RAMSAY, Mont. — Rancher Barry McCoy has watched with dismay as cattle prices dropped over the last two months amid uncertainty over President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Then came Trump’s August announcement that he was lifting tariffs on 660 million pounds of foreign beef that would be sold at reduced prices in U.S. grocery stores — imports of unknown origin quickly mocked as “mystery meat.”
“I was completely flabbergasted,” McCoy said.
Trump’s move immediately rattled the markets and angered ranchers across the country — a crowd usually inclined to give the president the benefit of the doubt. The plan was also widely denounced by farm bureau leaders and Republican politicians. “You don’t put America first by putting U.S. cattle producers last,” U.S. Cattlemen’s Association President Justin Tupper said in a statement.
As the midterm elections approach, McCoy, who also runs two auction barns and a trucking company, said that some of his anger has led to a desire for change, a sentiment he hears from other ranchers in the sale barns and paddocks of southwestern Montana.
“In general, it’s still a conservative voter base and conservative mentality,” McCoy said of deep-red Montana, where Trump got 58 percent of the vote in 2024. “But I’m sure we will see a change. I think … the agricultural, rural community feels betrayed by some of the policies they put in place.”
Democrats have tried to capitalize on the unease with rural outreach and ads featuring farmers that are running in states with vulnerable Republican House seats.
In Montana, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has supported Sam Forstag, a union leader and former smoke jumper firefighter running against Republican radio host Aaron Flint for the state’s 1st Congressional District. Democrats view the seat as one they could pick up, but the nonpartisan Cook Political Report still predicts it’s likely to go Republican.
Farming communities are typically loyal to Trump, despite tariff disruptions that in some cases had lasting impacts on commodity markets. During the 2024 election, farming-dependent counties overwhelmingly voted for Trump.
Scott Perkins, a banker and rancher in Deer Lodge, Montana, said his neighbors may show their displeasure simply by opting out this year.
“They might not show up at the polling places,” Perkins said. “You just don’t have that desire.”
Not long after the imported beef controversy, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced an initiative to help rebuild the nation’s cow herd, now at a 75-year low. Cattle are more scarce due to ongoing drought, market uncertainty and high feed costs that prompt farmers to thin their ranks.
Announcing a plan to rebuild the herd so soon after Trump had “crushed” the market “was the dumbest thing I had ever heard,” McCoy said.
“You can’t increase the cow herd unless you pay the cow man,” he said.
Olivia Wales, a White House spokeswoman, said Trump “has repeatedly affirmed his support for America’s great farmers and ranchers.”
“While the Administration is addressing a short-term supply crunch in the beef market, we are simultaneously working closely with ranchers to grow America’s cattle-herd size, which is currently at a multi-decade low,” Wales said in a statement.
Ranchers in this corner of southwestern Montana, and throughout the country, have been struggling with high grain, fuel and fertilizer prices due to the war with Iran and other forces. Some had finally started to make gains when beef prices reached a historic high in June.
From her perch in the crow’s nest at McCoy’s Montana Livestock Auction sale barn, Kayla Lowery manages the cattle on auction day, overseeing the flow into the ring as 700-pound Black Angus and Hereford cattle jostle for space in the pens, kicking the rails and groaning in protest. She also keeps a close eye on the “board,” what ranchers call the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s electronic pricing boards for live and feeder cattle futures.
Although Montana still has more cows than people, the overall cattle herd has shrunk to 2 million, about 1.25 million of which are beef cattle, and ranches are disappearing, too. To take advantage of high prices, some ranchers have been choosing to sell their heifers — young cows that have not had a calf — rather than keep them to grow into mothers, she said.
“You’re going to see it fly again because we just don’t have the cows,” she said.
Both McCoy and Perkins said they are concerned that imported beef could harbor impurities or banned antibiotics, which in the long run could harm the reputation of the American product. McCoy, like economic experts, estimated the imports would provide only slight relief for consumers at the grocery store who have been paying about $6.80 a pound for ground beef, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The imported beef will be saving the consumers pennies, McCoy said, “while us as cattle producers pay the brunt of that. It came out of our pocket.”
Ryan Ueland, a rancher from Deer Lodge, brought 17 calves — which he proudly calls his “critters” — to the sale barn this week. He sold a similar group earlier this year for $3,100 a head. This week, he’ll only make around $2,000 per animal.
He called Trump’s decision to import more beef “disgusting,” but is unlikely to vote for any Democrats this fall because he is turned off by rising support for democratic socialist politicians like New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
“There’s a reason why socialism has crashed in every country,” Ueland said. “If we can’t do better than the next guy, what kind of country are we?”
Scott Clement contributed to this report.
The post Ranchers’ loyalty to Trump wavers as some bristle over beef imports appeared first on Washington Post.
