08/25/2026
Since everybody is talking about beef right now, let's talk about the part nobody seems to talk about enough.
A lot of cattle producers are angry with Trump over bringing in more foreign beef in an attempt to lower prices for consumers. I understand why. But I also think we're skipping over a MUCH bigger problem that's been building for decades.
Four companies — JBS, Tyson, Cargill and National Beef — handle roughly 85% of fed-cattle processing in America.
They don't own all the cows. They don't have to. They sit in the middle between thousands of ranchers who need to sell cattle and thousands of stores, restaurants and meat markets that need to buy beef.
They're major buyers on one side and major sellers on the other. Basically, “Here's what we'll pay you for your cattle, and here's what you'll pay us for the beef.” That's a pretty damn powerful position to be in.
And this is something consumers really need to understand: the price a rancher gets for cattle and the price we pay for processed beef are not the same thing. Cattle prices dropping does not mean our beef price magically drops with them. That's how a rancher can be pi**ed about what they're getting paid while we're standing in our cooler pi**ed about what we're paying. Both can happen at the same time and usually do.
Yes, America has a tight cattle supply. Drought, feed costs, herd numbers, labor, demand, imports, exports and a whole list of other things contribute to beef prices. The Big 4 aren't the entire problem, but four companies controlling that much of the middle is a HUGE part of the conversation.
And that's why I think the import conversation needs to be bigger than “bring in more beef and make it cheaper.” More imported beef may add supply, but it doesn't create another American processor. It doesn't give an Oklahoma rancher another buyer. It doesn't give an independent meat market another supplier. And more importantly, cheaper cattle somewhere in that chain doesn't guarantee cheaper beef magically shows up in our case.
This is also why we don't buy our beef through the Big 4. We use a smaller independent processor. We sell A LOT of beef — more than one or two local rancher could consistently supply us — and we simply don't have enough local processing capacity here locally to handle the volume we need.
Our beef is American-born and raised, USDA 21 to 28 days aged Certified Prime Angus Beef, and overall what we pay for it is comparable to what we'd pay for lower grades like Choice through the Big 4. So we're able to sell a higher-grade product while helping keep another independent processor and several ranchers in the game.
And THAT'S where your dollar matters too. Other retailers may have a steak that looks cheaper on a particular day, but go a little farther down the rabbit hole. What grade is it? What specifications was it purchased under? Where was it sourced? Who processed it? Giant retailers have buying power we will never have, and they can make pricing decisions across thousands of products that a small independent meat market can't. Many weeks our filet tenderloins are an even wash (we'll go down that rabbit hole another time)
When you spend your money with us, that dollar doesn't stop at our register. We choose where we spend it next. And we choose to send our beef dollars to a smaller processor instead of feeding them right back into the four companies already dominating the industry.
We'd eventually love to take that even closer to home and work with multiple ranchers right here in our area. But for that to work at the amount of beef y'all buy from us, we need enough processing capacity to make it possible.
So yes, let's talk about imports. Let's talk about cattle numbers and drought and feed costs. Those things matter. But let's also talk about the fact that America desperately needs MORE in the middle. More processors, more capacity, more buyers for our ranchers and more competition.
Because if we're really trying to help the American rancher AND the American consumer, importing more beef may be part of a short-term supply conversation.
But building more competition right here at home needs to be part of the long-term one. 🇺🇸🥩
