At Stevenson’s Diamond Dot Ranch outside Hobson, Montana, U.S. Representative Troy Downing spent Thursday afternoon meeting with ranchers to discuss increasing concerns about the future of American beef production. His visit comes just days after Downing and several House Republicans sent a letter to President Trump urging the administration to prioritize U.S. producers over foreign beef imports.
Downing says, “A big part of my district in central and eastern Montana is agriculture. You can’t represent that industry if you’re not talking to the folks that have their boots on the ground.”
The letter, co-signed by lawmakers from North Dakota, South Dakota, Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, and Texas, raised concerns about reports that the United States may begin importing beef from Argentina. The letter calls for “full transparency, sound science, and a firm commitment to the U.S. cattle industry.”
Downing said his goal is to make sure Montana ranchers aren’t undercut by international markets. He explains, “When we first saw that messaging come out from the White House, I immediately reached out and said we had concerns about bringing in more foreign beef. Since COVID, we’ve gone from about 2.5 million head down to just over 2.1 million head. We want to start growing that back, not replace it with imports.”
He added that while drought and other factors have affected the cattle industry, federal policies must focus on rebuilding the nation’s herd rather than relying on overseas supply, saying, “Our emphasis should be on solving the problem by growing the U.S. herd, not by bringing in more foreign beef. We need more conversations between policymakers and the folks actually doing the work.”
Adana Stevenson, co-owner and operator of Stevenson’s Diamond Dot Ranch, said she was glad to see Downing listening to producers’ concerns firsthand. Her family’s operation specializes in Black Angus seed stock, raising bulls and females for other ranchers across Montana.
She says, “My first reaction when I heard about possible imports was kind of a ‘here we go again’. Whenever the cattle market gets a little bit of steam, something happens. Why are we bringing more beef into the country when what we’re trying to do is build up the cow herd here?”
Stevenson said ranchers are already feeling pressure from rising input costs, from feed to equipment, saying, “The price of everything has gone up - feed, tractors, equipment. There are tractors that cost a million dollars now. It’s hard to come up with the money to make improvements when the return isn’t keeping pace.”
She added that without country-of-origin labeling, consumers often don’t realize they may be buying imported beef, explaining, “If you bring in cheap beef from foreign countries, it just drives the prices down here. We want consumers to know their beef is coming from American ranchers who care about quality and safety.”
Downing said those perspectives are exactly what he hopes to carry back to DC. “Montana doesn’t have big packing houses, we have producers,” he says. “I need to make sure their voices are being heard. Food security is national security. If you want to bring a country down, you make it so it can’t feed itself.”
For Stevenson, Downing’s visit was a reminder that rural voices still matter, adding, “We’re just hoping and praying that the people that we voted for and elected in the state are going to really try to represent the cattleman's interests because Montana has more cattle than it does people.”
