President Donald Trump is facing anger from U.S. ranchers over his August announcement that duties on some imported beef would be suspended for 90 days, according to Al Jazeera. Prices at cattle auctions dropped after the announcement, and the U.S. Cattlemen’s Association, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and the Farm Bureau all opposed the decision, Al Jazeera reported.
The order lifted duties on as much as 300,000 metric tons of lean beef trimmings brought in from abroad, a move meant to bring down ground beef prices, according to NPR. That volume is roughly 2% of all the beef consumed in the United States, according to NPR. The average price of ground beef slipped roughly 13 cents from August to September, NPR said.
"That surprise, with a very volatile market already, with a tight supply, hurts us really, really fast and really, really hard," Scott Birker, a cattle producer and northeast regional vice president of the Iowa Cattlemen's Association, told NPR.
Zach Raff, incoming livestock economist at Iowa State University, told NPR the larger problem was uncertainty. Producers who expect more imports could send breeding heifers to processing instead of rebuilding the herd, he said.
Republican lawmakers who represent rural areas have publicly parted ways with the decision, according to Al Jazeera. Iowa Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson, who is campaigning for the Senate seat that is up for grabs in her state, said on Fox News that "this isn't the way" to address affordability, according to NPR. Iowa Republican strategist David Oman told NPR that the Senate and governor's races could be decided by 2 to 4 points, so "any one element like this topic that cuts against you hurts."
How ranchers will vote is unclear, according to Al Jazeera. Chad Basinger, a rancher in Pretty Prairie, Kansas, told Al Jazeera some will swing to the other party, but he does not expect a large shift overall. He said ranchers will also take into account the $8 billion relief package for farmers that was unveiled in Kansas on Oct. 19.
Districts that could swing either way in Montana, Iowa, Texas and Colorado lie in cattle country, and Kansas has a tight Senate race, Al Jazeera reported. Ranchers and farmers account for a diminishing portion of the rural electorate, so they are unlikely to swing races on their own, the outlet said.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins $ROL acknowledged the policy might be unpopular, according to NPR. “Didn’t love the three-month lift of the TRQ, but we’re so grateful to a president that is willing to listen,” she said at the Iowa Farm Progress Show, referring to the tariff-rate quota.
Trump announced the 90-day import window in a social media post on Aug. 21. He said the imported beef would carry a price 25% under what the market currently charges, but he did not say which countries would supply it. The U.S. cattle herd has shrunk to its lowest level in 75 years, and rebuilding it takes at least two years from when producers begin holding back heifers for breeding.