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Sheep, lamb growers report healthy revenue

Coeur d'Alene Press | UPDATED 13 years, 3 months AGO
| October 17, 2011 9:00 PM

BOISE (AP) - Idaho sheep and lamb growers made more money in 2010 than in any year since 1984, the Idaho Department of Agriculture said.

The agency reported that receipts totaled $22.7 million last year, a 38 percent increase from 2009. Officials said that short supplies are driving up prices.

The National Agricultural Statistics Service said the number of sheep and lambs in the state rose 6 percent in 2010 to 235,000, and the American Sheep Industry Association is encouraging sheep ranchers to increase flocks by two ewes per 100 by April 2014.

"We need to fill the traditional market channel to keep American lamb in the largest grocery store chains and in the restaurant chains," said Clint Krebs, the sheep association's vice president. "Additionally, we need our wool companies to fill the pipeline for U.S. military use of our wool. Combining the growing ethnic market with the need to keep traditional companies operating means we need to produce more."

Barry Duelke is a veterinarian in Buhl in south-central Idaho who also has 2,000 sheep. He serves on the board of the Idaho Wool Growers Association.

He said the industry faces challenges with federal range policies, environmental groups concerned about sheep on public land, and an increase in predators.

"We have got an environment community that wants to kill the range industry in this state," he said.

He also said feed for sheep has become more expensive, and that it's difficult to find sheepherders who can handle the tough conditions of the job.

"Domestic sheep herders have not been available for a very long time," Duelke said. "That very definitely has something to do with the attrition rate in the industry."

Industry officials said sheep herders for many years have been coming from Peru and Chile.

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