AR-News: FW: sheep industry outlook

[jim robertson]

>SAMPLE QUOTE: " Ranchers, Gilbert added, are likely to expand their herds 
>or increase production if the price stays strong."
>
>
>BOULDER (Colorado) DAILY CAMERA
>http://www.dailycamera.com/bdc/state_news/article/0,1713,BDC_2419_2993579,00.html
>
>  Sheep industry teeming with opportunity
>  Demand increasing in profitable lamb, kosher markets
>
>  By Becky Bohrer, Associated Press
>  June 27, 2004
>
>  BILLINGS, Mont. - The way Bryce Reece sees it, this is a great time to be 
>in the sheep industry. Prices are higher - ranchers' attitudes, too - and 
>demand for lamb, he says, is strong.
>
>  "There is a huge potential opportunity out there," said Reece, executive 
>vice president of the Wyoming Wool Growers Association. "The industry just 
>has to capitalize and adapt to it."
>
>The industry is getting some help. Research now under way is looking at the 
>potential for ranchers to capture more value from their products - 
>everything from the kosher market to lambs raised with an eye on human 
>nutrition considerations.
>
>Reece is among those who consider the projects timely and needed by an 
>industry that many see as going through a rebuilding phase after being 
>shaken by dismal prices, drought and what some characterize as a slowness 
>in responding to changing consumer demand.
>
>"You have to look at everything in today's market," said Bob Gilbert of the 
>Montana Wool Growers Association.
>
>One aspect of what the university researchers in the region are studying is 
>the kosher market - and, in particular, ways in which lambs can be raised 
>to reduce the incidence of lung lesions, animpediment to meeting kosher 
>standards.
>
>
><SNIP>
>
>
>  A thrust behind the projects is to help give ranchers and others options 
>beside leaving rural farming communities, Faller said.
>
>  "To make their lives better, we have to focus more on helping them with 
>the products they raise," he said.
>
>  In recent years, and notably during the late 1990s, many ranchers scaled 
>back or left the sheep ranching business amid such pressures as poor 
>prices, changing government policies and drought, said Peter Orwick, 
>executive director of the
>American Sheep Industry Association. A lack of a coordinated national 
>marketing campaign like that for beef didn't help either, officials said.
>
>There were 67,620 sheep farms and ranches in the United States in 2003, 
>according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service. That compared to 
>68,150 such farms and ranches in 2002 and 69,200 in 2000, the service said.
>
>  But officials like Orwick believe the industry is poised to bounce back, 
>pointing to a more upbeat attitude - among producers, particularly - 
>spurred by 24 months of steady, strong lamb meat and live sheep prices.
>
>
>  There are many niche markets for producers to tap into, Reece said. He 
>added that changing demographics in this country, including Hispanic and 
>Muslim populations that historically consumer more lamb meat, hold "huge 
>promise" for
>  the lamb industry.
>--
>