In today’s beef buzz, senior farm and ranch broadcaster Ron Hays speaks with beef industry consultant Dr. Nevil Speer about President Donald Trump’s recent comments about beef prices, which sparked strong reactions across the cattle industry. Trump claimed that cattle ranchers were only “doing so well because I put tariffs on cattle coming into the United States,” and suggested beef prices were “a little bit too high.” Dr. Speer acknowledged the complexity of the issue, noting that Trump’s statement raises a basic but critical question: “The first thing I would want to ask him is, what does that even mean? Is the retail price too high by 10 cents, 20 cents, 30 cents?”
Speer argued that the notion of a “just right” beef price is misguided and dangerous when dictated by government officials. “There’s this implication that there is some price that is just right,” he said. “And then that ultimately leads to the question, who decides that? He warned that “this great economic principle of the knowledge problem,” emphasizing that “we never have enough knowledge to ultimately decide those things,” which leads to “all kinds of unintended consequences.”
For Speer, the real frustration lies in the potential undoing of decades of progress within the beef industry. “We as a beef industry have worked for 40 years to get to this place where we have this wonderful demand-driven market,” he said. “Consumers are saying, ‘We really like your product,’ and producers are making money—it’s a win-win. And all of a sudden, the government wants to jump in the middle of it.” Speer highlighted that the market’s current success is a direct result of producers responding to consumer demand, not government intervention.
Dr. Speer also defended the free market’s ability to find balance over time. “Mr. Market always does it,” he told Hays. “Sometimes it takes a little longer than maybe you’d like, but Mr. Market ultimately always gets us to where we want to be.” He pointed out that despite higher prices, consumers continue to choose beef even with other proteins readily available: “Consumers have more opportunity to substitute than ever… and they continue to come back to beef. They like the product. We’re doing a good job. So the market has worked exactly as it should be.”
Speer cautioned that even the president’s rhetoric can destabilize markets. “As soon as he starts talking about that, it introduces uncertainty. And markets hate uncertainty,” he said. “Whenever there’s uncertainty, everyone’s going to bail as fast as they can and that kind of volatility has implications.” He compared it to similar disruptions in soybean and equity markets, where political statements “artificially create some winners and losers.” In the end, Speer warned that even talk of government meddling “disrupts the market” and risks the very stability and trust that took decades for the beef industry to build.
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
