Document Type

Circular

Publication Date

6-1950

Department

Animal Husbandry Department

Circular Number

82

Keywords

sheep, rama, ewes, lambs, flock, range sheep production

Description

Sheep production in South Dakota offers farmers an additional means of stabilizing their income and production. The two cash crops per year, wool and lambs, always have been popular. With the necessity of planting more grasses and legumes to conserve our land, the need of putting more emphasis on roughage-consuming animals is evident. During World War II the sheep numbers in the United States declined about 40 percent from their high peak of 1942. However, since the United States produces only a fraction of the wool that this country consumes, and with sheep numbers likely to stay below the peak number attained in 1942 in the western part of the United States, the law of supply and demand appears to favor the man who maintains a band of ewes. Prices for lambs and wool are likely to be in a most favorable position in respect to other livestock commodities for some time. The number of sheep kept on South Dakota farms does not remain constant, but varies with economic and climatic conditions, the greatest number being maintained during drought and hard times.

Pages

26

Format

application/pdf

Type

text

Language

en

Publisher

South Dakota State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, Agricultural Experiment Station

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