How tariffs impact the Kansas beef market

KANSAS (KSNT) - President Donald Trump imposed a 10% tariff on Australian goods on Thursday, a move that K-State Agricultural Economics Professor Glynn Tonsor says could make ground beef less available and more expensive.

Australia's largest export market for the last 25 years has been the U.S., according to the United States Studies Center. It reported that in 2024, the U.S. accounted for 30.7% of Australia's beef exports.

Tonsor said a major purpose of importing Australian beef has been to support the ground beef industry. He said the U.S. imports highly lean beef product from Australia because it's cheaper and can be blended with 50% lean beef before hitting store shelves.

Tonsor said the best domestic source of 90% beef is from cull cattle, cows nearing the end of their lives. He said the tariffs could be a mixed bag for cattlemen who have mostly older herds. He said those cull cattle will be more in-demand but the cost of tariffs on other products in the market could reduce consumer demand for beef.

"It's definitely cheaper to do that [use Australian 90% lean beef] than to take something like the roast or something else from a steer or heifer and grind it to get more lean from there," Tonsor said.

Tonsor said that cattlemen are more likely to sell cull cows now because they’d be worth more on the market. He said, as a result, cattlemen are less likely to expand the herd because those older animals are worth more to be used in ground beef production.

"If I run a cow-calf operation, its mixed because I also sell cull cows…" Tonsor said. "But my calves that I’m selling are now worth less because going to the feedyard is less profitable than it was before. So it’s a mixed bag if you like for the cow-calf producer."

"Fast forward out three months and beyond, I think it's pretty clearly bad for everybody but that’s because of the consumer pull-back," Tonsor said. "The tariffs raised the prices of lots of things for consumers and that is very likely going to pull back demand for lots of things including beef, and if beef demand declines then all cattle producers are harmed."

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