Beef prices in the United States are currently at a record high due to several factors, including limited supply, drought, and tariffs.
At the Molnar Cattle ranch in Cayucos, owner Pat Molnar says stable revenue and the past few rainy years have been good for them.
"We’ve actually been able to recover a lot of the expenses that we put in over the last 15 years because the market has been so good, so it’s really been a blessing for us," Molnar said.
But recently, the Trump Administration announced it will expand beef imports from Argentina.
While this aims to lower prices for consumers, ranchers across the country will feel the effects, including Molnar Cattle.
“We had some light feeder cattle we were gonna sell this week, which we decided to hold onto to see if this market will stabilize in the next few weeks," Molnar said.
He says that's because the cattle futures market plummeted about 20% in the last two weeks.
Ranching has been in the family for over five generations. Molnar says they take pride in what they do and enjoy the opportunity to work with family members like Fallon, Pat’s daughter.
“In California, we don’t see a lot of that. It’s either there’s very coastal people, different activities and it’s great to be able to bring that together,” Fallon said about their location along the coast.
As of Oct. 30, over a dozen lawmakers sent a letter to President Donald Trump asking to increase investments in the U.S. to lower prices instead of jumping to foreign imports.
“We hope it stabilizes and we hope President Trump rethinks that and gets some good advisers around him to let him understand what this beef market really is doing,” Molnar said. "Stay local, keep the local ranchers in business."
