USDA’s National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS) released the “Sheep Death Loss 2020: Sheep and Lamb Predator and Nonpredator Death Loss in the United States” report in December.
Every five years dating back to 1995, USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Wildlife Services and NAHMS use data from USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) “Sheep and Goats” report, published every January, to compile the information.
The report covers losses for adult sheep and lambs. NASS defines lamb losses as lambs marked, docked or branded in the Western states (Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming). In the remaining states, lamb losses are lambs under 1 year of age.
The report shows in 2019, approximately 5.2 million sheep and lambs were raised on 99,364 operations across the county, with small operators of 1-99 head making up 94.5 percent of operations.
Approximately 607,000 sheep and lambs, valued at $121.6 million, were lost in 2019. Sheep losses of 219,000 in 2019 accounted for 6.8 percent of the January 2020 adult sheep inventory; lamb losses of 388,000 in 2019 accounted for 12 percent of the 2019 lamb crop lost.
In 2019, predation accounted for 32.6 percent of adult sheep losses and 40.1 percent of lamb losses. The main predators causing the loss of adult sheep were coyotes, dogs and bears. The main predators causing the loss of lambs were coyotes, dogs and mountain lions.
Nonpredator losses accounted for 67.4 percent (147,560) of sheep losses and 59.9 percent (232,530) of lamb losses in 2019. The leading known nonpredator causes of loss for adult sheep were old age, internal parasites and lambing problems. The leading known nonpredator causes of loss for lambs were weather-related causes, internal parasites and lambing problems.
Texas leads the nation with total losses of 38,000 sheep and lambs, followed by California (14,000), Colorado and Wyoming (12,000) and Montana (11,000).
Between 2014 and 2019, the percentage of operations using any nonlethal methods increased from 31.9 to 77.1 percent, and the percentage of those using multiple nonlethal methods increased from 56.2 to 67.7 percent. The top three nonlethal methods used in 2019 were fencing (48.3 percent), night penning (33 percent) and lamb shed (30 percent).
In 2019, approximately $4.7 million was spent by the 13.4 percent of operators who used lethal predator damage management methods. For operations of 1,000 head or more, 71.5 percent used government specialist assistance to manage predator damage. Overall, 4.5 percent of operations used government specialist assistance, with South Dakota the leading state at 19.8 percent, followed by Montana at 18.9 percent.
Operations with sheep or lambs not going to slaughter and leaving the operation with an official identification were 77.3 percent overall. Of the Western states, Wyoming had the highest percentage at 96.8 percent. For sheep that left the operation in 2019, 81.4 percent of operations overall had sheep with official identification.
In 2019, 14.2 percent of all sizes of operations discounted raising sheep, with smaller operations under 100 head making up the majority of those quitting the business. The primary reasons cited were personal or family situations, predator loss and labor or production costs.
To view more details of the report, visit www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/dashboards/tableau/sheep-death-dashboard, or contact Matthew Branan at matthew.a.branan@usda.gov if you have any questions or comments. — Charles Wallace, WLJ editor
