The Country 18/03/25: Todd Clark talks to Jamie Mackay

We remind our Kentucky-based farming correspondent it's National Agriculture Week in the US. It was introduced in 1973 and each year, it highlights how agriculture supports our food supply, fuels the economy, and creates job opportunities. And what's happening to beef prices under Trump's tariffs?

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
He is a Kentucky based US farm and correspondent. Todd
Clark is his name. It is, as we heard from
Jack will and Roweth, National Agriculture Week in the United States.
Todd Clark, Are you embarrassed that I had to tell
you this? Good afternoon?

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Good afternoon, Jamie, just a little bit. But as I
was saying to you, of fair, I have been flat
out and so I did have to look that up.
For US farmers, every day is National Agriculture Day. But
my wife would tell you the most important day this
week is the eighteenth, which is our thirtieth wedding anniversary.

(00:39):
So that's looking it up, it appears that's the official
day for the week for ironically, for agricultural.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
I go, well, that's tomorrow your time. So National Agriculture
Week from March seventeen to twenty four. And Donald Trump,
your glorious President, is doing his but to thank and
help a farmer because he's handing out ten billion dollars
of economic assistance this week to farmas. How much are
you going to get your hands on.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
I don't think I'll get anything because I don't do
any crops. For the most part, I understand that it's
for all the various crops. It's so much per acre
for corn, beans, rice, cotton, that sort of thing. But
he did this sort of thing his first term because
of the effect that the tariffs were having on the

(01:29):
farming sector, especially corn and soybeans going to China. So
this was already this was already slated to happen prior
to Trump. And so the reason I'd say that is
not to blame the previous administration. But if I were
you all, I would watch closely because it wouldn't surprise
me if Trump hands out more money to the farmers

(01:52):
later in the year or following years, depending on how
these tariffs go.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
Hell has tariffs and proposed tariffs because we don't know
where he's going to stop here affecting the likes of
beef prices in America. Because you've got Mexico on one side,
Canada on the other, there's a lot of beef exchanges,
locations if you want, and markets between the three countries.
What's happening to your prices?

Speaker 2 (02:17):
So your assessment's correct. There's a lot of trade between
between the three of US countries here in North America,
but our prices are just skyrocketing. We sold sold some
cattle this morning, and it's I want to say your
listeners need to just this. Look this up either Bluegrass
Stockyards or Paris Stockyards online and you can you can

(02:40):
get the market reports. But four to five dollars a
pound for four or five five weight steers. So that's
that's prices that have never been heard of. So a
weaned calf, whether it's a heifers or steer, is seventeen
fifty to two thousand dollars.

Speaker 1 (02:59):
Wow, and that is US dollars as well. We need
to make the conversion. Yes, it's mind bowing, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Dollars well, but the history tells us that we have
to once the animal's finished, we have to get rid
of the whole animal. And it takes the whole world
for us to pull that off, and so tariffs will
hurt us long term. With with beef, you all are
some of the best producers in the world of protein,

(03:26):
but we're not too bad in the US, but we
don't have enough consumers and so we really need the
rest of the world to sell our products to. And
so it's going to be interesting times to see what
happens with these tears odd.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
You are a Republican, but you're not an out and
out Trump fan. You're a very reasonable and reasoned man.
What is your average American saying about Trump's tariffs? Has
he got support?

Speaker 2 (03:50):
It depends on where you were on election day. If
you were just if you were two hundred percent on Trump,
then it's full steam ahead and you're mind. But if
you were sort of on the fence, you're trying to
climb off that fence right now. And then there's some
that didn't care for Trump to begin with, in you know,

(04:12):
and so they're sharing what they can on social media
as to why this is a terrible idea. But there's
a lot going on in the country with Trump outside
of tariff, and so there's a lot of shots being fired.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
Not to mention, Elon Musk haven't got time to mention.
Let me just finish with your seasons. We're heading into
our autumn here in New Zealand. We've got a cricket
game or two cricket games scheduled in Dunedin. So it
goes without saying it's raining. How are you going, because
you're heading into your spring. I think you're carving on
your farm at the moment we are.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
You're exactly right. We're grass is finally grown again after
a long winter in lots of moisture around, so we'll
see what happens. But we're in that phase of early
early spring where you're trying to figure out if baillage
as you feed out, are they going to actually eat
it or is the grass gonna keep them away from it?

(05:07):
So yeah, hopefully it's onward and upward from here.

Speaker 1 (05:11):
We'll chat again next month, no doubt you'll be in
the heart of spring then. Todd Clark out of Lexington, Kentucky.
Thanks for your Tom, appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (05:20):
Thanks Jamie, good to talk