Trump’s Agriculture Department is turning our nation’s cattle ranchers and feedlot operators into modern-day sharecroppers as beef prices soar during the pandemic.

Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) asked the Senate Judiciary Antitrust subcommittee to hold a hearing on claims of price manipulation and collusion in the beef meatpacking industry. Fischer pointed to the spike in the index of prices for butchered beef compared with the 30% drop in cattle futures after Jan. 24, when the country’s first coronavirus case was reported.

“Beef production is the largest section of agriculture in Nebraska,” Fischer wrote. “We feed and market more than 4.7 million cattle each year.”

Feedlot operators often have one or two meatpackers who buy their cattle. These large companies can dictate contract terms. Since 1980, 41% of U.S. cattle producers have gone out of business.

The four big meatpacking firms – Cargill, JBS, National Beef and Tyson – slaughter more than 80% of cattle from feedlots where the animals are fattened up before butchering. The main lobbying group representing meatpackers, the North American Meat Institute, spent $309,042 in federal lobbying in 2019.

Feedlot operators who feed cows until they are big enough to be slaughtered […]