Livestock Operations Report Released

The number of operations with sheep totaled 82,000 for 2009, down slightly from 2008. The number of operation with 1-99 head of sheep increased from 2008 to 2009 while those operations with 100-499 head had the largest decrease. This is what the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agriculture Statistics Service (NASS) detailed in its current Farms, Land in Farms and Livestock Operations, 2009 Summary.

Of all sheep operations that include breeding sheep, 93.7 percent were comprised of 1-99 head, 5.2 percent had 100-499 head and the remaining 1.1 percent were operations with 500 head or more.

Operations with 1-99 head account for 36.2 percent of the sheep inventory, 100-499 head account for 20.8 percent of the inventory, 500-4,999 head operations account for 31.1 percent of the inventory and 5,000 or more head account for 11.7 percent of the total sheep inventory.

The NASS report is available at http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/MannUsda/viewDocumentInfo.do?documentID=1259.