SD-CROP-LIVESTOCK

NEWS RELEASE
United States Department of Agriculture
National Agricultural Statistics Service
South Dakota Field Office - Sioux Falls, SD

Media contact: South Dakota Office, 605/323-6500
Email:  nass-sd@nass.usda.gov

SOUTH DAKOTA SHEEP INVENTORY UP

SIOUX FALLS, January 27, 2006 -- The January 1, 2006 South Dakota inventory
of all sheep and lambs totaled 385,000 head, up 10,000 head from last year, 
according to the South Dakota office of USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics 
Service.  The breeding herd decreased 5,000 head from last year, and the 
marketing herd increased 15,000 head.  Other classes and their changes from one
year ago are:

*	Breeding sheep and lambs, at 280,000 head, down 2 percent from the 
        January 1, 2005 herd.
*	Ewes one year old and older, at 230,000 head, unchanged from last year.
*	Rams and wethers one year old and older, at 8,000 head, also unchanged 
        from January 1, 2005.
*	Replacement lambs for breeding, at 42,000 head, down 11 percent from 
        last year.
*	Market sheep and lambs, at 105,000 head, up 17 percent from one year 
        ago.

Lambs born during 2005 totaled 290,000 head, unchanged from the 2004 crop.

Wool production for 2005, at 2,582,000 pounds, was down 28,000 pounds from a 
year earlier.  Sheep and lambs shorn totaled 330,000 head, compared to 345,000 
head in 2004.

Meat goats on January 1, 2006, totaled 7,000 head, up 8 percent from last year’s 
6,500 head.

Access this complete report at:
http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/reports/nassr/livestock/pgg-bb/shep0106.pdf