Cattle rancher worries Trump cutting tariffs on imported ground beef could hurt American cattle farmers

Ground beef prices are the highest they've been in years. 

President Donald Trump announced that the United States will waive tariffs on ground beef imports to reduce prices by up to 25%, but that move worries some North Texas cattle ranchers, including those already struggling.

Tending to 85 head of cattle on her massive 300-acre Weatherford cattle ranch is something Molly Mirassou has built from the ground up.

"When I graduated in 2013, my mother and I started building the herd up from those few females and a couple of old cows that we had bought in that 2011 drought and expanded from there," Mirassou said.

Mirassou co-owns Star Ranch and is already on a tight budget.

"Cost of fertilizer has nearly tripled. Cost of fuel and diesel has gone up. Cost of feed has gone up," Mirassou said.

She learned last Friday that President Trump was suspending tariffs on 300,000 metric tons of imported beef for 90 days to lower the price of ground beef.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports ground beef costs an average of $6.89 a pound. That's an increase of 57% over the last five years.

Beef imports to the U.S. are not new, but Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller is also concerned.

"We need to eat American beef and not be dependent on any foreign country to feed us," Miller said. "We risk losing all of our freedoms if we depend on other countries to feed us."

"The headlines are really creating more volatility than the market than the actual imports themselves," Mirassou said.

Miller said further complicating the issue is that labeling the country of origin is optional.

"The sad part about it is this, when it's repackaged and mixed with our beef, it can be labeled product of USA," Miller said.

"I think it would be ideal if the country of origin labeling we used to have was back in place so that consumers could make that choice themself as to whether or not they wanted to pay a little bit more for completely American ground beef," Mirassou said.

Mirassou believes lifting the tariffs could have unintended consequences for cattle ranchers throughout the country. She said that with beef prices starting to decline and her overhead costs increasing, she's already taking other measures to make ends meet.

"It's already affected my business because I'm at the point where I'm having to go and look for another job to support the ranch myself," Mirassou said.

However, Mirassou said the struggle of keeping her ranch afloat is well worth the effort.

"It's high risk, it's low input, low returns on your input, but we do it because we love it. We love the cattle, the livestock, the lifestyle," Mirassou said. "We love providing for our fellow Americans."

The young cattle farmer agrees that Americans need relief from food costs, but she's also worried that doing so could undercut American ranchers.