Photo Contest Open for Entries
It’s time to start sorting through those great photos you took the past few years and prepare to enter them in the 2024 ASI Photo Contest. Winning entries will be featured in the October issue of the Sheep Industry News.
Entries must be received in the ASI office by 5 p.m. mountain time on Thursday, Aug. 1, to be considered. Only the top three photographers in each category will be notified of their winnings.
Rules and prizes for the contest are the same as previous years. Photographs entered in the contest will be judged on clarity, content, composition and appeal. More than $1,000 will be awarded, with awards of $125 going to the first-place photographer in each of the five categories listed below; $75 for the runner-up in each category; and a $50 prize for third place in each of the five categories.
Photographers are advised to submit digital photographs in the largest file size possible. Also, judges and ASI staff encourage entrants to provide both horizontal and vertical photos. This will better assure these talented and creative photos can be shared in future issues of the Sheep Industry News, as well as in the 2025 ASI Calendar and other ASI publications.
The five categories in this year’s contest are:
- Shepherd/Shepherdess – Photographs of producers, shepherds or others working with sheep.
- Scenic (East) – Photographs of sheep outdoors located east of the Mississippi River. Photos entered in this category cannot include people.
- Scenic (West) – Photographs of sheep outdoors located west of the Mississippi River. Photos entered in this category cannot include people.
- Working Dogs and Protection Animals – Photographs in this category should show herding dogs, livestock guardian dogs or any other livestock protection animal in their natural environments. Photos must also include sheep in some fashion as proof that these truly are working animals.
- Open – Photographs with subject matter that does not fall into the four above-listed categories.
The following needs to be included with each submission: title of photo; category (from the five listed above) into which it is being entered; photographer’s name; mailing address; phone number; email address; and approximate location/date of photo. If there is a particular story that goes with the photo, please include that, as well, with the entry.
Entries should be emailed to Sheep Industry News Editor Kyle Partain at kyle@sheepusa.org with the subject line of ASI Photo Contest. Those mailing photos should send them to ASI, Attn: Photo Contest, 9785 Maroon Circle, Suite 360, Englewood, CO 80112.
Click Here for more information.
ASI Submits ALB, NSIIC Nominations
The American Sheep Industry Association Executive Board recently submitted nominations for openings on both the American Lamb Board and the National Sheep Industry Improvement Center board of directors.
The nominees for openings on the American Lamb Board included: Jimmy Parker of Alabama, John Lemondes of New York, David Fisher of Texas, Lane Jensen of Utah, Steve Schreier of Minnesota and William Nelson of Colorado.
The nominees for openings on the board of the National Sheep Industry Improvement Center included: James Percival of Ohio, Randy Kinney of Minnesota, Steve Clements of South Dakota and Matt Benz of Kansas.
ASI is a U.S. Department of Agriculture-certified nominating organization for both ALB and NSIIC. USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service will work with the Secretary of Agriculture to select the individuals for all ALB and NSIIC openings later this year.
Click Here to learn more about ALB.
Click Here to learn more about NSIIC.
AMS Offers National Wool Review
For the third week in a row, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service has published domestic wool prices in the National Wool Review report.
According to the report, domestic wool trading had 953,655 lbs. of confirmed trades reported this week. Some trades are not shown due to them not meeting confidentiality criteria. Prices reflect trades FOB warehouse in original bag or square pack, bellies out, some graded and 76 mm or longer. No allowance made for coring, freight or handling fees at the warehouse level to reflect net grower prices. Wools shorter than 75 mm typically discounted .10 to .20 clean. Classed and skirted wools usually trade at a .10 to .20 premium to original bag prices.
Click Here for the full report.
Source: USDA/AMS
Small Offering Leads to Positive Movement in Australia
The Australian wool market recorded a small overall increase this series. After 4.7 percent of the original offering was withdrawn prior to sale, there were just 31,383 bales left available. This was the smallest sale of the season and the smallest since Week 51 (June) last year.
With minimal currency movement – the Australian dollar lost 0.16 cents compared to the U.S. dollar since last week’s close – the price increases were driven more by increased buyer demand.
Main buyer interest continued to focus on good/best style wools with favorable additional measurement results. However, due to the limited offering, most Merino fleece types generally sold at slightly higher levels than in the previous series. Across the country, the movements in the individual Micron Price Guides for Merino fleece ranged by between minus 2 and plus 26 cents.
The Merino skirtings tracked a similar path to the fleece, with small improvements generally recorded. The crossbred sector had a solid series, with all MPGs recording increases, ranging between 5 and 22 cents. The highlight was the 26-micron MPG in the South which added 22 cents for the week. This equated to a 4.2-percent rise. The oddments had a relatively unchanged week, the three Merino carding indicators rose by an average of 1 cent, helped by a 5-cent rise in the Western region. The AWEX Eastern Market Indicator climbed 7 cents for the series, closing the week at 1,137 Australian cents.
Fremantle has a non-sale week next week and the national offering is forecast to fall below 30,000 bales. There are currently 27,499 bales expected to be on offer in Sydney and Melbourne. Even If this full quantity is realized, it will be the smallest sale since September 2020 (Week 13), where interestingly, in this very small sale the Merino fleece MPGs added between 94 and 185 cents for the series.
Click Here for the ASI Conversion Table – AWEX Prices to USD Per Pound.
Source: AWEX
Podcast Focuses on BioWorma
This month’s ASI Research Update podcast welcomes Dr. Joan Burke of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service as she discusses How BioWorma Can Help Control Parasites.
The warm, wet weather of late spring and early summer brings one of the sheep industry’s greatest challenges: parasites and specifically barber’s pole worm. Burke said BioWorma might provide relief on that front.
“We now know worldwide dewormers are no longer effective,” Burke said. “If you do have a dewormer that works, protect it with your life and use it very carefully. Because a lot of sheep and goat producers, their animals have multi-drug resistance. There’s no new products on the horizon. So, we need an approach where we use other things, other tools besides dewormers.”
According to a company fact sheet, BioWorma contains the spores of Duddingtonia flagrans, a natural fungus found in soil and on pasture. It is a non-chemical biological control for the free-living stages of parasitic gastrointestinal nematodes of grazing animals, which acts by substantially reducing the numbers of infective worm larvae – including chemical/multi-resistant larvae – emerging from manure onto pasture. When fed to animals, the thick-walled spores remain inert and resist digestion, passing through into the manure. There they germinate and form trapping organs that capture, paralyze and consume emerging worm larvae, interrupting the crucial reinfestation stage of the parasites’ life cycle, thus reducing the amount of re-infection on the pasture.
Click Here to listen to the podcast.
Lambventure Grill-Off Heats Up
The American Lamb Board is kicking off its new summer promotion highlighting delicious and nutritious American lamb, perfect for grilling, smoking and outdoor entertaining. ALB is recruiting nine consumers from across the country who love to cook and entertain to host summer parties and compete in the Lambventure Grill-off.
Consumers can sign up now to participate in one of three categories: Patio Party Planner, Fit Foodie or Outdoor Adventurer. If selected, applicants will throw a party for 10 of their friends in June. Competitors will craft a lamb dish and menu, host a themed party and capture photos to be submitted to ALB for public voting starting July 1 on AmericanLamb.com. The party host with the most votes wins the grand prize Dream Culinary Prize Pack based on their party personality valued at $1,000. More than 90 consumers have already applied, and the selected applicants will be announced next week.
“The Lambventure Grill-off is a way to inspire consumers to grill and smoke American lamb for summer gatherings,” said ALB Chairman Jeff Ebert. “After parties with nearly 100 people enjoying delicious grilled lamb recipes, the real exposure begins when the public views the recipes and party pictures and votes for their favorites.”
Source: ALB
Legislative Update from Washington, D.C.
The American Sheep Industry Association’s lobbying firm – Cornerstone Government Affairs – offered an update this week on legislative issues in our nation’s capital.
USDA Announces Livestock Health Funding
On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced it was taking new actions to ensure the health and viability of the nation’s livestock and poultry industry. Since the first detection of H5N1 in dairy cattle, USDA has worked in conjunction with its federal and state partners to better understand and contain the virus and is dedicated to seeking additional ways to collect the data necessary to best mitigate risk created by this disease outbreak.
Using emergency funding from the Commodity Credit Corporation, USDA is investing $824 million in a new Voluntary H5N1 Dairy Herd Status Pilot Program to give dairy producers more options to monitor the health of their herds and transport cows more quickly while providing on-going testing and expanding USDA’s understanding of the disease while also bolstering its current rapid response efforts. These funds are intended to assist the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to continue its critical work with state and local partners to quickly identify and address cases of HPAI/H5N1 in poultry and livestock.
The funding will support anticipated diagnostics, field response activities, pre-movement testing requirements, other necessary surveillance and control activities, surveillance in wildlife for APHIS, the Agricultural Research Service’s work in developing vaccines for HPAI in cattle, turkeys, pigs and goats, and ARS and the Food Safety and Inspection Service’s food safety studies. The Voluntary H5N1 Dairy Herd Status Pilot Program provides alternative testing and movement options to the federal order to increase USDA’s monitoring capabilities to mitigate the spread of H5N1.
To continue efforts toward containing the disease, APHIS is standing up a Voluntary H5N1 Dairy Herd Status Pilot Program, which provides alternative testing and movement options to the federal order to increase USDA’s monitoring capabilities to mitigate the spread of H5N1. This program aims to create additional testing options for producers with herds that have tested negative for three weeks in a row, further reduce H5N1 virus dissemination, provide for further opportunities to test herds that are not known to be affected with H5N1, increase surveillance and expand knowledge of the disease, and support an overall national program to reduce the risk of H5N1 in dairy herds.
Click Here for the referenced federal order for more information on initial efforts to mitigate the spread of H5N1.
Thompson, Smith Publish Op-Ed on Ag Trade
On Thursday, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson (Penn.) and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (Mo.) published a joint op-ed emphasizing the importance of supporting agricultural trade. They cited high input costs as well as the projected agricultural trade deficit as reasons to invest in agricultural trade support.
They highlight the work being done in both committees to help agricultural producers, including the proposed investments in export promotion programs in Thompson’s Farm, Food and National Security Act and the updates to trade policy tools made by the Ways and Means Committee.
Click Here for the op-ed.
USDA Launches Tool for Disaster Assistance
The U.S. Department of Agriculture – in partnership with FarmRaise – launched a new, online Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honey Bees and Farm-raised Fish Program Decision Tool this week.
The USDA’s Farm Service Agency tool is designed to assist agricultural producers who have been impacted by natural disasters access available program support. This ELAP Decision Tool – a component of a broader disaster assistance program educational module – further expands the library of online FSA disaster and farm loan program reference resources and decision aids currently available to agricultural producers on the FarmRaise FSA educational hub.
The Decision Tool is a resource only and is not an application for benefits or a determination of eligibility.
Source: USDA/FSA