Missouri ranchers worry beef imports will be bad for consumers

August Horstmann, a first-generation rancher who operates on more than 1,000 acres in central Missouri, said the beef market is like any other industry in America: at the hands of supply and demand.

“U.S. beef cattle herd inventories are low,” said Horstmann, who said he wanted to be a rancher since he was three years old. He owns Horstmann Cattle Company, which is located in the middle of the rolling hills of Gasconade County.

Low domestic supply coupled with a steady demand for beef in the U.S. and around the world forces the country to import additional beef that can’t be produced internally.

Because of sky-high prices at checkout, President Trump said the U.S. will increase beef imports from Argentina to make up for the lagging supply. Despite controversy surrounding the move with the South American country, Horstmann says it’s nothing compared to what’s already coming into the country from Brazil, Australia and Canada.

“(Argentina is) just a blip of what we actually are importing,” he said.

Even though the result could be cheaper for consumers, ranchers in Missouri said foreign beef imported into the U.S. will end up being a bad thing for the average customer.

Ranchers like Horstmann fear that more foreign meat means a better chance of it ending up on your table, whether you know it or not.

“The best way to know what you’re eating is to source it local from a farmer,” Horstmann said.

Not far in adjacent Maries County, one rancher said you typically can taste the difference between beef from another country and meat raised in the U.S.

“It’s just a lot better beef,” said Chuck Sandbothe, a rancher in Vienna, a small town in Maries County.

As imports increase and prices fall, Sandbothe and Horstmann both said it’s more likely large beef processors, including Brazilian-owned giants like JBS and National Beef Packing Co., will be “mixing meats.”