08/23/2026
🇺🇸 What the New 90-Day Beef Import Decision Means for Ranchers Like Us
We normally keep things pretty light around here. We share our cows, horses, crazy dogs, ranch life, and try to teach a little bit about where your food comes from along the way.
But every once in a while, something happens that hits a little closer to home.
President Trump recently announced a 90-day plan that would allow up to 300,000 metric tons of additional imported ground beef into the United States without the higher out-of-quota tariffs. The hope is that bringing in more beef will help lower prices at the grocery store.
And listen, we get it.
We’re consumers too. We buy groceries. We have bills. We know everything is expensive right now, and we understand why families want some relief.
But we’re also the people standing on the other side of that grocery store package.
We’re the ones raising the cattle.
And from where we’re standing, it feels like things just keep stacking up against the American rancher.
The cost of feed has gone up. Hay has gone up. Fuel, equipment, veterinary care, fencing, land, basically everything it takes to keep cattle healthy and a ranch operating costs more than it used to.
There are no days off because it’s too hot, too cold, raining, we’re tired, or something broke.
The cattle still have to be fed.
Water still has to be checked.
Fences still have to be fixed.
A sick animal still needs us at 2 in the morning.
And after years of drought and difficult conditions across cattle country, the American cattle herd is historically small.
That’s part of the reason beef prices are where they are.
The frustrating part is that rebuilding our cattle supply takes time. A LOT of time.
If we decide to keep a heifer instead of selling her, we have to raise her, breed her, wait roughly nine months for her to have a calf, and then raise that calf.
We’re making decisions today that we won’t see the results of for years.
So when we’re being encouraged to rebuild the American cattle herd while at the same time more foreign beef is being brought in specifically to help push prices down, it’s hard not to wonder where that leaves families like ours.
We aren’t a huge operation.
We’re a husband and wife raising cattle here in Texas.
We know our animals. Many of them have names. We know which cow is going to meet us at the gate and which one is probably going to make our lives difficult that day. 😂
We spend our evenings checking cattle, our weekends fixing things, and more money than we’d probably like to admit making sure these animals have everything they need.
We do it because we love this life.
But loving it doesn’t mean the numbers don’t eventually have to work.
And that’s the part I wish more people understood.
We want beef to be affordable for American families too.
But we also want American ranchers to be able to afford to keep raising it.
Because cheaper food today doesn’t help us much if the people producing America’s food can’t afford to still be here tomorrow.
So when we talk about supporting local farmers and ranchers, it isn’t just a cute saying for us.
It genuinely matters.
When someone buys beef directly from our ranch, that money stays right here.
It helps buy the next load of feed and hay.
It puts fuel in the tractor.
It repairs the fence that inevitably broke again. 😂
It pays for veterinary care.
It helps us raise the next generation of cattle.
And it allows a small family operation like ours to keep doing what we love.
So if you have the opportunity to buy from a farmer or rancher in your community, whether that’s beef, eggs, produce, milk, honey, or anything else, please consider doing it.
Because behind that product is probably a family doing everything they can to keep their little piece of American agriculture alive. ❤️🇺🇸
Know where your food comes from. Know your rancher. And when you can, support local agriculture.
