Washington Secrets is on a road trip through Kansas, investigating the issues that will decide whether Democrats can claim their first Senate seat there in almost a century. We start close to the border with Oklahoma, in the far southeast, with ranchers who are increasingly frustrated with President Donald Trump.
COFFEYVILLE, KANSAS – Chuck Madron has had a good day. His 68 Angus steers sold for almost $160,000 at auction.
“But that’ll be gone by nightfall,” Madron said as he left Coffeyville Stockyards, in the southeast corner of Kansas.
It is a familiar story among ranchers here. High diesel prices, expensive feed, pickups that cost almost as much as a house, and escalating land prices are putting the squeeze on the state’s cattle industry.
Kansas produces almost a quarter of the nation’s beef and the issue has moved to the center of a tight Senate race, heaping pressure on the Republican candidate, Sen. Roger Marshall.
And then there was the decision by President Donald Trump to lift tariffs and allow in hundreds of thousands of tons of ground beef from Central and South America.
“I’m disappointed in Trump and the cattlemen’s association for not raising cane,” said Madron, 82, who used to work at the stockyards as a boy. “They’re letting cattle in from Uruguay. They’re letting beef in from Mexico, Argentina, Brazil.”
Chuck Madron sold 68 steers on Wednesday, but he says prices are down as the cattle industry is squeezed (Rob Crilly / Washington Examiner)
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Chuck Madron sold 68 steers on Wednesday, but he says prices are down as the cattle industry is squeezed (Rob Crilly / Washington Examiner)
“What about us ranchers? Diesel is over $6.”
Inside, the auction is in full flow. Dozens of ranchers on banked seating look down on the sale ring, as a procession of glossy calves and yearlings make their way past potential buyers.
A thwack with a switch keeps them moving as a cowboy-hatted auctioneer keeps up his rapid-fire commentary in pounds and dollars, without ever seeming to pause for breath.
Steers enter the sales ring at Coffeyville Stockyard during their Wednesday sale (Rob Crilly/ Washington Examiner)
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Steers enter the sales ring at Coffeyville Stockyard during their Wednesday sale (Rob Crilly/ Washington Examiner)
Straw-hatted Amish farmers occupy the seats at the back.
The head of a long-horn steer gazes down over proceedings.
All morning a steady stream of locals make their way through the cafe, catching up on gossip and prices, before heading to the sales ring.
The high cost of diesel is being felt by everyone, according to Tylen Layton, a co-owner of the yard, who says it is driving down prices at auction. His numbers show that the cost of moving an animal has risen by $1.50 per mile.
“It just changed the whole dynamics of everything,” he says. “You know, people can’t afford to give as much for the cattle now because they’re trying to afford the trucking to get them to their final destinations.”
That translates to a $40 to $60 per hundredweight (100 pounds) reduction, or about $300 to $600 less per head.
At the same time, years of drought mean the national cattle herd is at a historic low, reducing the number of cattle coming through the stockyards each week.
The result is that consumers are still paying far more, even as ranchers see lower prices.
Trump’s move to allow in cheap exports has exasperated locals, who see it helping meat processors, or packers, or McDonald’s, but not shoppers or ranchers.
“The problem is that we haven’t done the first thing to make beef cheaper for the Wichita, Kansas, housewife or the New York City housewife,” Layton said. “They’re hurting us, making it cheap for the packers, but the packers aren’t going to bring their prices down when they sell it to the retailers.”
This week, the talk is of an ICE crackdown on meatpacking plants in the state. The fear is that processing will grind to a halt if staff — mostly immigrants, some legal, some undocumented — stay home.
The result is an outpouring of frustration with the Trump administration, which people see as too close to voters on the coasts and too far from beef country.
One checked-shirt-wearing farmer was particularly blunt in his assessment of Trump’s interventions.
“He doesn’t know what s*** is coming out of his mouth,” said the farmer, who did not want to be named.
Democrats see an opening in a state that has not let them have a look in since the 1930s. Their challenger, Adam Hamilton, a megachurch pastor, took a 2-point lead over Marshall in a recent Emerson College/Nexstar poll.
Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., listens as Vice President JD Vance speaks during an event at Webco Manufacturing, Monday, Sept. 14, 2026, in Olathe, Kan. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)
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Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., listens as Vice President JD Vance speaks during an event at Webco Manufacturing, Monday, Sept. 14, 2026, in Olathe, Kan. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)
Hamilton is calling to end tariffs that make it more expensive for farmers to buy equipment and to double funding for the U.S. Department of Agriculture export promotion programs.
When they took the debate stage earlier this month, he hammered Marshall and the Trump administration for actions that harmed Kansas farmers.
“The diminishing of the workforce and arresting the workforce are making it harder for people to work in the livestock industry,” Hamilton said.
“Trade wars, which actually in the last Trump administration cost beef farm beef ranchers in Kansas a billion dollars in trade that went to Brazil and Argentina,” he added. “This is not okay.”
READ MORE: IS ADAM HAMILTON TOO WOKE FOR KANSAS?
For his part, Marshall defended tariffs, saying they were bringing jobs back to the state, and that years of drought were to blame for reductions in the national herd rather than administration policies.
But he later gave a nod to political reality, toning down his once full-throated endorsement for immigration enforcement to signal a degree of disquiet.
“When ICE operates in Kansas, it needs to coordinate with our local law enforcement,” Marshall posted. “Our sheriffs and police know these communities better than anyone, and working together keeps officers and residents safe.”
That leaves Kansas ranchers, like farmers across the country, dealing with crippling diesel prices.
Jim Moore, a fourth-generation rancher, said it costs him $2,000 now to fill up his three tractors. A president who made much of his support from the farming community, he said, had forgotten his friends when they needed him.
“Trump knows there’s more ground beef buyers on the east or west coast than there are voters in Kansas or Oklahoma,” he said.
The good news for Marshall, however, is that people like Moore, a three-time Trump voter, see no alternative to voting for Republicans.
As he loaded up his red pickup to drive the 10 miles home, his steers sold, Madron said things might be bad but they would be even worse under Democrats.
“The Democrats have just gone nuts,” he said. “They’re just nuts.”
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
