Canadian farmers and ranchers held 11.1 million cattle and calves on Jan. 1, up 2.5 per cent from one year before. Inventories rose across all categories of cattle. Beef heifers for breeding were up 4.8 per cent and beef cows were up 1.9 per cent.

Producers held 3.6 million calves, 4.3 per cent more than a year prior. This was mainly due to a 42.7 per cent increase in international imports of calves between July and December.

In the last six months of the year, slaughter of cattle and calves fell by 6.5 per cent to 1.6 million head, StatCan said. International exports dropped by 8.9 per cent to 361,300 head. Despite decreases, feeder and slaughter cattle prices climbed to record highs over the latter half of 2025 on global demand.

Hog inventories down

Canadian hog farmers reported 13.9 million hogs on farms as of Jan. 1, down 0.8 per cent from one year prior. They reported 1.2 million sows and gilts — up 0.4 per cent. The number of boars was unchanged at 15,300 head.

The pig crop for the second half of 2025 rose by three per cent year-over-year to 15.2 million. StatCan attributed this to an increase in demand from processors and international trade.

International exports of live hogs were up eight per cent year over year at 3.5 million head. Hog slaughter rose by 1.8 per cent to 10.9 million head.

Sheep and lamb inventory up

Canadian sheep and lamb inventories rose by three per cent year over year to 833,000 head.

The sheep breeding herd was up 2.2 per cent as inventories of ewes and replacement lambs both increased. Ram numbers were stable.

Sheep and lamb slaughter fell by 2.9 per cent year over year between July and December. Average producer prices for slaughter lambs fell well below those in the previous six months.

Between July and December, international exports of live sheep and lambs rose by 19.5 per cent to 4,900 head.

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Why it matters: Free trade is critical for Canadian farmers, as much of what they produce is exported.

“We feel the current agreement is a good one and we’d like to see it continue as is,” said Keith Currie, Canadian Federation of Agriculture president, adding the request includes signing it for the original 16-year completion date without weakening its provisions or introducing any changes that negatively affect the agricultural sector.

“It’s really important to make the job of governments harder to ignore us when we are together as an industry.”

Signed by 98 Canadian food and agricultural value chain organizations, the letter mirrors one signed and submitted to Congress by 124 United States food and agricultural value chain organizations in October for the 2026 Joint Review of CUSMA public consultation, placing pressure on both governments to respect the agriculture industry’s support for the agreement.

Highlighting CUSMA’s instrumental role in building a stable, integrated and thriving North American agricultural market, the letter highlighted specific areas Canadian farmers, ranchers and processors would like to remain untouched.

“We are calling on governments to maintain the agreement’s SPS (sanitary and phytosanitary) provisions, which have improved transparency and ensured science-based treatment of agricultural products—protecting plant and animal health,” the letter states. “The continuation of science-based regulatory cooperation is critical to ensuring timely access to agricultural innovations.”

It also reflects full support for the Chapter 31 dispute settlement provisions designed to resolve “barriers that otherwise disrupt market stability and growth.”

Political and geopolitical events of the last decade are shifting the narrative, making it necessary for Canada’s 260-plus commodities, along with Mexico and the U.S. agricultural sectors, to support one another, Currie explained.

The letter said that between 2005 and 2023, CUSMA tripled the value of North American agriculture and agrifood trade to the tune of approximately C$400 billion (US$285 billion).

Currie said the three countries are aligned through a shared language, goals and collaborative relationship-building to strengthen and improve the sector.

“We all need each other’s help, and we can’t get this across the finish line unless we’re all pushing in the same direction,” he explained, adding all three countries are aligned through a shared language, goals, and collaborative relationship-building to strengthen and improve the sector.

“When the deal is all done, I would certainly be happy with an advantage for our farmers, but I don’t want to see it come at the detriment of either my colleagues, my farmer friends in the U.S., or relationships between nations.”

Currie said consumers now have a better understanding of agriculture and the agri-food industry’s role in driving Canada’s economy forward, gaining a clearer perspective on what food security means to them.

A recent Nanos poll asking Canadians to rank the government’s top two priorities for countering U.S. tariffs found that agriculture ranked first with 29 per cent, and 19 per cent ranked it as a secondary priority.

Automotive was second, with primary and secondary priority ratings of 24 and 18 per cent, respectively.

Provincially, Prairie provinces showed 42 per cent agricultural support. In comparison, automotive garnered 18 per cent, while others saw agriculture gain 26 to 28 per cent as the primary priority and automotive from 14 to 24 per cent.

Ontario was an outlier, ranking automotive as the primary with 35 per cent and agriculture at 24 per cent. Softwood lumber was the top concern in British Columbia, with 35 per cent, and second in Atlantic Canada at 24 per cent.

“(Consumers) want to make sure the government understands that they recognize agriculture is important,” explained Currie. “That helps us now go to the government and say, ‘Look, this is in the national interest. Food security is important. Economic security is also important, and agriculture wants to be part of the team.”

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Now when I talk about sheep, I will explain the perspectives with particular regard to Canada. The 8,000 square miles of Wales would fit into each of the three Prairie provinces about 32 times — Alberta is 255,000 square miles, and each of the other provinces is just a little less than that in size.

Wales has essentially a mild, wet climate modified by the Gulf Stream of the Atlantic, allowing farm animals to graze from March until December. The rainfall varies from 30 to 40 inches annually on the coastal areas with up to 150 inches just a few miles inland.

Wales today has a peak sheep population of around 10 million, counting both mature sheep and lambs. This conveniently works out to 2,000 sheep from March to October on each acre of the Welsh landscape. Let’s not forget the other livestock, particularly cattle, numbering more than one million, and horses, at 60,000 or more. That means 2,500 sheep per section or an average of eight sheep per useable acre. That number per acre could vary from four to 12 or more. Remember, over winter the sheep herd, primarily older ewes, from November to March drops down to just more than four million animals. Each early spring from March onward, each ewe averages 1.5 lambs per adult animal.

In the rest of the U.K. — England, Scotland and Northern Ireland — there are about another 12 million sheep. Canada, on the other hand has only around 830,000 sheep, primarily in Ontario, Quebec and Alberta. Some 550,000 lambs and some sheep are processed for meat in provincially inspected establishments annually. Canada exports and imports sheep and lambs, but imports are by far the most, at around 28,000 tons of lamb and mutton valued at $347 million. Farm cash receipts in Canada for lamb and sheep total $224 million or 0.2 per cent of total farm cash receipts.

Most lamb imports into Canada come from Australia and New Zealand, which have some 75 million and 25 million sheep respectively. These numbers, though, are dwarfed by China’s 175 million sheep, giving that country 14 per cent of the world’s sheep population.

Demand for lamb in Canada is high, but it’s often unavailable in the big box stores. On the other hand, the potential for increasing Canada’s sheep herds is high, but I suspect some prejudice exists for nonspecific reasons. Canadian winters may be cold, but most sheep breeds are ideally suited for our cold weather. And if coyotes are cited as problems, how come Australia can manage its sheep-killing dingoes?

There are more than 200 recognized breeds of sheep, with perhaps some 10,000 distinct types, all the way from dual-purpose wool type to wool-free sheep to milk-producing sheep.

Milk sheep, very common in Europe, are unusual in that some lines can produce three to six lambs at one time. Milk production runs from 170 to 240 U.S. gallons (600-900 litres) in a milking interval (year). Much of this milk is made into up to 70 or more cheeses, perhaps the most familiar in Canada being the sharp-tasting blue French Roquefort.

Lamb as a prime-time meal centrepiece worldwide competes very well with quality beef, particularly on European tables. As with the meat from specialized beef-producing animals such as Kobe from Wagyu cattle, prime lamb roast has its own unique types. Where I grew up in Wales, we farmed on the edge of a huge estuary, second only to the Bay of Fundy in Canada. This estuary had some 5,000 acres of grass-covered salt marsh, traditionally grazed by sheep, horses and cattle. These grass salt marshes are periodically flooded many times a year by the incoming tides which in spring can rise as much as 32 feet. Sheep eating these very saline-tolerant grasses develop a distinctive meat, which, up until not so many years ago, was poorly regarded as off-flavoured. In today’s world, this lamb meat is now very highly regarded by the best of British restaurants as salt marsh lamb. The lamb meat from the salt marsh’s 5,000 acres is sold for up to three times the price of regular farm lamb — a prime example of a niche market.

Affluent consumers seem to be always ready for an unusual food experience. Remember, the world’s best coffee is made from coffee beans that have been previously eaten by wild jungle catlike creatures (civets) in Indonesia. Look it up if it sounds unbelievable.

A secure perimeter

I believe there’s a lot of room for sheep farming in Canada, particularly on the Prairies. Until recently I kept around eight Shetland sheep for 15 years at my acreage. I fenced the outer part of the acreage with four-foot sheep fencing on top of four-foot sheep fencing so it was eight feet tall and essentially coyote-, deer- and moose-proof. The sheep were kept on an acre of land that was a mass of poplar roots, suckers and weeds. After five years all the poplars and weeds were killed off and replaced with a lawn grass mixture that I periodically seeded over this area. Within a few years this was an acre of good grazing land. I have always had a couple of energetic border collies within the acreage, and coyotes or foxes have never been a problem, despite having a few free-ranging chickens.

Back in 2010 on my five acres, next to my sheep pen, I came across the fully eaten remains of a large male white-tail deer. This happened in March, in deep snow that year. It appeared a cougar had chased a deer that jumped the eight-foot fence at the bottom end of my property, consuming the deer over many days and totally ignoring the sheep in the nearby pen enclosed only by four-foot fencing. Perhaps the cougar had an aversion to mutton or was discouraged by my border collie patrol.

So, if Wales can raise 10 million sheep on 8,000 sections, why can the Prairies, 100 times larger in area, only raise around 300,000 sheep? The demand for lamb is there, either for domestic or export purposes. As we say, I am not pulling the “wool” over your eyes.

Do not be hung up, so to speak, by so-called feuds between cattle ranchers and sheep herders. I have many times heard the word “pasture maggots” together with contemptuous descriptions about the taste of lamb. Old mutton may not be the best of meats, but there are many in this country who relish moose, deer, bear, ducks and geese, regardless of age or quality. Try Canadian prime lamb chops, Indian lamb curry or Italian/Greek prepared lamb. You just might like it.

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I’ll discuss Al Oeming’s game farm later in this text. Who would even want to go on an African or Indian safari when the Alberta Game Farm had it all and much more conveniently?

Presently, game farming on the Prairies, and in Canada from coast to coast, has become serious business ventures for thousands of individuals or conglomerates. Bison (buffalo) farming is classified as game farming, with some 150,000 bison on close to 1,000 farms across the country — in actuality, from British Columbia to Quebec. Some 90 per cent of those bison herds are located on the Prairies.

While the term “game farm” brings to mind elk (Wapiti), white-tail deer and caribou, in reality some game farms are licenced to have fallow deer, moose, mule deer, reindeer, bighorn sheep, thinhorn sheep, musk deer and even mountain goats. Those are by no means all of Canada’s game farms; some have 200 or so acres of land for pheasants, quail and partridge. A few of these bird farms allow shooting for hunters with the intention of training retriever dogs.

Alberta has the largest number of game farms, at around 250, and also the largest number of bison and elk. Saskatchewan is close behind in numbers, with lower amounts in Manitoba and British Columbia. Saskatchewan allows game hunting on approved game farms, which collectively offer up to 100 hunts a year from approved animal species including bison. Organizations advocating for “fair chase” hunting such as the Boone and Crockett Club in the U.S. disapprove of such hunts and will not recognize trophy antler sets that originate from game farms.

Alberta game farms have been lobbying for years to allow hunting on game farms but so far, the answer has been a regular refusal. Game hunting can only happen in Alberta on game farms that have fenced-in wild boar. On the other hand, wild boar hunting is legal on all of the Prairies year-round permit-free, with some variations. In Alberta you can turn in a pair of boar ears for $75 a pair but so far to my knowledge there have been no takers.

Game farms’ income is primarily from exotic meat sales and, in the case of the deer family, the harvest and sale of the antlers. Some game farms actually trade in breeding stock such as elk (red deer) for New Zealand. Alberta game farm organizations state that game farm hunting, if permitted, could bring in up to $500 million annually and employ up to 300 individuals.

Noah of the North

Now back to the greatest of all game farms ever: Al Oeming’s Alberta Game Farm and its hundreds of exotic animals. Al Oeming, by the way, was co-founder with Stu Hart of the nationally famous Stampede Wrestling. Oeming sold his half of the wrestling promotion company to devote his time to the Game Farm.

Where else in the world could you walk next to 800-lb. Siberian tigers, lions, cheetahs, snow leopards, jaguars, pumas and leopards, and also know that back then he was the first to successfully breed these wild cat family members? Oeming’s hallmark was a cheetah named Tawana that he took to Canadian high schools from coast to coast. At this time Al Oeming also made documentaries on CBC TV where he was known as the “Man of the North” and sometimes as Noah of the North.

Where else could you view musk ox, Per David deer, European bison and all the camelids of the Americas – alpacas, llamas, vicunas, and guanacos, long before they became popular farm animals in Canada and the U.S.?

I could throw an orange to a 700-lb. grizzly bear and watch it stab the orange with a claw on one paw, deftly peel the orange with a razor-sharp claw on the other paw and finally pop the peeled fruit into his mouth. It was awesome to watch orange after orange.

Could I believe watching an attendant pet and hold a fully mature wolverine on his lap? You could watch huge mountain gorillas run around a walled compound, though they occasionally got loose but fried chicken would bring them back. How about watching a wolf pack behave, or a colony of prairie dogs perform? Well, all good things came to an end, due to operating costs and protestors who constantly campaigned against the game farm. Most of the animals were sold to zoos and private individuals worldwide, and by 1982 he re-opened the facility as “Polar Park,” with only a few hundred animals.

Al Oeming remained at the property until his death at the age of 88 on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, 2014.

In his extremely busy lifetime, Al Oeming also served in the Canadian Navy (1943-46), worked as a professional wrestler and completed a master’s degree in zoology by 1955.

When Oeming opened the game farm, it became a reservoir for vanishing and even vanished animal species, such as Siberian tigers, snow leopards, red pandas, Przewalski’s horses, Chinese Per David deer, European bison and Siberian lynx. These rare animals were just a few of the 166 species in a collection of over 3,000 animals. In 1964 Al was awarded the Everly Medal for Excellence in Conservation by the U.S. government, and an honorary doctorate by the University of Alberta in 1972, along with numerous awards and citations for his pioneering work. He traded exotic animals with China and other countries, all without any grants or government assistance.

In his final years following the creation of Polar Park, Al amassed probably the world’s biggest collection of horse-drawn vehicles, along with all the paraphernalia and countless sleigh bells of museum quality.

Oeming was a truly remarkable man who collected and successfully bred many of the world’s vanishing animal species — a true pioneer in his field with a remarkable nationwide influence.

It is unfortunate for game farms and zoos of any kind in Canada to face obsessive persistence from small groups of misinformed individuals. Take, for example, the 48-year-old elephant Lucy at the Edmonton Valley Zoo. A group of very vocal so-called animal rights activists has campaigned for years to move Lucy to an elephant sanctuary. This group has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on a lone elephant, harassed the City of Edmonton, gone to the Supreme Court and ignored genuine animal welfare proponents such as Jane Goodall. A classic case of what we’d call the ‘tail wagging the dog.’ While Lucy remains in Edmonton today, unfortunately, politicians often change common-sense procedures and laws to accommodate these disparate views. All too often the vocal minority wins over the common-sense majority.

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That was the message from participants in a demo held daily in the sheep handling area during Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show 2024.

Michael Richards raises a crossbred Dorset/Rideau flock of ewes and market lambs in Haldimand County.

He was component feeding when he started, feeding dry hay in the morning, top-dressing with grain later in the day, then ultimately cleaning out what was left over in the feed bunk and feeding it to beef cattle.

Seeking cost savings and less feed waste, he bought a Jaylor “mini” TMR mixer. The results have been even better than he expected. Richards told the Wednesday afternoon “Benefits of Feeding With TMR” demo attendees that his feed costs went from $1.50 per head per day to $0.43 per head per day.

Labour savings were also significant.

This came as no surprise to ruminant nutritionist Courtney Vriens. Operator of Arthur-based Vriens Nutrition Consulting, she works with both dairy and meat sheep producers across Canada to fine-tune their flocks’ rations.

“Sheep can consume all these feed components in a very efficient manner,” she said — but not if they’re given the opportunity to sort. If grain is top-dressed for sheep in higher production stages, acidosis risk can increase. But this is mitigated when that same amount of grain is included in a TMR.

Vriens added that TMRs can allow sheep producers to switch away from expensive pelleted feeds and instead use more home-grown or alternative feeds such as corn distiller’s grains.

For the demo, Jaylor supplied a self-propelled, 91 cubic-foot mixer powered by a Honda engine and three hydraulic wheel motors.

“This mixer is quite capable of moving around inside or outside the barn,” explained Ontario/Manitoba territory manager Jerry Van Oude.

Other options in the company’s mini TMR mixer line include stationary, truck-mounted, trailer, or skidsteer-mounted.

A mix of straw, haylage and grain corn was created for the demo. Richards explained he uses corn silage in his TMR for much of the year but currently is waiting for corn harvest. Instead, he’s currently using oatlage, dry balage and some concentrate.

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An order in council amending the provincial Feeder Associations Guarantee Regulation was approved Monday, raising that program’s individual and joint-membership loan limit to $3 million, from $2 million (excluding advances).

The program, which dates back to 1936, typically backs about 17 to 24 per cent of Alberta’s calf crop each year, by way of government-guaranteed, low-interest leveraged financing.

The program is open to Alberta-residing farmers of at least 18 years of age who own or lease land and whose participation is approved by one of Alberta’s 45 local feeder associations. Those associations today have about 2,100 cattle and sheep producer members in all.

Agriculture Minister RJ Sigurdson, who was named to the post last month, announced the new loan limit in a release Monday. He described feeder associations as “an essential part of Alberta’s livestock industry and… a proven way to support new entrants in primary agriculture.”

Monday’s order in council makes short work of an assignment in Sigurdson’s mandate letter from Premier Danielle Smith. That letter, dated last Thursday, specifically tasks Sigurdson with delivering on a “platform commitment” to raise the loan guarantee to $3 million.

“Cattle prices have increased 25 per cent since the start of the year and are expected to keep rising,” the province said in its release Monday. “Alberta’s livestock producers are in greater need of easily accessible, low-interest capital backed by a government guarantee.”

Philipp Lammerding, chair of Feeder Associations of Alberta, said Monday the increased limit provides “much-needed support to our existing feeder members while making this capital-intensive business more viable and accessible to new entrants and young farmers in the current market environment.”

The program’s individual loan limit was last raised in late 2018, when it was doubled from the previous $1 million.

The feeder program’s overall loan guarantee limit also got a boost in late 2022, to $150 million from the previous $100 million. That previous limit had been set in 2016, up from $55 million.

Other tasks listed in last week’s mandate letter for Sigurdson include working to reduce barriers to interprovincial meat trade; carrying out plans for irrigation upgrades; and looking at ways to boost nitrogen production from the province’s petrochemical sector to improve the availability of N fertilizer. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The province on May 29 announced the deadlines for grain and oilseed producers to submit their completed RMP applications and make any coverage changes — previously set at May 10 — has now been moved to June 30.

For livestock producers, the deadline to submit applications or request coverage changes, previously extended to April 15 for the 2023 program year, has now also been reset to June 30.

Agricorp, the province’s farm program delivery agency, said May 29 the latest deadline move is meant to “give farmers more time to evaluate their coverage decisions” and more flexibility in making those decisions.

That said, to be eligible for RMP: Grains and Oilseeds, grower customers will still also need to have Production Insurance coverage — the application deadline for which remained May 10.

Ontario’s RMP, set up as a permanent program in 2011, is intended to help farmers manage risks beyond their control, such as fluctuating costs and market prices.

The program is intended as a complement to Production Insurance, which insures against production losses, and AgriStability, a whole-farm ag income stabilization program. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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As per Alberta Farmer’s report last week, Préval confirmed Monday its divisions Westfine Meats and West Excelamb are now the owners of the former SunGold Speciality Meats lamb processing plant at Innisfail, south of Red Deer, and NALCO’s lamb breeding and finishing operations at Iron Springs, north of Lethbridge.

Préval also confirmed Monday the two divisions, which produce and market lamb under the Sungold and Lamb Tonight brands, will now operate as units of its veal and lamb processing arm Montpak International.

NALCO entered creditor protection last summer, owing a total of almost $53 million to lenders Farm Credit Canada and Scotiabank among others. Préval didn’t say Monday how much it paid for the Alberta assets, a figure previously sealed by court order at the request of the court-appointed monitor.

The monitor, Ernst and Young (EY), reached purchase and sale agreements with Préval for the Alberta assets in November and picked up approval for those deals last month from Alberta Court of King’s Bench in Calgary.

The deal creates some certainty for lamb producers in Western Canada by ensuring the continued operation of the region’s only federally inspected lamb processing plant.

“We are fortunate to be acquiring world-class operations that will deliver the same high standard of quality on which Préval Ag has built its reputation,” Montpak CEO Alex Fontaine said in a release Monday.

“For us, sourcing locally is essential, and we will therefore be working closely with local producers to expand the marketing of our lamb products in the Canadian market.”

Préval also announced the appointment of Stéphane Beausoleil as general manager for the Alberta operartion, tasked with “integrating the new company into the Préval Ag family.”

Beausoleil will also be working with the plant team “to promote the quality of Canadian lamb products under the Sungold, Lamb Tonight and Famille Fontaine brands.”

Préval, based at St-Hyacinthe, Que., operates 42 subsidiaries, including veal, beef and lamb processing divisions Montpak and Délimax, plus other crop and horticulture production and processing units.

With the NALCO deal in place, Préval said its units’ total annual sales are projected to reach over $750 million and its employee base over 1,600 people in Canada, the U.S. and South America.

Court of King’s Bench in December also approved the sales of NALCO’s four properties in Manitoba to three separate buyers.

ABAS Girls Ranch will take over the NALCO properties at Rockwood, Stony Mountain and Lundar, while 2 Flag Farms and Sheldon Harms will take up separate portions of the company’s land at Sarto. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The case could have implications for how antitrust laws are applied to labour markets, according to legal experts, as the Biden administration pushes for greater competition in every sector of the economy.

The suit alleges that ranches co-ordinate through the Western Range Association (WRA), a ranching trade group, to suppress sheepherder wages and avoid competing for labour.

Herders apply to jobs through the WRA which then assigns them to ranches, leaving no room for the herders to negotiate or shop around among ranches, the complaint said.

The arrangement violates the Sherman Act, a 130-year-old antitrust law that prohibits wage-fixing agreements among employers, the suit alleged.

“Even workers who make some of the lowest wages in our economy should be able to benefit from the fair competition that our antitrust laws ensure,” said David Seligman, executive director of Towards Justice, which brought the suit.

Ellen Jean Winograd, WRA’s general counsel, said the suit’s allegations “appear to lack merit,” but that the group could not comment in more detail.

Sheepherders are typically men from rural Peru who come to the United States on agricultural H-2A visas and live in isolated areas, according to the complaint. Their wages have stagnated even as pay for other agricultural labour has risen in recent years, the complaint said.

An earlier version of the suit was dismissed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in 2017 because the court said the herders had not sufficiently proven collusion. Several antitrust experts have argued the case was wrongly decided.

There are around 100,000 sheep farms in the United States that sell about US$750 million of sheep, lambs, and wool annually, according to Department of Agriculture data.

— Leah Douglas reports on the U.S. ag and energy sectors for Reuters from Washington, D.C.

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service (APHIS) on Friday published a new final rule updating regulations for imports of sheep, goats, their meat and related products.

The new rule, set to take effect Jan. 3, 2022, “aligns the regulations with the current scientific understanding of BSE,” APHIS said.

When APHIS originally set up BSE-related import restrictions, “the potential risk of species other than cattle, including sheep and goats, was unknown,” the agency said.

The U.S. rules in place today prohibit imports of most live sheep and goats, and most sheep and goat products, from any countries considered a risk for BSE.

Since then, though, “scientists have learned much more about how BSE works, and their extensive research shows that sheep and goats pose a minimal risk of spreading BSE.”

U.S. regulations in place today limit imports from Canada to include just slaughter or feeder sheep under 12 months old and “certain products” from sheep and goats, as well as sheep and goat semen. They also restrict imports of meat and edible products other than gelatin from Canadian sheep and goats.

The new rules taking effect next month for sheep and goats deal instead with scrapie — a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) that can affect those animals. Other TSEs include BSE in cattle, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in people and chronic wasting disease in cervids such as elk and deer.

Under the new rules, any live sheep or goat entering the U.S. that’s not headed directly for slaughter — or for a designated feedlot followed directly by slaughter — must come from either a scrapie-free country, or from a flock with a herd certification program equivalent to the U.S. Scrapie Flock Certification Program.

According to the Canadian Sheep Breeders’ Association, importers of sheep and goats from Canada for purposes other than slaughter under the new rule will have to provide documents showing the animals have “reached and maintained certified status.”

The U.S. evaluation of Canada’s Scrapie Flock Certification Program has found that farms ranked as “Level Certified Plus” in the Canadian program will meet the new import requirement, the CSBA said in its summary of the new rule.

APHIS will issue permits for sheep of certain “classical scrapie-resistant genotypes” including female sheep of genotype AARR and male sheep of genotypes AARR and AAQR, the association said.

Imported sheep and goats also have to be permanently identified with an APHIS-approved form of country mark, but APHIS “did not specify any particular method of identification,” CSBA said.

APHIS, in its new rule, said it will require official Canadian RFID eartags for goats and sheep imported from Canada, to be specified in guidance published later on the agency’s website. CSBA, however, said those official ear tags alone won’t meet the proposed country mark requirement.

Sheep and goats coming in for purposes other than immediate slaughter will also require a “permanent mark” unless they’re to be maintained as a segregated group in a designated feedlot, APHIS said. Tattoos are “expected to meet the country mark identification requirement,” CSBA said.

Past that, APHIS said, the new rule’s proposals for slaughter and feeder sheep and goats imported from anywhere in the world “are similar to the requirements for sheep and goats imported for those purposes from Canada.

“In other words, we proposed to make the provisions, which had been Canada-specific, broadly applicable to ruminants from anywhere in the world.”

APHIS, in its supporting documents, said it doesn’t expect any “significant increase” in live sheep and goat imports due to the new rule.

In the five years between 2016 and 2020, APHIS said, annual live sheep and goat imports averaged about 12,167 head — all of which came from Canada. Imports per year in that time ranged from 7,338 head in 2018 to 21,223 in 2016.

As for the meat market, APHIS said U.S. imports of sheep and goat meat today come in as chilled or frozen lamb, and “almost entirely” from Australia and New Zealand, the only two countries the U.S. currently recognizes as “wholly free” from scrapie.

APHIS, under the new rule, projects additional imports of sheep and goat meat in a range between 1,582 and 4,747 tonnes per year, which would cut into U.S. domestic meat production by between 439 and 1,317 tonnes — but would also spur greater U.S. domestic sheep and goat meat consumption, to the tune of between 1,143 and 3,430 tonnes.

APHIS said its projections suggest “consumer welfare gains would outweigh producer welfare losses,” and U.S. sheep and goat producers could also benefit from “resulting genetic improvements” by way of imported sheep and goat germplasm. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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