Why ranchers say Trump’s talk of Argentine beef imports isn’t a solution

On November 27, 2024, cattle were held in Chihuahua Regional Livestock Union stables at the Jeronimo-Santa Teresa border crossing in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, after the United States stopped imports of Mexican cattle due to the presence of screwworms.

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Ranchers in Texas and across the country fear that the screwworm, a parasitic fly once eradicated in the U.S., is coming back from the Mexican border, and President Donald Trump’s recent talks about importing beef from Argentina are not a long-term solution for an already strained beef supply chain or for consumers who have been watching Beef prices Record values ​​reached.

The New World screwworm is a parasitic fly that lays eggs in the open wounds of warm-blooded animals. The larvae then hatch from the eggs and burrow into the animal’s tissue to feed on them. If caught early, the sick animal can be treated and survive. Human cases are rare but can be painful and require medical attention. In August, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a statement that the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had identified a case of the flesh-eating parasite in a person in Maryland who returned to the U.S. after a trip to El Salvador.

The New World screwworm was successfully eradicated from the United States in 1966. But the Maryland case and other recent events in Mexico are unsettling ranchers in Texas and across the country. Mexico’s National Service for Agri-Food Health, Safety and Quality confirmed another case of the flesh-eating screwworm parasite on October 6 in Nuevo Leon, a city on the U.S. border. It was the country’s second confirmed case in about two weeks.

“Texas is a significant contributor to the beef industry,” said Andrew Coppin, co-founder and CEO of ranch management company Ranchbot Monitoring Solutions. “There are millions of cattle on the southern border alone.”

The US Department of Agriculture has temporarily closed the border with Mexico to imports of live cattle, bison and horses since 2024 due to the spread of the New World screwworm. The border is currently closed. Before the shutdown, Mexico was an exporter of calves to the United States. Data from the USDA shows that the U.S. imported over a million cattle annually, accounting for about 3.3% of the U.S. total calf crop.

Sixth-generation Texas rancher James Clement III told CNBC that the key to eradicating the screwworm menace is still years away. To combat the spread of the flies, the USDA distributes sterile flies in the area to prevent mating. This scientific method is known as sterile insect technique (SIT). This was the reason for the successful eradication of flies in the USA. But Clement said the flies previously used were imported from Panama, and although the USDA has said it is committed to developing a domestic sterile fly production facility, “that is still at least two or three years away. By then it will be too little too late,” he said.

The USDA did not respond to a request for comment for this article. Appearing on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Tuesday morning, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins responded to a question about the idea of ​​importing Argentine beef: “I think you’re going to hear more about exactly what that looks like.”

Clement, whose family business has operated several ranches over the past 400 years, said American livestock farming has evolved and become more efficient. While this is good for production, it poses a challenge in times of biological threats such as screwworms.

“We now require less manpower, so detecting infected cattle would be difficult and challenging,” he said. “We don’t have the people checking every head of cattle on a daily basis. Most of these cattle are free-range and the grass pastures are large.”

Stops the spread of screwworm

The USDA, along with Mexico, has monitored nearly 8,000 traps in Texas, Arizona and New Mexico since July. More than 13,000 screening samples were submitted in which no NWS flies were detected.

But Clement says, “It’s spreading quickly. A year ago the screwworm was already in southern Mexico, then it spread to central and northern Mexico. Now it’s happening just south of our border. It’s not a matter of if the screwworm will spread to the U.S., but when.”

Clement said the situation exacerbates the supply-demand imbalance in the cattle industry, which has already increased due to the drought. Beef prices have risen to record highs after ranchers reduced their herds due to dry pastures. This caused feed costs to rise.

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The price of live cattle futures last year.

According to government data, the U.S. cattle population is about 94.2 million animals as of July 2025, the lowest population since 1951.

Coppin tells CNBC that the key component to expanding the herd is water.

“Typically, ranches have thousands of acres of land and cattle,” Coppin said. “Less grassland due to less water means smaller herds.”

He estimates that 30% of the U.S. is still experiencing drought conditions.

“The question ranchers are asking is: Will I have enough feed to feed my herd? That’s why grasslands are important. Feed is a big expense that eats into ranchers’ margins,” he said.

Coppin said that while importing beef from Argentina could lower the cost of beef for consumers (the outlook fell sharply after Trump’s comments but has since trended upward), ranchers struggling with drought and slugworms are losing incentives to expand their herds.

“Livestock producers don’t want their product replaced,” Coppin said.

Recently, some U.S. ranchers have begun taking steps to rebuild their herds. However, ranchers and beef supply chain experts like Coppin say it takes about two years for beef production to increase because it takes time to raise mature cattle.

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association said in a statement Monday after President Trump floated his idea of ​​importing beef from Argentina over the weekend that it was urging Trump and Congress to let the market function rather than intervene and harm rural America.

“This plan only creates chaos at a critical time of year for American ranchers and does nothing to reduce prices at grocery stores,” said NCBA CEO Colin Woodall.

Republican Sen. Deb Fischer of Nebraska called on President Donald Trump in a social media post on Tuesday to reconsider his proposal that the U.S. buy beef from Argentina.

“We’ve had a massive increase in beef production over the last decade,” Rollins said on CNBC on Tuesday. “Massive consolidation that hasn’t been good for our livestock industry, and we’ve moved a lot of that offshore. There’s a really, really important realignment that needs to happen so that we can start moving onshore and reshore for our beef producers and our ranchers,” she said.

“Prices are high and the president is very focused on making good on his promise to lower food prices… but you’ll also be hearing from us in the next few days about what we’re going to do to incentivize, open up new land and make it easier to become a rancher,” Rollins continued. “We have a pretty big package in front of us,” she added, noting that the CNBC appearance was the first time she had publicly mentioned the plans.

The NCBA pointed to Argentina’s “deeply unbalanced trade relationship” with the United States. Over the past five years, Argentina has sold over $801 million worth of beef on the U.S. market. By comparison, the U.S. sold just over $7 million worth of American beef to Argentina, according to NCBA data. It noted that Argentina also has a history of foot-and-mouth disease, which if introduced into the United States could decimate domestic livestock production.

Rollins estimated during her CNBC appearance that 2 million of the 12 million tons of beef currently consumed annually in the U.S. comes from overseas and that an increase from Argentina would be “not very much” compared to that total, especially given the USDA’s concerns about foot-and-mouth disease.

Clement said having the government step in and try to regulate markets is not what the U.S. should focus on.

“The market will take care of itself,” Clement said. “We need the government to prevent and eradicate the snailworm. Then we can recruit the next generation to say, ‘Ranching is a job you can do to provide for your family and have a good quality of life. The government will take care of us through biosecurity and animal disease prevention. They won’t manipulate the markets.'”