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President Donald Trump’s beef import plan aims to cut prices, but cattle ranchers say it misses what’s crushing them most — the power of meat packers.
“Meat packers have created a system where they win no matter what — at the cost of everyone else,” said Will Harris, a fourth-generation cattleman and owner of White Oak Pastures in Bluffton, Georgia.
Harris, who plans to hand off the operation to his children, said his farm handles every step of production, from raising cattle to processing and selling beef, giving him a clear view of how prices are set.
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Sixth-generation cattle rancher Mark Kirkpatrick feeds heifers on the Stoker-Kirkpatrick Ranch in Post, Texas. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post/Getty Images)
At the center of that pricing power sit the “Big Four” — Tyson, JBS, Cargill and National Beef — anchoring the U.S. beef supply chain from pasture to plate.
Together, the packing titans process about 85% of the grain-fattened cattle that become steaks, roasts and other supermarket cuts.
“The U.S. beef market is so highly concentrated that a small number of dominant packers control processing, distribution and pricing. This allows them to pay ranchers less for cattle while charging consumers more at the store. When cheap imported beef enters the system, it allows packers to increase their margins,” Harris told Fox News Digital.
It’s a concern echoed deep into cattle country.
Texas cattle rancher Cole Bolton said he sees the same problem in the Lone Star State.
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Cattle rancher Cole Bolton and his wife in Texas. (Courtesy of Cole Bolton)
“What the real issue is, is the price differential between the big four packers and what they’re paying us for the product,” said Bolton, the owner of K&C Cattle Company.
Those…
