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Reaction to sheep inventory report

When asked for his reaction to the USDA sheep inventory report released on Friday, the first thing Peter Orwick, Executive Director of the American Sheep Industry Association told Brownfield is that they were just glad to have the report.

“USDA strongly considered and actually publicly proposed that the annual sheep inventory would be one of the reports that they wouldn’t be able to afford to in the future,” Orwick said. “We were able to convince them otherwise, so number one we’re glad to have the report.”

And second…considering the severe drought in Texas, the two percent decline in sheep numbers was in line with what Orwick has been hearing the last several months.

“You have fully a third of the sheep, at minimum, left the state of Texas, the good part is, we can tell from the report that they were showing up in other states,” said Orwick.

Audio: Peter Orwick, Executive Director, American Sheep Industry Assn. (2:40 MP3)