A new report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reveals fewer sheep and goats this year.
“We are now looking at about a two percent decline on Jan. 1, 2017,” USDA Livestock Analyst Shale Shagam said in an interview with USDA’s Gary Crawford.
The decline comes after two years of slight increases in the sheep and goat sector.
As of Jan. 1, the U.S. sheep and lamb inventory was 5.2 million head.
Breeding sheep inventory is down two percent, according to the report. The 2016 lamb crop was down about one percent from 2015.
Shagam tells Crawford prices led to the declines.
Slaughter lamb prices in 2014 were peaking at about $159 per hundredweight.
“By 2016, that price had dropped down to just under $135 a hundredweight and we expect to see prices averaging in the mid to low $130 range during 2017,” Shagam said.