Thoughts and Opinions on Beef Imports from Argentina

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
I've sat on this for a couple of days. I
heard on Sunday Donald Trump mentioned the idea of a
the insinuation that the beef market has ridiculously high prices
and to help the consumer. The idea is to bring
in Argentinian beef. That's literally like point blank, in Argentina,

(00:28):
they have beef farms, and to help our market with
supplied demands. How the economics work. But also I think,
and I mentioned this with our Senator Deb Fisher interview
which we'll have podcasted here in the next hour or two,
I just want everybody to understand that would essentially be

(00:51):
introducing a new competitor to local American beef producers. In
this applying the demand situation, more supply matches the demand,
the prices will drop. That is partially free enterprise. But
who does it actually hurt. Well, it hurts the people

(01:12):
who are producing the beef right now. Now, I'm again
no expert in this. So if you are a beef
producer and you're in Nebraska or Iowa, if you're in
western Iowa and you have some opinions about this, because
I gave it a few days, I wanted to see
if somebody would react. Senator DEBB Fisher is one of
the first people in all of the United States to
even react to that kind of mention that Trump meant

(01:33):
made about this on Sunday. And then also I saw
a post from the Nebraska Cattleman. So if you want
to call in, I'll talk about this. But if you
want to call in and you want to tell me
how you feel about this and whether or not you
think Trump would be doing a good thing by introducing
Argentina beef into our country as an import. And also

(01:56):
it could be a help to his buddy an ally
who's their current price? But please call us. Four h
two five to five eight eleven ten is the number
four two five five eight to eleven ten.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
If you're a.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
Beef producer, a cattle producer, would love to hear how
you feel about this today. So this is what was
put out late on Monday night by the Nebraska Cattlemen.
They say the Nebraska Cattleman Board of Directors released the
following statement in response to President Donald J. Trump's remarks
suggesting Argentinean beef imports could bring down beef prices for

(02:28):
US consumers. And this is a quote one of our
core principles is to protect the free enterprise system for
the beef cattle industry. Nebraska Cattleman opposes government interference in
the cattle market, introducing unnecessary price volatility into the cattle
and beef marketing chain and fostering uncertainty during the time
of year when many producers are making heffer retention and

(02:50):
herd expansion decisions. Risks a negative impact on the one
true long term solution for currently elevated beef prices expansion
of the US beef cattle herd. The US cattle and
beef market is doing its job by replenishing cow numbers,
and it will complete that job if allowed to do
so in an uninhibited manner. Further, we produce a nutrient dense,

(03:13):
safe and delicious product, which is why consumer demand for
beef re main strong. We urge President Trump and members
of Congress to put American beef producers first and avoid
hindering the cattle market's ability to respond to fundamental cyclical factors.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
End quote.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
It is an interesting conversation and something to monitor, and
I really want to know what individual beef farmers think
about this, So the phone lines are open. We'd love
to talk to you today at four two, five, five,
eight eleven ten. We'll start with John. John, thanks for
calling in. Tell me about yourself.

Speaker 3 (03:50):
So, I'm a bee producer here in southeast Nebraska as
well as corn, soybeans, lambs and goats and stuff. I'm
not happy with Donald Trump. I'm not happy with him
in all. Some of my DLA is starting out the
buying Argentine paces to the two to twenty billion. You know,
he sold the American farmer out left and right, because
the next day China came in after they he's their

(04:15):
export tax like Argentine Argentine soybeans. Basically the United States
subsidized that Argentinian soybean crop. You know, he's a disaster.
You know, meanwhile, like our soybean farmers are struggling here
as well as your beat producer. So first you sell
out the soybean farmer to Argentina, and now you're selling
out the cattleman, the United States cattle person.

Speaker 4 (04:37):
That's what I think.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
Yeah, John, a quick follow up here, So do you
think that he's looking for just the quickest fixed possible
the lower prices instead of allowing you guys the opportunity
to replenish the numbers. So just by nature in the cycle,
the prices will come down with more supply.

Speaker 3 (04:56):
So the deal is is that the government being involved
in crop. That's a lot of the reasons why supply
is the minus. Because we tore so much pasture up
in this part of the world, a lot of this
part of the world, but in a lot of parts
of the world to where we don't have the pastures
left anymore. And a lot of that goes back to
is because we've subsidized corn and soybeans, right and crop insurance.

(05:17):
If you didn't have those subsidies, if the government got
out of it, you know, the free market would work
itself out. And the free market currently and you know
the three thousand dollars seven hundred pounds steers, you're getting
to where the free market is trying to work itself
out to compete against roe crop, you know what I mean.
But the government won't stay out of it. And I

(05:38):
don't understand. You know, Donald Trump is as socialists as
any Democrat. Socialist. That's the deal. That's what his policies say.
Let the free market work it out.

Speaker 2 (05:49):
Wow, that's so heavy handed to ours there, John, But
this is why I wanted to talk to people like you.

Speaker 5 (05:54):
John.

Speaker 2 (05:55):
I really do appreciate you put yourself out there today.
Thanks so much for what you do, and thanks for
calling in today. You too, I want more of that.
Is there more people like John? Not not necessarily. I
don't need you to think the exact same, but I
want your own personal opinion. You know, is Donald Trump
like as socialist as any Democrat. It's a pretty crazy

(06:18):
thing to say, but you know, I can see from
his perspective, when you know, the idea of the government
just continuing to subsidize certain things but harm other producers.
And then the idea of bringing in Argentinian beef as
some sort of kind of counterweight to the high beef

(06:38):
prices that we have for the consumer. Does the consumer win? Sure,
if you're okay having an Argentinian hamburger, all right, But
we're not understanding while that might be good for the
consumer who wants to pay less money for the beef,
that it's directly inhibiting the ability for the American beef
producer here in Nebrasca or in Iowa, the opportunity to

(07:03):
make the living that they're hoping to make on the product.
And the livestock that they are raising, and they're spending
that much effort, that much time to do and it
takes money to do that too. And we're talking about
agriculture specifically beef, specifically Argentinian beef that Donald Trump suggested
that he may bring to the United States to help
with our beef prices, while at the same time it

(07:24):
will in theory kind of help out with his close
ally who currently is the president of Argentina right now.
But either way, I am not nearly smart enough about
this to speak on it intelligently, So I'm hoping to
talk to you. Fourh two five to five eight eleven
ten is the number for you to talk to me

(07:44):
about what you think this would do to the beef
producing industry here in Nebraska and even in Iowa. If
you're in Iowa as well, listening, Jim is on our
phone line. Four two, five to five at eleven ten
is the number. Jim, Welcome to the show today. What's
on your mind?

Speaker 5 (08:00):
Well, I think a lot of the problem with the
beef industry has been greed. Okay, first of all, it's
a lot easier to do row crops and a lot
less demanding on the people who are doing it to
do real crop than it is to have beef. When
you have beef, it's not only a spring and summer
and fall project, it's a year round project. So these

(08:23):
people that grow row crops, they have torn every tree
line out, they try and fill in every creek line,
and it's just greed in order to produce more corn.
So they're producing a product that they complain constantly about
the price. But they continue to get greedier and greedier

(08:46):
with bigger tractors, bigger equipment. So because they have bigger equipment,
they have to farm more ground, so they tear up
everything they can, and they don't want to raise cattle.
Cattle are a lot of work. I got a couple
of them out here right now. Their work. Okay, you've
got to worry about feeding them, You got to worry
about your water tanks freezing in the winter time. When

(09:06):
they do row crops, they don't worry about any of that.
So it's plain laziness and greed that has hurt the
cattle industry. That's all I think about it.

Speaker 2 (09:16):
Yeah, So Jim, what would be your perceived solution. Do
you think this Argentinian situation would help or do you
think that you just kind of have to your president.

Speaker 5 (09:25):
I think we absolutely have to do it because we
are not producing enough beef. Okay, but you know what
are you going to do to produce more. Let's go
out and let's tore up some more some more pasture
and less plant some more worthless corn. You know, we're
taking corn, We're taking food and now making it into gasoline.

(09:46):
You know how many countries do that? You know? Oh yeah,
in order to make corn worth money, we have to
turn it into a bio fuel because there's no other
way we can use all the corn we're producing. And
let's go tear up some more pastures and plant some
more corn. They're they're greed. It's absolutely that's a lot

(10:06):
of corporate greed too. But farmers that are as a
whole are very greedy, whether they want to admit it
or not.

Speaker 1 (10:13):
So, Jim, let's just last thing for you.

Speaker 5 (10:15):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (10:16):
You know, what do you think if we bought enough
time for the replenishing of the herds around you know,
the Midwest, and there's no chance, you know, because.

Speaker 5 (10:26):
Well they're replanned to seeing the herds, they're continuing to
tear up pastures and plant more row crops.

Speaker 1 (10:33):
All right, well, Jim, I appreciate your passion on this.

Speaker 5 (10:37):
You know what I mean. They're they're they're ruining it
themselves and trying to blame it on Donald Trump. It
the bs.

Speaker 1 (10:44):
Hey, Jim, I appreciate the call man, thanks for listening
to us, say.

Speaker 5 (10:47):
All right later bye.

Speaker 2 (10:48):
Yeah, Wow, you want to talk about some passion. I
appreciate that. I also would like to hear from people
who are growing corn and growing soybeans.

Speaker 3 (10:58):
You know.

Speaker 2 (10:58):
So, we've had a couple of calls, one that says
Donald Trump's selling us out and not letting us recover
by introducing foreign beef into the market potentially, And now
we have a guy saying it's not Donald Trump's fault.

Speaker 1 (11:09):
We have no choice.

Speaker 2 (11:09):
There's no way we're going to recover from this because
the road crop farmer is taking up all the land
and growing all these crops, and we're using corn for biofuels,
which is true. Two completely different perspectives there. George is
on a phone line four oh two, five, five, eight
to eleven ten. Welcome in, George. What do you think
about this?

Speaker 6 (11:28):
Hey?

Speaker 7 (11:29):
Brother, I live a little bit outside of Omaha, but
I got a buddy of mine that has a business
that controls about eleven million acres of prop land in
about seven different states. Okay, they're still owned by the farmers,
but he controls what goes on all these farms, which
means they buy their seed cheaper, their fertilizer cheaper, they're

(11:49):
pesticides cheaper. And I'm talking to him one day. He goes, George,
he goes, you know, we got eleven million acres. He goes,
I take a million acres out of production, you know,
across the seven states. He goes, we get forty seven
dollars an acre. He goes, that's forty seven million dollars
we're splitting with the US and the farmers. I go what,
he goes, Yeah, he goes, you know, helps surprise go

(12:12):
up a little bit because we took a million acres
out of production, but the government Jesus for not farming it.

Speaker 8 (12:18):
I'm going, you're kidding me.

Speaker 7 (12:20):
He goes, oh, absolutely not, he goes. And it works
that way across everything. I said. You're looking at Hamburger
now in a regular grocery store, about six ninety nine
pound four years ago, was three ninety nine pounds. So
it's doubled. Yeah, and I don't know who's getting the money.
Be it the rancher, be it the farmer. I don't
have a clue, but somebody's getting rich here and it

(12:43):
ain't the people eating.

Speaker 2 (12:44):
No, it's interesting that you mentioned that because obviously that
wouldn't even like you could blame inflation for some of that,
but not for double the price.

Speaker 1 (12:51):
And it's not come down really. Yeah, so wow, that
is interesting.

Speaker 2 (12:56):
Did he elaborate on, like strategically, how much realistically he
could just not farm on and still get subsidized for that,
or does he have to explain like, oh well weather
or oh well we had an issue with the land
over here. Is there any is there any explanation that
he has to give to make that like a feasible scenario?

Speaker 9 (13:18):
Oh?

Speaker 7 (13:19):
He said, they can pretty much take once it's been
grown for like I think it was three or four years,
you can just pull whatever you want out of production.

Speaker 1 (13:28):
Interesting.

Speaker 9 (13:28):
You know they give me a year of not going to.

Speaker 4 (13:34):
That.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
Yeah, yeah, George, I appreciate it. Break it up on
me a little bit here, but I get the point.
It's a wow, what a strange situation that is. Appreciate
the call.

Speaker 1 (13:45):
Dang.

Speaker 2 (13:46):
Now, see, this is why I need to ask questions now.
I whether or not that is one hundred percent how
it works for everybody. I'm not sure that that's the case,
but that that's a really interesting development that you know,
a farmer could get rewarded essentially for just deciding not
to farm on certain things. And I know you're supposed
to rotate crops and things like that. I've heard of
that before, but that's pretty interesting. Got Cody on our

(14:08):
phone line four oh two, five five eight, eleven ten.
Welcome to our show on eleven ten, kfab Cody, what's up?

Speaker 3 (14:14):
Oh?

Speaker 10 (14:15):
No, lot, I just want to voice my opinion. Everybody
else gets to do it.

Speaker 6 (14:19):
It's the biggest.

Speaker 10 (14:20):
Thing that I think the American cattle producer is worried
about is m cool Mantory country origin slabling. We export
less than what we import because we don't have enough
to meet the lower leaner meet in the United States,
such as like Campberg and stuff like that. If I
understand it right, But if we had that, I think
that we'd be able to excuse me, I think the

(14:43):
American product would be worth more than such as the
imported product, and it would benefit actually the American producers.

Speaker 5 (14:50):
That's my opinion.

Speaker 2 (14:52):
Interesting. Well, Cody, appreciate the information today. Thanks for calling in.
Yeh got Blake on a phone line four eleven ten,
Little Blood chat with more people. Keep calling in, Blake,
Thanks for listening to us today. What do you think
about all this?

Speaker 8 (15:08):
Hey, no, I uh am South Enter Nebraska farming ranch.
And yeah, I agree and discrear with some of the
things people are saying. We definitely need and we've always
said it, we need a label country of origin, not
where the country's packed at because a lot of these
packing plans are buying beef overseas and then they're packing

(15:29):
in the United States and claiming it that's you know,
the United States. They can put it on the packing
and people think the United States beef, which.

Speaker 5 (15:35):
Is not right.

Speaker 8 (15:37):
And the second thing is and my favorite president, Dad,
she was big and to split monopolies. Well, you got
about three companies that own eighty of the packing plans.
Well you're gonna have some monopolies going And not that
I mean, we don't like you know, government stepping in,
but you know, sometimes it's a need just because monopolies

(15:59):
are going on.

Speaker 2 (16:00):
And and so yeah, so Blake, Blake would do do
you think that what is being suggested here as introducing
Argentina beef into the market place. Do you think that's
a good idea to help solve the problem or should
there be a different solution.

Speaker 8 (16:16):
I think it's a band aid on a bigger problem. Okay, yes,
we don't have enough beef in the United States, But
and all that I think Branchers mainly want is for
people to know that it's US beef compared to Argentina beef,
if you.

Speaker 1 (16:32):
Know what I mean, Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 2 (16:34):
No, And I mean this is the same thing with
with dairy producers and they want you know, you can't
call soy milk milk, right like, we make sure that
it's properly labeled so people know what they do when
they think their product will stand up on its own
if it's properly labeled. Makes complete sense to me, Blake,
appreciate the call today, Thanks for.

Speaker 1 (16:49):
Listening to us.

Speaker 8 (16:51):
No appreciating looking to me, so appreciate.

Speaker 5 (16:52):
Thanks.

Speaker 2 (16:53):
Yeah, no problem man, if you're a farmer and this
isn't even beef farmers, because I mean I had Jim
call in, and I've getting emails about Jim right now.
And you know, people who are row croppers and people
who are corn farmers not happy with what Jim had
to say. And as you would think, right, I mean,

(17:14):
like those are some fighting words. And then he's saying,
you know, you've got callers saying that Trump's doing as
much socialism stuff as any Democrat. It's a pretty crazy
thing to say. But you know, based on if you
are a farmer, especially a beef farmer, right now, is
that how you feel? Would you feel that way? Obviously?
I read the statement from the Nebraska cattleman who say

(17:36):
this is bad for us. We don't want this, we
don't need Argentina beef. Just give us some time to
replenish our herds and we'll make sure that our product
is as good as it's ever been, and we'll make
sure to kind of correct the market ourselves. And this
is why I need the farmer and people who are
into agriculture to be part of the show, because this

(17:56):
could be something that drastically impacts people, not just what
the consumption prices, but just what they know or what
they understand about how economically they're buying. Decisions make an
impact on the local economy, and I think it's a
lesson worth learning, and this might be the topic that
can get people to that understanding. Four h two, five

(18:18):
to five, eight to eleven ten is the number if you
are in agriculture, or if you're a beef producer, or
you're a row cropper, whatever. I want to talk to
you about this the idea of Argentinean beef being brought
into the United States. David's on our phone line at
four h two, five to five, eight eleven ten. Welcome
to the show, David, What do you think.

Speaker 11 (18:37):
I'm a livestock producer, also grain farm and for seventy
years I'm seventy one years old, we've had a cheap
food policy in the United States. Used to raise a
lot of hogs and couldn't afford that because the big
corporate farms took over. Anyway, getting back to the Argentina beef,

(19:01):
it's a lower quality beef, is not grain fed, and
we need to support the American farmer, American cattle guy.
For too many years the government has subsidized a grain
farmer and the livestock guy got nothing. And so we've
torn I do custom hand. We've torn out thousands of

(19:24):
acres in southeast Nebraska here and put it to grain
crops and instead of having being diversified. A lot of
the farmers are lazy. Let's just put it that way.
They don't want to get up in the wintertime when
you're a cavn, when there's foot deep mud, snow cold,

(19:47):
and get up the middle of the night and check
cows when they're cavn. The previous guy said they're greed.
Farmers are greedy. Yes they are. They want the biggest
and best. They We have two million dollars worth of
equipment in the field when they harvest, and they expect
me to feel sorry for them.

Speaker 12 (20:07):
No.

Speaker 11 (20:07):
Yeah, they got to They got to outbid everybody else.
We got to be the big guy on the block,
and we need to support the American beef producer. So
we got a good quality product.

Speaker 2 (20:20):
Yes, David, I guess my big thing is here. Do
you think that product can rebound in a way that
can bring prices down or do you think that Trump's
idea of importing beef from Argentina is the right solution.

Speaker 11 (20:32):
Importing beef is not the right solution for let me
back up a little bit. For years, the USDA said
we had more cattle on feed than we actually did.
We had drought either in southeast part of the United
States or Texas, Oklahoma, Montana, so cavs got weaned and
put on in the feed lots. At two hundred and

(20:53):
fifty two hundred pounds, you have eight hundred pounds. So
they counted them. Oh, we got all kinds of cattle
on feed. No, so the government lied for years and
now I finally Cottom caught up with them. Interesting, we
weren't making it for four years there. I never made
a dime on cattle. I got my expensive back, but

(21:15):
no labor, absolutely zero labor, and so a lot of
guys sold their cows. You know, we can't we can't
keep doing this right, and then that ground got turned into.

Speaker 1 (21:26):
Crop ground, right, and it's never going to go back.
When you make that.

Speaker 12 (21:29):
Decision, it won't go back.

Speaker 1 (21:30):
No, no, David, this is.

Speaker 11 (21:33):
Unless unless corn remains cheap. You know, in the seventies
we paid three and a half dollars a bushel for
corn to feed cattle. Right now it's three and a
half and the expenses are way higher. Getting back to
the middleman, someone mentioned we get three and a half
dollars a bushel for corn. What do you think of

(21:55):
a box of twelve ounce or fourteen ounce box of
corn flakes?

Speaker 7 (21:59):
Is?

Speaker 1 (22:00):
Oh, probably like five bucks? Six bucks?

Speaker 11 (22:03):
Yeah, yeah, it's not the farmer making the money, it's
a milman.

Speaker 1 (22:08):
Dang, well, this is good. This is good.

Speaker 2 (22:11):
Why we talk about this and why we try to
understand it because that makes a lot of sense from
that perspective. David, really do appreciate the call of it,
and thanks for listening to us.

Speaker 11 (22:19):
Thank you for your time.

Speaker 2 (22:20):
Yeah, this is good. If you want to call in,
please do four two, five, five, eight to eleven ten.
A lot of emails coming in as well. Emrie ATKFAP
dot com. Jason said about a beef side in May.
It's fourteen hundred dollars for the side, four hundred dollars
for processing. Came in around seven dollars per pound. It's
basically pretty consistent with what we've heard from the people here.

Speaker 1 (22:39):
That's a lot.

Speaker 2 (22:40):
Okay, seven dollars a pound. If you go back five
years and you tell yourself that this beef is you're
talking seven dollars a pound pretty much across the board.
I think people will be like, what the heck happened.
But again, do we need an immediate solution? You know,
Donald Trump talking about an immediate solution of importing Ardentinian beef,
and we've had some people say that just proper labeling

(23:02):
could resolve the issue altogether. That's good, I mean, that's
a good idea. Would it actually lower prices and would
the lowering of prices for the consumer do more harm
than good for the beef producers? As we just heard
from David, not making money on cattle creates a big
problem that makes it very difficult for people to justify

(23:25):
being a cattle producer a beef producer. What happens when
the market inadvertently drives out beef producers from the United
States one way or the other. Sure there might be
other types of farmers that will be able to utilize
that land for something a little bit more feasible, is
not as much labor intensive, with like maybe the row

(23:47):
crops that we've been talking about. But that creates, realistically
a need, doesn't it to consistently be importing from the
you know, importing from other countries their beef product, and
all of a sudden, the United States is helping subsidize
their beef situation much better than they ever did for

(24:09):
the American cattle producers here. I can see how a
cattle producer would see that and say that makes absolutely
no sense to me. Beef producers in Nebraska not happy
about the insinuation by Donald Trump that maybe we need
to introduce Argentinian beef into our market to lower prices
for the consumer. What does that mean for beef producers here?

(24:31):
We're talking about that in all of the adjacent conversations
that go around that and the struggle for beef producers
in Nebraska and the Midwest. Sean is on our phone
line at four h two, five five, eight eleven ten.
Welcome in, Sean. What's on your mind?

Speaker 11 (24:45):
Oh, just call it in.

Speaker 3 (24:46):
Chime in on the Argentinian beef stuff. I was a
locker owner meat locker owner for a while, and I
I really don't think bringing in Argentinian beef's going to
do anything good for the economy. I think they need
to let one of the last gentlemen said they need
to let the herd grow back bigger it right now,
I think it's the smallest it's ever been in the
country since the forties or fifties.

Speaker 2 (25:08):
I believe so so how color me and yes I'm ignorant, Sean,
But what would be like a timeline that would be
necessary to get that to a healthy number that could
create more supply and lower the price naturally.

Speaker 3 (25:23):
I want to say the guy we bought the locker from,
So it goes on a seven year cycle, like every
seven maybe seven to eleven years, Like it takes a
while for it come back because you can't just you know,
go out and jump your herd, you know, by fifty
percent overnight because there's a demand for it right its time.

Speaker 2 (25:45):
Yeah, I mean it takes time to have the heifer right,
and then it takes time to have gestation, and then
after that you have to raise the calf itself, and
then you have to think about, you know, the age
that it needs to be for maturity for you know,
the right weight to go to market. Uh yeah, that's
a that right there is three years for a single
calf we're talking about right now. So you talk about

(26:07):
trying to do that thousands and thousands of times across
the entire market. Of course, that's going to take a
long time. That's a good point, Sean. Appreciate you for
calling in. You bet let's jump to Levi here, Levi,
we think is so much for listening to us today.

Speaker 1 (26:21):
What's on your mind?

Speaker 12 (26:23):
Hey?

Speaker 8 (26:23):
So yeah, I agreeing, discre. I thought I was saying
summer rancher, and uh, I don't think a lot of
people realize everything's going up in price, including expensive And actually,
in nineteen eighty, for thirty minutes of people's work day,
you could get the same amount of beef for thirty
minutes of today's work if that makes sense.

Speaker 1 (26:46):
Right, you're saying the dollar amount equal.

Speaker 8 (26:49):
Yeah, it all works out, okay, Yeah, and you know
it's a year round crop. People are, you know, dealing
with all this and the worst thing you can do
is manipulate the markets because it's a risky business to
get in. If you get in it, well then you know,
all of a sudden, all it takes is the president's
stamps fingers and all of a sudden, you know, you
lose all your money when you're just trying to get

(27:10):
in it.

Speaker 2 (27:10):
You know, Yeah, well, Levi, I would ask. Then you
know you're hearing people talk about the herd being small
and they're not being enough, and maybe Donald Trump's feeling
some heat the fact that there's not enough price drop
in some of the food and groceries, and this is
one way that he can kind of kill two birds
with one stone, helping his Argentinian ally in their president

(27:33):
while also trying to lower beef prices here. What would
be the right solution from your vantage point? Do you
just need time or do you think this importation of
Argentinian beef could actually help the market immediately?

Speaker 8 (27:46):
Well, I think I think both. I agree with a
lot that's what's getting said. But I think they just
need to give farmers time here. Farmers are pretty flexible,
you know, on what they can grow and when and how,
and so I think they just need to give them
time for them and the market to get back in place.
But also I think someone or a couple of people
have talked about country of origin. I think that would help,

(28:09):
you know, I think that would you could knock two
birds out with one stone there. Yeah, it could help
the farmers here and then you could also you know,
get maybe some cheaper stuff from Argentina.

Speaker 2 (28:19):
Yeah, I mean that could be a completely different kind
of asset to the entire deal if we had that
kind of lined up too, Which is a good point
leeve I appreciate you calling in today. Thanks for listening
to our show.

Speaker 8 (28:30):
Appreciate you have a good Yeah.

Speaker 2 (28:32):
You too, got more calls coming in. We'd love to
hear from you. If you're a farmer today four oh
two five five, eight eleven ten. Four oh two, five
five eight eleven ten, we got Doug on the line.
Welcome in, Doug, what's on your mind today?

Speaker 4 (28:44):
Hi, I'm a I'm not a farmer. I'm a consumer.
But what I'd like to know is I pay a
lot more for my beef because I want grass fed,
clean beef. And when you feed your animals DMO corn
that's been sprayed with life for safe or round up

(29:05):
or whatever, I don't want to be eating all that stuff.
So I get my meat from New Zealand or so
once in a while, if I can find a farmer
that has clean cows, that's where I get my beef.
And if more people would clean up their beef, maybe
we don't have to go to a foreign country to

(29:26):
get our meat.

Speaker 2 (29:27):
So, Doug, I guess what the suggestion is here is
that the market itself is a reaction. For you think
a lower quality of product that's in the United States,
and you would welcome a free market situation where people
could make the determination of what the best beef is
for themselves.

Speaker 4 (29:44):
Yes, I'd like that option, and I'd like to be
able to buy local if I could.

Speaker 1 (29:50):
Right, But you want a high quality product, is what
you're saying.

Speaker 4 (29:54):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (29:55):
Interesting, Well, Doug, I appreciate the perspective today, Thanks for
listening and calling in.

Speaker 4 (30:00):
Well, I wonder sometimes if that's why we have to
import some stuff, because I know I'm not the only
one looking for that, but we can't export our week
to a lot of countries around the world because of
the chemicals that we use. So let's clean up our
food and then buy more of it.

Speaker 2 (30:20):
Yeah, I hear you, Doug. I appreciate the call today,
Thanks for listening.

Speaker 4 (30:24):
Thanks, Amory.

Speaker 1 (30:25):
Yeah, I mean.

Speaker 2 (30:27):
That's going to be a pretty controversial take there, and
it's one that you know, Gosh, you talk to people
about cars and they kind of have the same idea.
I know that it's equating cars and car production to
farming may not be the most one to one thing
that people can think of, but you want to, Like,
there's people that would swear up and down it's like
I'm only buying a Chevy I'm only buying a Ford.

(30:48):
I'm only buying a car that I know is one
hundred percent made in the United States, and they don't
like That's not to say that those aren't good cars,
but you might find better quality and more, you know,
high level performance from your vehicle if you get something
that's foreign made. But there have been people for generations

(31:09):
that have sacrificed maybe a level of quality specifically because
they wanted to buy American. It sounds like having a
wide open frame market is exactly what a person like
Doug would be interested in and trying to make that work.
It's an interesting angle to the entire story too, is
if all of a sudden, Arditinian beef was brought into

(31:30):
the United States, you know, there could be an argument
whether or not it is a better or a worse product.
But even if they label it, if all of a
sudden people try the Ardentinian beef, it is cheaper, it
lowers the market prices down, and people seem to like it.
I mean, there's certainly gonna be people that may prefer it.
Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing for

(31:50):
them Personally, they're doing what's best for them, but that
absolutely long term would be hurting the Nebraska and Iowa
beef producers. Ted thanks so much for calling in and
for holding what's on your mind.

Speaker 6 (32:02):
Thank you get the background. I'm eighty one year old
old fart and been in agriculture all my life. Took
over a small farm from my dad when I got
out of the navy. He was ready to retire. I
loved farming after thirty some years. For five years I

(32:22):
looked for something else to do. I didn't enjoy it anymore.
I just accidentally got into the trucking and enjoyed the
heck out of it. Holland Center Pivot Irrigations out of Lindsay, Nebraska,
and then farm machinery and constructing equipment after that. So
now you know where I'm now, you know where I'm
coming from.

Speaker 1 (32:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (32:43):
Cycles, everything cycles, I don't care what it is. Are
wet to dry years are roughly seven years apart from
our wettest to our dryest. Now, yes, it varies from
one to two years, but everything cycles. Our grain markets,
our stock market, there are different cycles, of course, but

(33:05):
our grain markets are beef markets, and the beef fella
has been taken it in the shorts for years like
one mentioned that the middleman, you know, the farmer, don't
making orders of these beef. Not so much hogs and chickens,

(33:25):
but beef that's outside. The weather affects it. It affects
that the cost of gain per day, how much they eat,
you know, they have to the feeder has to just
these rations depending on the age of the critter and
so forth it, you know, and then of course the pastures. Yeah,

(33:49):
there's been pastures tore up. Would burn me up. I've
seen shelter belts torn up, and everyone I just cuts
that farmer that's done that old farm dams that the
farmer got paid to put in to put a little
pond to reserve and keep erosion downstream have been torn out.

(34:14):
That's kind of stuff that bugs me. But greed, that
greed is everywhere. There's no more greed in farming than
there is and hardly anything else you name it. So
that's that's a poor excuse for me and and the
big farmers. There's a reason they're big. They've either got

(34:37):
the help, they got the money back in them for
whatever reason, could be several different reasons. They got to
have the land. I mean, the size of your equipment,
it goes, it goes with the land.

Speaker 3 (34:53):
You know how much land?

Speaker 2 (34:55):
And this is all good. Ted, I got to move
on to the next guy. But I really do appreciate then,
and thank you so much for your service as well
to our country.

Speaker 1 (35:03):
Thanks for listening to our show.

Speaker 6 (35:05):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (35:06):
Grant's on our phone line four row two five five
eight to eleven teen. Grant, we do appreciate you for
being on the show today. What's on your mind?

Speaker 13 (35:13):
Hey, Emory's Grant. If you remember on the Veterinarian that
talks you about the water buffalo story in.

Speaker 5 (35:17):
Iowa, I love that.

Speaker 1 (35:18):
Yeah, what's up?

Speaker 7 (35:21):
Yeah?

Speaker 13 (35:21):
I just had a comment one on the Consumer earlier
that was talking about the grain fread versus grass fed. Yeah,
bring a venarian perspective to that, and then something about
Trump after. So as far as the grass fed versus
the grain fread fed, the infrastructure, the way that it's
designed is in such a way that we have to
finish these cattle in order to get them to wait

(35:43):
as fast as possible, to get it in the consumer's
hand as fast as possible at the cheapest price possible.
So if you go and you try to upend that
whole system and try to only do grass fed or
organic or antibotic free or anything like that. You're going
to just raise the price of the beef. Doesn't fix
what everybody's complaints is at this time. If you want

(36:04):
to buy a grass fed, if you want to buy
WAGU from another country, if you want to buy Argentina
met or anything like that, you more than certainly can
pay your own premium whatever it is for it. But
upending the system for perceived health benefits that we don't
even know if they're true or not is a big stretch.
So I just wanted to say a comment on that.

Speaker 1 (36:22):
Yeah, for sure, that makes sense.

Speaker 13 (36:25):
Yeah, as soon as the Trump thing, I mean, I
think if you start diving into you know, buying and
you know, bringing in more supply when you know you're
you're supposed to be living in a capitalistic society, when
we both know it's kind of crony, you know, in
the way that they supplement a lot of things. If
you're trying to do that, you're just going to alter
and deviate the market a lot that you're not going

(36:46):
to have these natural cycles in the system, and you're
not going to allow the opportunity for somebody to go, hey,
you know these prices are going up. Maybe I'm going
to get into ranching.

Speaker 12 (36:55):
Now.

Speaker 13 (36:56):
There's a lot of infrastructure things that go into that
of certainly you know, a shortages in area, feed prices,
gasoline prices. I mean, there's so many factors that I
think doing one thing like just bringing in a bunch
of beef is going to just just make it more
rough in my opinion.

Speaker 2 (37:13):
Yeah, and I think we're looking for a fast fix.
So people see that this administration is trying to lower
prices for the consumer, but it's being done without the
thought of what it could do for the industry of
the beef producers here already. And I hope that that
is going to be taken into account by this administration

(37:34):
before they pull the trigger on something like this, because,
like you said, it could completely stunt anything that you
could have maybe forecasted for several years down the line
as they try to recover the numbers and try to
make it more affordable the way that it probably should
make more affordable. Appreciate it as always, Grant, thanks for
calling in.

Speaker 13 (37:52):
Hey, take care. Thanks.

Speaker 2 (37:53):
John is on our phone line at four two, five
to five, eight to eleven ten. Always pleasure. John, thanks
for listening to our show today. What's on your mind?

Speaker 12 (38:00):
Hey, you're welcome to the gentleman that called in about
clean beef. This is clean beef all over Nebraska and Iowa.
Just got to google it. You'll see the farmers at
the farmers market whenever that's in season. And I got
some grass fed beef in the freezer right now from Costco,
so not Costco saying I'm sure Costco may have it too,

(38:21):
but yeah, I mean it's here. I don't know what
the price difference is, you know, versus US producer and Argentina,
but it's here, just one in a time in.

Speaker 2 (38:29):
Yeah, I appreciate that, John, and thank you for calling
in today. The point of that also, and I had
a caller say, I mean that's spoken like a non farmer,
because he was a non farmer. The guy who called
in was talking about the you know, New Zealand beef
and it's cleaner and I know that.

Speaker 1 (38:48):
And all that stuff.

Speaker 12 (38:49):
Right.

Speaker 2 (38:52):
I think the idea of introducing and this goes back
to my example of the car makes right. It's like
you buy a car from the United State, you want
to support American but if you want in some ways
a vehicle that might fit you better or might be
of a higher quality for a similar price, you could
buy foreign. Having that as an option, you could say,

(39:14):
is a free market enterprise decision you could have the
opportunity to make. You just have to understand, especially in
this situation, is why Michigan is so protective of their
cars and why they're protective of the auto industry. It
is the same reason why Nebraska and Iowa should be
protective of the beef industry and the hog industry, and
of any particular agricultural situation, even row crops, even though

(39:39):
that they kind of in some cases with some of
these callers have been the villains. I think, if we're
looking at it from that perspective, everything that you do
by bringing in foreign beef for any reason, even if
it is to lower consumer cost, is coming at the
expense of the hard working beef producer in our states,

(40:02):
and you have no idea how that is going to
affect our state's economy. So you just have to kind
of think about that when you're making your decisions to purchase,
and I hope the President is thinking about that if
he makes a decision to purchase from Argentina because that
is going to have a direct negative impact on the
beef producers, even if it's going to give some price

(40:22):
relief to the beef consumer. Augie is on our phone line. AUGI,
welcome to the show today. What's on your mind?

Speaker 14 (40:28):
Hi, I'm just saying that the only winner in this
Argentina beef in coming to this country is JBS. They
own a whole bunch packing houses in this country, and
they own the feed lots, and now if they bring
in the Argentina beast, they're going to hit the jackpot again.

Speaker 2 (40:46):
Yeah, that's an interesting perspective. I didn't even think about that.

Speaker 12 (40:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 14 (40:51):
Well, I've been hauling livestock firm many years and I've
delivered to many of their feed lots and they change
the names of all their feed lots from JBA the
Five Rivers. So they got in trouble somehow, so now
it's all called Five Rivers, But they still got the
packing houses that's called JBS and they're all over the
West coast out here.

Speaker 1 (41:10):
Yeah, that's interesting. Hi.

Speaker 2 (41:12):
Do you think that this is a good idea? I mean,
I know JBS would, we'll think it's a good idea,
But do you think it's a good idea.

Speaker 14 (41:20):
No, I don't think it's a good idea at all, because,
like I said, the only winner is going to be
is JBS.

Speaker 2 (41:26):
Well, that's there's another kind of aspect in perspective to this.
I didn't even think about. AUGI really do appreciate you
calling in and talking to us.

Speaker 14 (41:36):
Yeah, you bad, bad.

Speaker 2 (41:38):
All right, let's get to Rich on the phone line
of four h two, five, five, eight eleven ten. Welcome
in today, Rich. What's on your mind?

Speaker 15 (41:44):
Well, I was just calling in. I think we will
see the greatest blood bath in rural America that we've
ever seen if we bring the Argentina beef in. Cattle
producers have been a marginal break even for lots of years.
They're finally making profits. We've got all these cattle in
feed lots. It costs like three thousand dollars as feeders

(42:05):
to go to the feed lot and be finished out,
and all of a sudden you go back to historical
prices like six hundred dollars ahead the loss to rural
American beef producers. We're finally starting to get some young
beef producers going back because it's profitable. All of those
people will be broke overnight. And not only does it

(42:25):
affect the beef producers, it affects the corn growers and
the soybean producers because we're struggling in corn production today,
but corn is manufactured into ethanol. There's DDGs generated. The
animal livestock industry is eating up those DDGs, so that
that's what makes bio fuels profitable. The snowball effect of

(42:50):
his doing this to just bring the price of beef
down overnight will destroy rural America and it'll make our
twenty billion dollar investment Argentina looks small.

Speaker 1 (43:02):
Well, thank you, Rich, appreciate the call.

Speaker 2 (43:04):
Wow, thats some passion there, and uh, it's hard to
disagree necessarily with where he's coming from. If it will give,
it goes down that way. And if you're trying to
prop up the American cattleman and beef producers around the
United States, is that more subsidies that we're already talking

(43:25):
about how controversial subsidies are. It would it take more
to basically bail them out to keep them in business
when they're already like trying their hardest, it's scratching claw
to be in business. And then you know, Trump would
bring in be from another country, which basically could undercut
them and their profit margins.

Speaker 5 (43:45):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (43:46):
Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (43:47):
It's hard to see a positive viewpoint from that particular angle.
Bill is on a phone line four oh two, five five, eight,
eleven ten. Bill, welcome to our show on eleven ten, kfab.

Speaker 16 (43:59):
Hey, every thanks time caller. Love your topics. I had
a different I had a different perspective. Perhaps now I'm
not really necessarily for bringing in the argentin to beef
and stuff because it does hurt the cattle, the cattle
we have here. But what if we go back to
the topic of everything cycles, and if it takes seven

(44:20):
years and so long to raise the cattle and stuff,
what if it's a temporary thing to bring it in
so we don't lose our meat, but then it gives
our cattle farmers enough time to you know, restock more
or less.

Speaker 2 (44:35):
Yeah, so, uh, I guess Bill, the perfect solution looks
like what to you when you think about this?

Speaker 16 (44:44):
I really don't have one, because you know, I've got
my grandparents that they they were cattle farmers where they passed,
but I don't know much about it. But that was
just thinking like maybe on a different perspective. Yeah, temporarily,
maybe it may hurt farmers, but then it may also
allow them to rest out the cattle and be able

(45:05):
to boom in maybe a few years with that seven
year cycle thing.

Speaker 1 (45:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (45:09):
Well, and that's the other thing too, is you know,
while it's a good idea to think about what it
can do to help the consumer right now, you got
to think about long term what it could potentially do
to our producers and whether or not it's going to
allow them to stay in business or not even in
the short term. Appreciate the call, Bill, Thanks for listening

(45:29):
to our show today. Let's go ahead and squeeze in
one more call here from Tom. Tom, welcome into our
show today. What's on your.

Speaker 17 (45:36):
Mind the afternoon? I would say I'd go along with
the cycle thing. In nineteen seventy two, I was feeding
some cattle and the cycle bit me, And so I
know that ups and downs are there. And also I
remember when Cardio in nineteen ninety seven imported a whole

(45:56):
bunch of soybeans from Brazil so they could meet their
rush demand. And it turned out that a number of
producers in my area had lost quite a lot of
money because there's soy beans overnight went from fourteen dollars
to eight dollars or nine dollars, and so it was
a terrible bite. So I would say that when a

(46:17):
government messes with marketplaces, nothing good happens. Now, the other
thing that I want to point out is that one
gentleman spoke about how bad, how dirty GMOs are. Well,
I was involved in the seat business back in nineteen
ninety three or four when GMOs were coming to be.

(46:40):
And for example, don't ever forget that one of the
earliest GMOs with hybrid corn that was nineteen twenty seven.
The Chinese have been manipulating beans for two thousand years.
They're way different than the nature would provide, but there
are no chemicals involved in GMO horns that are going

(47:03):
to make it work. As a result, our yields are
much higher. And for example, when I was in the
seed business is nineteen seventy up to nineteen ninety six,
Nebraska is raising about twelve billion bushels of corn. Now
they're producing seventeen billion bushels of corn, and our livestock

(47:24):
industry consumes thirteen billion. So we are a sinkhole for
corn because we're like second or first in pact, beef
third or fourth, and pack pork first, and egg production,
and the list goes on. So we're an agricultural powerhouse.
So when you bite a specific specific group like the

(47:48):
cattle producer, it's not going to work out. Let the
cycle works.

Speaker 1 (47:53):
Tom.

Speaker 2 (47:54):
It's good stuff, really good perspective today. Thanks so much
for calling in and being up part of our show.

Speaker 4 (47:58):
All right, thank you.

Speaker 2 (48:00):
Teaking of weather is one of the few crops that
is an all weather crop that you have to worry
about with every single situation that's out there is beef cattle.
And we have been spending a lot of time talking
to you, cattle producers, cattle or beef consumers, anybody with
an opinion on what the situation is. That was insinuated

(48:22):
by Donald Trump on Sunday when he said he may
end up bringing Argentinian beef to the United States to
help lower the market's prices for consumers. However, this would be, obviously,
if you understand economics, bad for the Nebraska and for
the Iowa cattleman. The Nebraska cattleman made a statement on

(48:44):
Monday night about this, saying, this is not a good idea.
I haven't heard too much as it relates to what
the Iowa cattlemen have are feeling about. Maybe in the
last hour or two they've put something out, but either way,
I think we all are kind of trying to figure
out would this be a good idea, a bad idea,
or what would be the long term implications if something

(49:05):
like this were to take place. Phone lines are open
four two, five, eight, eleven ten. John is on the
phone line. Welcome in, John, Thank you for being on
the show today. What's on your mind?

Speaker 9 (49:15):
Yeah, I love the topic today. I'm a cow calf
guy and this the cattle herd's been shrinking for three
or four years. We had drought going on, which caused
the cost of feed hay to go up through the roof.
And when a guy wasn't making much money before, you

(49:35):
started seeing these cattle two hundred dollars a ton, Hey,
and all of a sudden, you're going backwards. And a
lot of guys started getting out. A lot of merred
older too, sixty seven years old. They said the heck
with it, we'll get out, and so they hurt shrink
and it's been shrinking, and now finally there's a little

(49:55):
bit of money to be made, and now they're going
to change the rules, so well, that isn't going to
increase the herd. If they're going to change the rules
in the middle of the game, why would a guy
want to keep any hampers back now?

Speaker 1 (50:08):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (50:09):
Well, oh yeah, but even then John Wright, so it's
just like, if he does this, it would theoretically lower
prices for now, but it really would just chase off
the producer in America.

Speaker 1 (50:18):
Wouldn't it.

Speaker 9 (50:20):
Yes, exactly, you're right now, but finally we're going to
make a little bit of money. We haven't really need
money in cattle or cow cap. Guys haven't made much
money in cattle for quite some time. We're now finally
starting to get above water. There's then all of a sudden,
you're going to take the incentive away to try to
stay in business by doing this. You know, we're manufacturing

(50:44):
kind of went through this forty and fifty years ago.
We went overseas because we could get a cheap product,
and people finally got used to cheap products. Will you
start bringing in beef from overseas? It may not be
as good as ours, but people solely'll well, we'll get
it because they think it's it's fine, and before you
know it, we won't produce any beef here anymore, just

(51:07):
like we don't manufacture anything here anymore. This is a
temporary problem.

Speaker 13 (51:12):
It'll go away.

Speaker 9 (51:13):
Let the market do its thing. Every time the government
wants to get involved, they may fix one problem, but
they create two and three problems down the line. Yeah, John, Day,
it'll work out. So you compare the price of a
pound of hamburger to a six pack of soda that
everybody seems to think they need. And you know that

(51:34):
pound of hamburger isn't as expensive as it seems.

Speaker 1 (51:36):
Yeah, let's go well in, John, real quick.

Speaker 2 (51:39):
Right, So do you think from that vantage point, do
you think this is Donald Trump needing a win in
economics because people are complaining of high prices and he
sees this as a way to get a win and
to lower prices for the consumers, even if it comes
at the expense of the producers.

Speaker 9 (51:58):
Yeah, that's the problem. Well, they did it with eggs too,
but there just isn't as many guys in the egg business,
so you probably didn't hear about it. But they imported
eggs from everywhere to get the price of eggs down. Yeah,
he got a temporary win out of it, but then
they then they moved on to another topic and you
never heard about it again. The problem is you do
that now. Yeah, he may get a win for a

(52:20):
couple of weeks, we move on to something else, and
all of those guys out here that are raising cattle,
or the guys like that that just restocked their yards
with feeders, we're done.

Speaker 7 (52:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (52:32):
Wow, So what do you think it's going to do
next year?

Speaker 1 (52:35):
Right?

Speaker 9 (52:35):
So, yeah, it's very shortsighted. Unfortunately, the feeder marker was
limited down today. Yeah, so nine dollars one hundred eight
down today, So if you had a five hundred pound critter,
you lost forty five bucks just today.

Speaker 2 (52:51):
That's crazy. Now, John, I appreciate this insight. Thanks so
much for calling.

Speaker 9 (52:56):
In yet, thanks to you.

Speaker 2 (52:58):
Yeah, it is one of those things where you know
you can support this president and understand what the president
is attempting to do. Well, let's take politics out of it,
let's take who is in charge out of it, let's
take political party out of it. It just seems like
it's bad news for the producer, and it would be

(53:19):
bad based on how deep the economy goes in our
conversation with Senator Debt Fisher earlier today, how deep the
economy of Nebraska and even our friends over in Iowa,
what that looks like for the people who are listening
to this show. The economy of your state, the backbone
of it is agriculture, and trying to lower prices for

(53:42):
consumers is an admirable thing to do, but in the
way that you're doing it, you are stunting what the
cycle would theoretically be to recover things for the American
producers who are the backbone of agriculture and of the
economies of these Midwestern states. They have me an email
and said in twenty twenty four. I don't know where
he got this information, but he said, in twenty twenty four,

(54:05):
the US imported four point six billion pounds of beef,
and the same year the US exported three billion dollars
three billion pounds. If an average carcass of beef is
eight hundred and forty pounds, that's over three point five
million head. Maybe we shouldn't export if we don't have
enough food for myself.

Speaker 1 (54:22):
I'm not going to give some away.

Speaker 2 (54:27):
It's a it's an interesting in a in a good point.
I wonder in that scenario, how much of that is
just trying to make good relations and open up other
market possibilities for producers, and would this it's a temporary
fix on the price of beef in this country theoretically

(54:50):
if you add Argentinian beef into the mix, and it
would be a help to the president of Argentina, who
is in a Trump ally and he's having all sorts
of problems on his own, including their currency is in
the midst of a collapse. This could be something to
help him out. And I know there's midterm elections happening
there in Argentina and Trump's trying to help his ally out,

(55:13):
And I get that, But is there going to be
some future for beef producers that you could promise them, Hey,
we're going to get you a lot of business by
exporting your product elsewhere. And if that's the case, you're
gonna have to articulate that, because if I'm a Nebraska
beef producer, I'm hearing this talk about bringing in foreign
beef to lower the prices of my product with no

(55:37):
incentive for me, you darn toot, and I'm gonna be
looking for a different way to make money in my
life because it seems like the government is against me
if I'm a producer. And again, this may not be
seemed like a huge deal to people who don't eat meat.
This may not seem like a huge deal to people
who live in other areas of the country who they
don't rely on immediate beef producers. But every single area

(56:01):
of the country would have their own gripes with something
that would be like this in this type of situation.
And that's just a reality of the matter. And this
happens to be ours. So what's going to be done
about it? Can Senator Fisher can? Senator Ricketts?

Speaker 12 (56:17):
Can?

Speaker 2 (56:18):
Everybody in Congress? Can all of the people who have
the ability to get to the ear of their politicians
help prevent something like this from stunting the cycle of
attempting to regrow the herd and have the opportunity to
keep our producers top of mind. So there are people
who want to make food and help continue to have
the backbone of our state's economy.

Speaker 1 (56:40):
You would hope so.

Speaker 2 (56:42):
But Donald Trump is a guy who's about wins, and
he is probably looking at for a way to get
a quick win with the American people by lowering prices
of their groceries, and beef may be just one of
those things that's just in the crosshairs. Next we'll see
what this is. A couple of emails here kind of
tell the story.

Speaker 1 (57:01):
I think.

Speaker 2 (57:02):
Jeff sends an email and says, at some point, I
think you and your listeners are going to have to
be willing to criticize Trump before his policies destroy Nebraska's economy. Well, Jeff,
you know what I mean. I think I'm willing to
stand up and criticize anything. I have been on the
record to say. I don't think anyone is infallible. I
don't think anyone is untouchable. And this idea, it could

(57:25):
be good for the consumers as I mentioned across the
country who eat beef, but it's not good for the
producers and it's not good for our economy here in
Nebraska or for our neighbors in Iowa. Eric on the
other end, says, I've been around cattle my entire life
and started feeding my own cattle when I was seven. Currently,
I operate a calcalf herd and wrote crop farm. The

(57:45):
labor required for a cow calf operation is crazy. I
hope most of your listeners enjoy their weekends off, while
cattle producers are working year round. Cattle don't know holidays.
I think President Trump forgot who voted for him. I
also find it funny that none of your callers seem
too concerned about the food safety aspect of Argentinian beef.
The only people that will profit from this will be
the meat packers. We've had a couple of calls that

(58:07):
mentioned that how the meat packers are going to be
in good shape to benefit from this by just having
more meat in the market, even if it isn't American meat,
what do they care, it's more meat. Well, the safety
of Argentinian meat, you would think, has to be tested,
and it has to be and I think the label
could make a difference. You know, we've heard some people say, look,

(58:29):
if they're going to do this, just label it and
let the American people choose what they want. And at
that point, you're just trusting that your pricing is good
enough for people to say, you know what, I'll still
pay my seven dollars a pound for meat with the
idea that I'm eating American meat and helping my economy,
and I'm hopeful that I'm getting a better product. I

(58:50):
don't know if it's going to be that easy though,
because you know how consumers are. What's the cheapest option,
Give me that and we'll see what happens.