CENTRAL TEXAS (KXXV) — As the global tariff war continues, some Central Texas ranchers and farmers are experiencing stressful times.
We're sharing the perspective of one Central Texas rancher who’s giving us some insight into what she's hearing and seeing across the agricultural industry.
Blayr Barnard is with Barnard Beef Cattle Company in Oglesby. While she’s only been working for the company for ten years, her family has been ranching for the last hundred years.
She said It’s been hit after hit for Texas farmers and ranchers in recent years and added, “I think there’s a lot of squeamishness.”
She details some of the incidents that have led to this, including the Tyson fire of 2019, COVID-19, pandemic supply chain issues, the Texas panhandle fires last year, and even urban development taking up farmland.
She said right now, there's an all-time low for cattle numbers, meaning cattle prices are at an all-time high.
This is on top of the tariff war, as China placed retaliatory tariffs on U.S. agricultural goods last week.
Blayr said that while some ranchers support President Trump’s tariff plans, others are skeptical, but either way, all eyes are on the President to see what he’ll do next.
“Right now, I think this is a waiting game," Blayr said.
"The most impact that we’re seeing is that one day, our cattle will be worth $300 more. The next day, our cattle will be worth $300 less, and that volatility is having an impact." "I can tell you that even though we tough Robertson ranchers don’t want to talk about it, our mental health and our stress levels are through the roof— You can just tell it whether it’s at the Sunday morning coffee shop or whether it’s online or just in one-on-one conversations. Mental health and stress levels are taking a beating right now in AG.”
When you have thousands of cattle to manage, this creates tension across farmland, which is a lifelong legacy for Central Texas families.
“When you start impacting commodities markets and fertilizer prices and its import/export flow and things like that, it does create sort of something that most people don’t want to talk about, especially because it is such a complex issue that it becomes hard to discuss between even like-minded individuals — much less people that are on two different sides of the isle," Blayr said.
Blayr said that while things can change day-to-day in the global tariff war, the best thing we can do right now to show our support is to buys and shop locally from our ranchers and farmers — whether they're just next door in our community or at local farmer's markets.
