In Texas cattle country, one rancher welcomes Trump’s focus on decades of thin margins
LA GRANGE, TEXAS — Along the bends of Highway 71, a string of steady Texas towns dot the wind-swept pastures. It’s here where most folks earn a living with their...
By Fox News · Fox News
LA GRANGE, TEXAS — Along the bends of Highway 71, a string of steady Texas towns dot the wind-swept pastures. It’s here where most folks earn a living with their hands, wear dust on their boots, sun on their skin and easy smiles on their faces. This is the soft edge of the Hill Country, where limestone gives way to red dirt and family ranches stitch the land together. Folks here haul their own hay, do things right the first time and don't wait for daylight to start the day. Among those who know the grind is Cole Bolton, owner of K&C Cattle Company, who welcomes the Trump administration’s renewed focus on the razor-thin margins ranchers have endured for years. "What the real issue is, is the price differential between the big four packers and what they're paying us for the product," Bolton told Fox News Digital. Known as the "big four," Tyson, JBS, Cargill and National Beef anchor the U.S. beef supply chain, commanding pricing power that reaches from pasture to plate. Combined, the packing titans process about 85% of the grain-fattened cattle that become steaks, roasts and other supermarket cuts. AMERICA’S SMALLEST CATTLE HERD IN 70 YEARS MEANS REBUILDING WILL TAKE YEARS AND BEEF PRICES COULD STAY HIGH And those margins, Bolton said, have been squeezed for decades. "Ranchers have dealt with such thin margins of profitability for the last 20 years." It’s the kind of sustained financial strain that federal officials say could signal deeper problems in the supply chain. The revelation comes on the heels of President Donald Trump's executive order establishing food supply chain security task forces within the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to address risks from price fixing and anti-competitive behavior. TRUMP'S BEEF IMPORT PLAN IGNORES KEY ISSUE SQUEEZING AMERICAN CATTLE RANCHERS "My administration will act to determine whether anti-competitive behavior, especially by foreign-controlled companies, increases the cost of living for American…