WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s decision to allow the import of cheap beef has resulted in a plunge in the price of domestic cattle, prompting Minnesota ranchers who are strong supporters of the president to say they’ve been betrayed.
“It’s kind of a big shot in the gut,” said Don Schiefelbein, whose farm near Kimball breeds and feeds about 5,000 heads of cattle, most of them Black Angus.
In a post on Truth Social last Friday, Trump announced that the United States will import up to 300,000 metric tons of foreign beef, at a price to be sold at 25% below “current market prices.”
“This deal will reduce prices for Americans while giving space for our Great American Beef Herd to grow again,” Trump said.
The White House followed up with a proclamation about the beef import plan on Wednesday.
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To Schiefelbein, whose father started a ranch in the 1950s that now supports about 100 family members, the president’s plan is bewildering and “really feels hurtful.”
“This is a president who many (ranchers,) including our family, has supported over the past 12 years,” he said.
Schiefelbein and ranchers across the country hope Trump reverses himself. But damage has already been done, they say.
Leaders of the nation’s cattle industry say they were not consulted about the plan. The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association panned the plan, saying it “sacrifices long-term stability for short-term messaging” and won’t result in lower prices for consumers.
Schiefelbein said he “understood the politics” of the situation.
“Affordability” has become a rallying cry for both parties as November’s midterm election comes closer and as Americans grapple with relentless inflation. And beef prices have surged as the nation’s herds are at their smallest point since the 1950s.
But Schiefelbein said the price of everything has risen, including the diesel and fertilizer his farm buys to grow the soybeans, corn and alfalfa that feed his cattle. “I understand beef is high, but everything is high,” he said
And he said the cattle market was beginning to “self-correct,” with beef prices falling about 15% since June and herds growing again.
He said that has not been evident at the supermarket because “it takes a while for that market price to get down to the consumer.”
Schiefelbein called Trump’s plan “100% counterproductive.”
“I don’t think anyone is thinking, ‘Should I invest in expansion when the president arbitrarily said I’m going to cut your price by 25 percent,’” he said.
‘Really disheartening’
Jake Thompson, who raises a herd of 230 Black Angus cows near Barnesville, also said the decision to allow cheap imported beef unfairly targeted ranchers.
“It was really disheartening,” he said of Trump’s announcement. “There was a lack of understanding that here we have a group that is supportive of the president.”
Cattle futures prices dropped immediately after the president posted his announcement.
Thompson, who is also the president of the Minnesota State Cattlemen’s Association, said ranchers “immediately lost $72 a cow based on a tweet.”
“It’s not going to have an immediate impact on consumers, but for us it did have an immediate impact,” he said of Trump’s plan. “And even if they do have an effect on food prices, it’s going to be for a short period of time.”
Trump put a 90-day window on the imports of cheaper beef, having the program sunset after November’s elections.
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Like other ranchers, Thompson said Trump should instead pressure supermarket chains and other retailers that sell groceries, including Walmart and Target, to lower their prices.
Thompson said he still supports Trump and his policies. He hopes the industry “has such a good relationship with (Trump) that it opens some doors so he could listen to us.”
Some are not sympathetic to the plight of the nation’s ranchers.
When Nebraska Farm Bureau President Mark McHargue complained that the president’s plan was “short-sighted” and would cause “long-term damage to an unbelievably complex beef supply chain” in a post on X, dozens criticized him.
Respondents reminded McHargue that he congratulated Trump on his reelection and that had voted for the president. They said he “owned” the situation.
Opening the border to Mexican cattle, too
Minnesota is home to about 2 million beef cattle, fewer than the 6 million in Nebraska and far fewer than the 12 million in Texas, but still a respectable herd.
Kaitlyn Root, the executive director of the Minnesota State Cattlemen’s Association, echoed others in saying “no one got a heads up about the announcement.”
She predicted Trump’s plan would not lower prices, just as an earlier proposal to import beef from Argentina failed to do.
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“What these announcements do is create frustration and anxiety for cattle producers and uncertainty in the market,” she said.
On Monday, the Trump administration reopened a border crossing in Arizona to cattle from Mexico as part of its effort to reduce record-high beef prices.
Mexican cattle had been banned from the United States since May of 2025 in response to concerns about the screw worm, a parasite with flesh-eating larvae that can infest and even kill cattle or other animals.
But the U.S. Department of Agriculture said concerns about screw worm infestation have abated.
Even so, economists agree with the nation’s cattlemen that Trump’s efforts to bring down beef prices aren’t likely to work.
A main reason? They say that removing a 26.4% duty from beef imports would not guarantee those savings would be passed down to the consumer because processing, transportation, packaging and retailer margins all contribute to retail pricing.
The post Minnesota cattle producers have a beef with Trump over foreign imports appeared first on MinnPost.
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