Texas Department of Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller Talks Beef Industry

**SPEAKER_1** (0:02)
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio, News.

**Joe Mathieu** (0:07)
Commissioner, Sid Miller. Commissioner, it's great to see you, sir. Welcome to Bloomberg TV and Radio. We've got a lot of questions for you. And I just want to start with the basic premise here. Will this move the president is making depress prices and take money out of the pockets of Texas cattle ranchers?

**Sid Miller** (0:26)
Well, it's a bad move for a couple of reasons, Joe.
Number one, it doesn't do anything to build a cattle herd. It absolutely does not. And second, even more important, it adds to our agriculture trade deficit.
We were left, the previous administration left us a $50 billion ag trade deficit. First time in my lifetime that's ever happened. Normally, we export a lot of agriculture products, we're buying more food from foreign nations than we're selling. So that's a dangerous position to be in when you have foreign countries depending on them to feed you. So we've got to do something to build the herd. So I suggest two things. One, it is a hair for retention tax credit.
When your child, if you have one 17 or younger, you get $1,000 off your income taxes. Well, let's do something like that for the cattle. Let's give them $500 to keep a heifer and turn it into a mom account. The other thing that actually compounded the problem when we closed the border to Mexican cattle. It's much better if we walk cattle across on the hoof than buying beef in the box. Because when you walk cattle in, they graze our winter pasture, our ranches, our eat our grain, our corn, ride in our trucks and go through our processing plants. There's two million head in Mexico waiting to come in. That would rebuild the herd by two million. Hey, Tyson last week closed three packing plants. Two million head would have kept them open.

**Joe Mathieu** (1:56)
That's right.

**Tyler Kendall** (1:57)
So based off of what you're outlining, are you saying that this is more a federal issue, a way that the federal government could put forward solutions, or are there other things that the state should be taking into consideration when it comes to supporting America's cattle ranchers?

**Sid Miller** (2:13)
Well, the beef industry is scattered over the whole nation, so we need a nation solution. Well, that's why I suggested the heifer retention tax credits, opening the border to Mexico. Now, they've opened it, but we've only got in 750 head. At this rate, we might get 100,000 head by the end of the year. That's not gonna do it. And really, I don't think beef is all that high compared to everything else. I just went to the grocery store, I don't know if you can see this or not, but there's ground beef, 80.20, 4.99 a pound, chuck roast, 7.99 a pound.
That seems fairly reasonable, especially when I am paying, as a cattleman, the highest prices for my three top inputs. High feed because of the drought, high diesel prices because of straight-o-hormoth, and the highest fertilizer prices I've ever paid, also because of the straight-o-hormoth. So we're not on easy times, and bringing in foreign beef is complicating the problem.

**Joe Mathieu** (3:08)
Well, we know that there are really tough times, and that we know that farmers want to work, they want to produce, and they want to feed Americans. Commissioner Miller, there's also reality. Is there going to have to be another farmer bailout next year?

**Sid Miller** (3:22)
Well, possibly, but you know, this is not helping because it's taking profits right out of the rancher's pocket. And you know, the Trump administration has advisors, that's why he has a cabinet.
A lot of ranchers are really disappointed in Secretary Rollins for not weighing in on this. She fully supports this.

**Joe Mathieu** (3:43)
I won't say where the beef is coming from. Should we know what country the beef is coming from?

**Sid Miller** (3:47)
Well, let me tell you, I'm glad you brought that up. It's coming from any one of 20 countries. They won't tell us which one, but here's the problem, Joe.
When it gets here, if you want to go to the grocery store and make sure you're buying US beef and not beef from Brazil, you can't tell because once it gets here, it can all be labeled product of USA. You can't tell the Australian beef from the Brazilian beef from the Argentine beef.

**Joe Mathieu** (4:10)
Wow, yeah.

**Sid Miller** (4:11)
It's all packaged. Now, USD has a voluntary program, but we need a mandatory country Argent label. That's lying to the American consumer. That's deceptive advertising. That just really, you know, chaps me off that we would do that to the American consumer, just flat out lie to them.