s action plan “to strengthen the American beef industry, reinforcing and prioritizing the American rancher’s critical role in the national security of the United States.”
The announcement of this plan on Wednesday, comes out amid rumors of potential beef imports from Argentina to help lower beef prices. Politico reports that the Trump Administration is “looking to buy four times its typical quota of Argentine beef in an effort to lower consumer food prices — a move that risks alienating longtime farm-state allies of President Donald Trump, according to people familiar with the talks.”
President Trump also had a post on Truth Social Wednesday morning that seemed to have an impact on cattle futures markets at midweek. He said in his social media post that “The Cattle Ranchers, who I love, don’t understand that the only reason they are doing so well, for the first time in decades, is because I put Tariffs on cattle coming into the United States, including a 50% Tariff on Brazil. If it weren’t for me, they would be doing just as they’ve done for the past 20 years — Terrible! It would be nice if they would understand that, but they also have to get their prices down, because the consumer is a very big factor in my thinking, also!”
In a Wednesday news release, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association came out with a statement saying that in a misguided effort to lower the price of beef in grocery stores, President Trump said he plans to increase the volume of beef being imported from Argentina. Efforts to manipulate markets only risk damaging the livelihoods of American cattlemen and women, while doing little to impact the price consumers are paying at the grocery store.
“The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and its members cannot stand behind the President while he undercuts the future of family farmers and ranchers by importing Argentinian beef in an attempt to influence prices,” said NCBA CEO Colin Woodall. “It is imperative that President Trump and Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins let the cattle markets work. If President Trump is truly an ally of America’s cattle producers, we call on him to abandon this effort to manipulate markets and focus instead on the promised New World Screwworm facilities in Texas; making additional investments that protect the domestic cattle herd from foreign animal diseases such as FMD; and addressing regulatory burdens, such as delisting of the gray wolf and addressing the scourge of black vultures.”
Cattle futures markets saw sharp losses on Wednesday, with limit lower moves in many feeder cattle contracts. The same type of move happened this past Friday, after similar comments about beef prices from President Trump. Mike Zuzolo, Owner at Global Commodity Analytics, shared his perspective on what the Trump Administration appears to be trying to do with cattle prices and compared it to the egg price situation earlier this year.
“My take here, Jesse, is twofold. Number one, this truth social post helps support the idea that I think we talked about last week about the idea that President Trump’s move in his beef policy to cool prices heading into 2026 is similar to what he did with the egg prices earlier this year,” according to Zuzolo. “Be that as it may, to the producers out there, we really need to realize that maybe he is sincere about wanting to cool retail prices down and taking a page out of the playbook of the eggs. I believe that to be the case.”
Zuzolo then added some market factors he is watching moving forward. “The first thing you may be thinking was, well, we just lost our markets. Our markets are dead. Well, it’s interesting because I wanted to figure out what the price was now at $365 versus what the high was. The high was $381 earlier this month for lead month feeder futures. It’s only $16 off the highs as of Wednesday’s close.
We’re not far off the highs. We’re still very profitable.”
You can view the full USDA plan announced on Wednesday: click here.
Hear the full conversation with Mike Zuzolo on the Wednesday episode of Market Talk below:
