Trump announces plan to lower beef prices, but ranchers and some Republicans are already balking - AP News

The announcement comes as beef prices have hit record highs, driven by a shrinking U.S. Cattle herd, steady consumer demand, and restricted imports from Mexico, where livestock are dealing with a flesh-eating pest. For West Texas, where cattle ranching stretches across millions of acres on the South Plains, that context lands differently than it does in Washington.

For Lubbock-area ranchers and anyone who buys groceries, this plan cuts two ways. Expanding temporary imports might put downward pressure on prices at United Supermarkets or Market Street, but the ranchers producing that beef see it as undercutting domestic producers already squeezed by herd shortages and cross-border disruptions. Some Republicans who represent exactly those producers are already saying no.

The U.S. Cattle herd is at its smallest point in decades, which is a big reason prices climbed this high in the first place, and more imported beef does nothing to rebuild it.