All sheep and lamb inventory in South Dakota on January 1, 2021 totaled 245,000 head, down 5,000 from last year, according to the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service.
Breeding sheep inventory totaled 189,000 head, up 2,000 from last year. Ewes one year and older totaled 153,000 head, up 1,000 from the previous year. Rams one year and older totaled 6,000, up 1,000 from last year. Total replacement lambs totaled 30,000 head, unchanged from last year.
Market sheep and lambs totaled 56,000 head, down 7,000 from last year. A total of 2,000 head were mature sheep (one year and older) while the remaining 54,000 were under one year. Market lamb weight groups were estimated as follows: 8,000 lambs were under 65 pounds; 9,000 were 65-84 pounds; 16,000 were 85-105 pounds; 21,000 were over 105 pounds.
The 2020 lamb crop totaled 200,000 head, up 5,000 from 2019. The 2020 lambing rate was 132 per 100 ewes one year and older, compared with 124 in 2019.
Sheep deaths totaled 8,000 head, down 1,000 from last year. Lamb deaths totaled 22,000 head, down 4,000 from last year.
Sheep and lambs slaughtered on farm totaled 1,500 head, unchanged from last year. Shorn wool production during 2020 was 1.65 million pounds, down 40,000 from 2019. Sheep and lambs shorn totaled 220,000 head, down 5,000 from 2019. Weight per fleece was 7.5 pounds, unchanged from 2019. The average price paid for wool sold in 2020 was $1.60 per pound, compared with $1.87 in 2019. The total value of wool produced in South Dakota was 2.64 million dollars in 2020.
South Dakota goat inventory numbers are not separately published as part of NASS’s annual program. The counts are included in the “other states” category and U.S. totals each year. State level data for those “other states” are published as part of NASS’s Census of Agriculture.
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