00:00y ag state republicans including here in nebraska on his proposal to purchase beef from argentina trump
00:06says it would help reduce prices for consumers but as john chapman reports meat processors say
00:10it will be another hardship for the industry ken stoiches and his family have been butchers for
00:16more than six decades he tells us he's seen high beef prices hit meat counters before just the one
00:23time when we had the beef shortage back in the 70s which was really nasty it was really hard it was
00:29really hard to find beef anywhere ken says today's high beef prices are due to the same problem
00:35a shortage in domestic cattle herds well about a year and a half ago we had a really bad
00:41calving season calves all turned into nice big beef and unfortunately they uh during the drought and
00:48other storms that have happened a lot of the cows just didn't make it and so now we have a shortage
00:54that shortage results in higher prices from everything from hamburger to prime rib everything
01:00is it's gone up um i heard one report from january of last year to this year about 30 percent um and then
01:09usually this time of year it's it's always a little worse because there's such demand for beef it it
01:16multiplies it a little bit more so it's gone up another six seven percent ken says if you plan on
01:23slicing up prime rib for holiday dinners this year you might want to start looking now and prepare to
01:29pay more oh yes yes they're they're going to be very high i had one supplier tell me that uh usually in
01:37august and september the beef prices are a little lower and uh so they'd bring in a bunch of prime ribs
01:45get them ready for christmas he says we didn't do that this year because we couldn't get this year
01:50get a truckload of prime ribs to beef up cattle herds and lower prices at the supermarkets
01:56president trump suggested importing beef from argentina nebraska lawmakers were quick to push back
02:04united states senator deb fisher released a statement that reads in part if the goal is addressing beef
02:10prices at the grocery store this isn't the way right now government intervention in the beef market will
02:16hurt our cattle ranchers nebraska senator pete ricketts also issued a statement supporting nebraska
02:22beef it reads in part nebraska ranchers are making money for the first time in years we must continue
02:28to stand with them while we look for ways to lower grocery prices our focus should be on market-based
02:35solutions argentina produces grass-fed beef it's leaner high quality and tender ken has a different
02:42opinion he prefers the corn finished beef of nebraska instead of imported beef from argentina it's all
02:50grass-fed beef it's uh i always like to think of it as a low quality a little bit lower quality beef
02:58of course if you're from argentina you're going to argue with me but i i expect that in omaha i'm
03:03john chapman first alert six in a news conference today senator pete ricketts says he told president trump
03:09at their luncheon yesterday the u.s needs to address the u.s border with mexico this is over concerns
03:14about the screw worm a threat to humans and livestock which has since shut down trade he says additional
03:19resources are needed to resume normal trade across the border
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