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 and DOI Announced Reforms to the Wildfire Response System
On September 15, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Interior (DOI) announced their plans to overhaul the U.S. wildfire prevention and response system. In this memorandum, the agencies establish their plans to modernize tools and training, streamline interagency coordination, and strengthen partnerships with state, tribal, and local governments. This announcement was prompted by the Administration’s recent Executive Order “Empowering Commonsense Wildfire Prevent and Response.” The goal of this overhaul by the agencies is to improve overall preparedness and ensure more efficient and unified action in fighting wildfires. For more information, please see the official press release.
BLM Begins Rolling Back Conservation Lease Rule
On September 10, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) issued a proposal to rescind the 2024 Public Lands Rule which sought to equalize conservation land use with land used for grazing, energy, production, mining and recreation. The Rule had allowed for BLM to issue conservation leases for up to 10 years to protect or restore the environment. BLM said the Rule is unnecessary, with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum saying the Rule could block land use for hundreds of acres impacting many livelihoods and preventing activities such as energy and mineral production, timer management and gazing and recreation. The proposal adds that it is critical for public lands policy to strike the right balance when it comes to multiple use and sustainable yield. For more information on the proposal, please use the following link.
MSPA Seeking New Executive Director
Michigan Sheep Producers Association is hiring for an executive director. Applicants are encouraged to apply by October 1, with the intent to pass the baton at our annual symposium January 9-11, 2026.
Click Here for more details.
The Australian Wool Market
The wool market continued to rally this week, with the AWEX Eastern Market Indicator (AWEX-EMI) advancing by 25 cents. It was the ninth straight weekly rise, the longest sequence of consecutive gains since 2009. Daily results also reinforced the strong momentum, with both selling days recording increases. This extended the daily rally to sixteen consecutive sessions, the longest since AWEX records began in 1997. The EMI is now at its highest level since March 2023. Auctions this week followed a familiar pattern with 29,923 bales offered across two
days in Sydney and Melbourne, and a single day in Fremantle. Although volumes for the season remain seven percent below last season, the recent sales have seen catalogue sizes
comparable to 2024 levels. The market opened on a positive note, with most Micron Price Guides (MPGs) rising ten to twenty cents clean on Tuesday, lifting the EMI by ten cents for the day. Unlike recent weeks where the second day of selling delivered only modest gains, Wednesday produced a stronger outcome. The EMI climbed a further fifteen cents, the largest second-day increase in nearly a year. Across the series, the MPGs finished the week between 20 and 60 cents higher, with superfine types attracting particular interest. A highlight in these microns was a 12.9-micron line that achieved 8,500 cents greasy, the highest price for the 2025 calendar year. Crossbreds also continued their rally, with the 26-MPG up by as much as 64 cents. Merino Skirtings made steady progress across both days, supported by strong demand for best-length, low-vegetable matter lots. Merino Cardings added a further ten to twenty cents, with the
better-prepared types enjoying solid competition from buyers. Next week’s national offering is forecast at just over 30,000 bales in Sydney, Melbourne and Fremantle.
Click Here for the ASI Conversion Chart – AWEX Prices to USD Per Pound.
Source: AWEX
Consumer Recognizing American Lamb is Packed with Flavor and Fuel
American Lamb is a nutrition powerhouse without the guilt, and consumers are beginning to take notice. According to a recent ALB-funded consumer and attitude study, presented at this year’s American Lamb Summit, 20% of respondents reported an increase in their lamb consumption (p13), and just over 30% of respondents cited health and fitness as factors influencing their lamb intake, with many mentioning the need for more protein in their diet (p14).
Protein-rich and nutrient-packed, American Lamb is a tasty choice for a healthy lifestyle. The report states that just over 70% of consumers are focused on eating more protein (p24). Lamb is a good source of iron and rich in zinc, selenium and vitamin B12.
Consumers say they generally like to get health and nutrition from doctors and nutritionists, but 24% also said they rely on information on retail packaging and restaurant menus. Another 16% will visit a product website for more information (p30).
The American Lamb website offers consumers nutrition information about American Lamb and serves as a resource for producers to share with customers. In addition to providing nutrition details, the site is packed with delicious American Lamb recipes to help consumers prepare new dishes at home.
“Producers know that American Lamb is both flavor and fuel, but now consumers are starting to take note too,” says ALB Chairman Jeff Ebert. “American Lamb producers have the opportunity to harness protein headwinds to position lamb as a nutritious option, but to keep consumers choosing lamb raised in the United States, it’s essential to increase production and availability.”
Source: ALB
SHEEP GEMS
Genotype Sampling Strategies: Why Pedigree Still Matters in the Genomic Era
In last month’s news brief, we explored how genotyping strategies influence the accuracy of genomic predictions. That article emphasized the value of randomly genotyping animals within a flock to support more reliable genomically-enhanced estimated breeding values (GEBV), especially in the early stages of developing a reference population. As a reminder, a reference population is a large group of animals that have both performance and genotype information that is established in the early stages of genotyping in breed. In this follow-up article we focus on another critical factor that influences the success of genomic selection: the quality and completeness of the pedigree data.
As genomic selection gains momentum in U.S. sheep breeding programs, producers may assume that DNA testing alone is enough to drive genetic progress. While genomics is a powerful tool, accurate pedigree information remains essential unless all animals included in the evaluations are genotyped. Since that is unlikely, and since pedigree errors reduce the accuracy of even GEBV, careful pedigree recording remains key to take full advantage of existing genotyping.
In a recent study, we evaluated the impact of different types of pedigree errors, such as misidentified sires or missing dam and sire information, on GEBV accuracy. We tested these under thousands of genotyping strategies by mimicking (simulating) a realistic flock structure for a U.S. sheep operation. The results were clear: pedigree errors reduced GEBV accuracy and increased bias of the GEBV predictions. Incorporating genomic data mitigated, but did not fully eliminate, the reduction in accuracy caused by pedigree errors.
When a dam or sire is unknown, the reference population becomes less connected and lowers GEBV accuracy. With moderate but typical rates of pedigree errors, such as when 10 to 20 percent of animals had pedigree errors, the inclusion of genomic data helped, but not enough to fully recover the lost accuracy. Only when there were fewer than 10 percent pedigree errors were the average accuracies of GEBV, across all proportions of animals genotyped, higher than without pedigree errors.
Producers participating in NSIP and other evaluation programs can take steps to reduce pedigree errors by using ear tags or electronic identification, recording lambing events carefully, and incorporating genomic parentage verification when needed. Even a small improvement in pedigree quality can result in more accurate breeding values.
Our findings have important implications for sheep producers. While genomic selection reduces the reliance on complete pedigrees, it does not eliminate the need for accurate parent identification. In fact, genomic evaluations are most powerful when paired with reliable pedigree data. Ensuring accurate sire and dam records boosts the value of genotyping investments and improves the ability of breeders to identify top-performing animals across flocks.
For further information contact Artur O. Rocha ([email protected]).
Acknowledgements. We thank the many U.S. sheep associations and the National Sheep Improvement Program for their contributions to this research. This work was supported by the Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative (grant 2016-51300-25723/project accession no. 1010329), and by the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive Grant (grant 2022-67015-36073/project accession no. 1027785), from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the USDA.