In today’s beef buzz, senior farm and ranch broadcaster Ron Hays continues his conversation with beef industry consultant dr nevil Speer. President Donald Trump’s recent comments on lowering beef prices through increased imports have stirred debate across the cattle industry. “You’re going to import more beef from Argentina — at least, that’s the implication,” Speer said. “How much more beef are you going to bring? What’s the amount at the margin that’s going to make a difference? And of course, no one knows that, because there’s no way to know that.”
The idea of using imports to lower prices is likely closely tied to politics, pointing to the administration’s support for Argentina’s current leadership. However, he emphasized that the U.S. already sources lean beef from larger global suppliers. “That’s exactly right. So I’m not sure why this has come about. And again, that’s the really frustrating thing. And it came out of the blue, too, right? There was no sort of lead-up or any kind of conversation.”
Discussing market trends, Speer reminded listeners that beef prices haven’t risen as dramatically in the past decade as they did during earlier volatile years. “It’s very easy to talk about nominal prices,” he explained. “The retail price of beef is as high as it’s ever been—well, sure that’s true. I could say that about a lot of things.” He argued that today’s prices reflect strong consumer demand rather than market imbalance, saying, “Consumers are telling us they like our product. They’re willing to pay up for quality, so why are we trying to disrupt what they ultimately want to do in the marketplace?”
Looking ahead, Speer said he remains generally optimistic about the cattle industry’s outlook for 2025. “Producers are pretty optimistic about the business,” he said. “I think ultimately we run into a year in which we’re going to build cow numbers slightly, maybe 1% or three-quarters of a percent.” However, he expressed concern about the government shutdown’s impact on industry data collection, warning, “We’re operating blindly, and that’s frustrating because the government’s shut down.”
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.
