Ranchers Say Beef Market Has ‘Been Hell’ As Trump Announces Plan To Try And Help

President Donald Trump’s Friday push to let farmers and ranchers process their own meat received mixed reviews from cattle producers who said expanding independent processing could help ranchers but would not address all of the economic problems that have squeezed them.

Trump authorized legal documents Friday allowing farmers and ranchers to process their own meat, saying the move would help break up what he called a “nasty Monopoly” among major meat processors. Ranchers who spoke with the Daily Caller News Foundation said the proposal could give producers another option for bringing their cattle to market, but warned that smaller processors still faced significant economic and regulatory hurdles that could limit their ability to compete with the industry’s largest packers.

“I’ve been in this 50 plus years, and I’ve made decent money in about six of those, and the rest of the time it’s been hell,” Kansas cattle producer Mike Schultz told the DCNF.

Schultz, a longtime Kansas cattle producer and founder of the Kansas Cattlemen’s Association, said the industry’s problems could not be reduced to a shortage of processing capacity.

Schultz advocated for reforms intended to increase competition among cattle buyers, including restricting meatpacker ownership or control of cattle, eliminating certain confidentiality rules governing cattle-price reporting, ending alternative marketing agreements and requiring greater public disclosure of cattle prices.

“Most of the feeders do not sell, do not get, four bids,” Schultz said. “Most people are committed. They get a bid, and they’re committed to a packer.”

Schultz said giving ranchers greater access to independent processing could nevertheless be useful because it would create another avenue for producers to bring their cattle to market.

“More independent processing is important but it’s only one part,” Schultz said.