Farm & Ranch
Expert: White wooly sheep don’t reflect today’s sheep industry
By: Steve Byrns
Hair sheep surpass wool sheep in historical wool producing region
Writer: Steve Byrns, 325-653-4576, [email protected]
Contact: Bill Thompson, 325-653-4576, [email protected]
SAN ANGELO – The hair sheep industry has grown considerably since the mid-1990s when U.S. sheep producers first started to take notice of the meat producing breeds, said an agricultural economist at San Angelo.
Bill Thompson, with the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, said he and Dr. Dan Waldron, Texas A&M AgriLife Research geneticist at San Angelo, recently secured data from Producers Livestock Auction Company to determine the sheep industry’s current market trends.
Thompson said the San Angelo auction reportedly remains the largest sheep and goat market in the U.S.. He said San Angelo, long known as the nation’s Wool Capital, has seen a turn of events in recent years.
“Looking at those numbers, they’ve sold more hair sheep through that auction since 2011 than they have wool lambs, so the market has changed considerably over the last several years,” Thompson said.
He also said their study only dealt with animals sold through the ring and did not take into consideration those animals sold straight off the range through an order buyer. Those sales, he said, are generally large offerings of strictly wool sheep.
He said there has been a steady downward trend in wool sheep numbers for years for a variety of reasons including predation, lack of shearers, general labor and sluggish markets to name a few.
He pointed to the drought and subsequent wildfires across West Texas in 2011 as factors that sped up the loss of wool sheep numbers. He said the combination of drought and fire across prime sheep range forced a large number of operations to greatly reduce their flocks and a smaller number of producers to liquidate their flocks altogether. A percentage of those returning appear to have restocked with hair sheep.
“We get asked a lot what the differences are between hair lamb prices and wool lamb prices and we specifically went to the sale barn for data so we could analyze those differences,” Thompson said. “We found some interesting things.”
One point of particular interest was lot size or the number of animals sold at a given time.
“Wool lamb producers will be compensated for putting together larger lots of uniform lambs,” Thompson said. “The bigger the lot size, the higher the price they get for them. We don’t see that same advantage for the hair sheep. I think their market is segmented enough that those buyers can’t necessarily buy large lots because they are actually filling very specific orders on their direct slaughter market.”
Thompson said as is the case with most livestock, most of the time, lighter animals bring more dollars per pound, but heavier animals typically bring more dollars per head.
“For any livestock, that’s typically the case,” he said. “What we saw in the hair sheep though is as the animals get bigger, that discount relative to wool sheep actually increases. So that tells us a couple things.
“On a 70-100 pound wool lamb, there are actually two separate markets bidding for those lambs. They can just as easily go to a terminal or slaughter market somewhere or they are capable of being fed to even greater weights as they do well in a feedlot. Because they’ve also got order buyers bidding on them to put them in a feedlot, there’s more competition. They seem to get a considerably better price than the same 70-100 pound hair lamb would, which is just basically being bid on by people buying for the direct slaughter market.”
Thompson said hair sheep tend to become too fat to make feeding them for any length of time profitable in today’s markets.
He said there are basically two segments of the lamb-consuming–public. Some eat very little lamb and others eat quite a bit of lamb on a regular basis. Nationally, the per capita consumption of lamb is right around a half pound per person per year.
“But again,” he said, “the people that do eat lamb, eat quite a bit of it and that’s largely the ethnic markets, certainly on both coasts. But we’re now seeing more developing markets in the interior as well.”
Thompson said the growth in the hair sheep industry stems largely from their ease of care. He said many who become interested in the hair sheep breeds, do so because they do not require shearing, are hardy, often have multiple births and if properly managed, can quickly turn a profit. And unlike wool sheep, which are highly seasonal breeders, hair sheep can lamb year around.
“As far as price per pound, both wool and hair sheep bring the best price per pound at that 50-55 pound range,” Thompson said. “But again, as they get heavier, the price falls off quite a bit quicker for the hair sheep than for the wool sheep. There seems to be a market preference for the lighter hair sheep relative to the wool lambs.
“Both the hair and wool sheep lambs display that seasonal pattern where we see the sharp drop-off in price in June, July and August due to the seasonality of our breeding system whereby we are bringing most of our lambs to town to market. We oversupply the market in that pretty narrow window and prices decrease as a result.
“We may have a little more flexibility, a little less seasonality in the breeding of the hair sheep so we might be able to adjust our breeding season to lamb them a little bit earlier, thus wean them a little bit earlier and get them marketed before that price really falls off. Or push our breeding season forward so we can maybe market them a little bit later after the market picks back up.”
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By Jared Groce
Rural land sales are continuing on a steady pace for early spring, with prices holding very strong with the sell-to-list price ratios remaining very high, even on properties that have been on the market for a longer than usual time period. The total number of transactions are picking up once again as the spring selling season kicks off, and the average acreage continues to decrease.
Larger acreage properties seem to be in higher demand than smaller properties currently, with many buyers simply parking cash in real estate to hedge against inflation. Interest rates seem to have settled down and most experts agree that rates will be reduced by the fed this year. Some lenders have programs in place that allow the buyer to reduce their rates without having to go through a full refinance ordeal.
To read more, pick up a copy of the May issue of NTFR magazine. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
Future Farmers of America was founded by a group of farmers in 1928 with the mission of preparing the next generation of agriculture. It has done just that during its 95-year history, as the organization works to give back to others by following its motto, “learning to do, doing to learn, earning to live, living to serve.”
FFA is an organization made up of state associations, and at the helm of the Texas FFA is a team of 12 officers representing their respective areas within the Lone Star State. These individuals dedicate a year of their lives as they serve members, provide leadership, and work together with the state staff and board of directors to develop policy and lead the organization of over 177,000 members.
North Texas is represented by Area IV and Area IV, stretching from Wilbarger County to Bell County and from Runnels County to Grayson County. This year, those chosen to lead this great area are State President Isaac Hawkins Jr., Area IV, and State Vice President Weston Parr, Area V.
Parr is from the Sam Rayburn FFA chapter and the Area V Association, but the leader who now serves more than 19,100 members of Area V entered the FFA organization as a shy teenager who sat in the back of the room.
“I didn’t talk to a whole lot of people. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life or where I could see myself, so I wasn’t involved on my high school campus,” Parr recalled.
“Then I started FFA and slowly but surely, my ag teachers worked me into attending more contests, meeting new people, and speaking. I remember the first time I gave an officer speech to my chapter. I can still remember how embarrassing it was. To see the progression from that moment to speaking on stage at the state convention in front of thousands of people. Now I feel like I can enter the industry I want and be successful all because of what FFA afforded me for five years.”
There is not much Parr did not do during his time in high school. His contest participation included chapter conducting, wool judging, cotton judging, wildlife, and job interview, but his favorite was extemporaneous speaking, which he did not start until his senior year of high school.
“I wish I could go back to my freshman, sophomore, and junior years and start that sooner. I think if I had more time, I would have been more successful than I already was, but that was something I didn’t realize I liked at the time. I’m not naturally somebody who likes to speak in public, but it was actually my favorite,” Parr said.
Parr won several awards during his time competing. In 2023 alone, Parr earned the Texas FFA Service-Learning Proficiency title, was a National FFA Service-Learning Proficiency finalist, and a Texas FFA Extemporaneous Speaking finalist. In addition to his CDE and LDE events during high school, he showed commercial steers at Houston, and boilers at most major shows, participated in the county show with projects in ag mechanics, showed goats from time to time, and showed heifers until graduation.
“FFA provides invaluable resources and knowledge to be successful once you leave high school and you are out of the blue jacket for the first time. I have been a part of a lot of great organizations over the years, and they are all great in their own way, but in my opinion, FFA is the most successful at producing members of society who want to go and do something with themselves,” Parr said.
He was halfway through his time as Area V Association President and attending the national convention when he began to ponder the idea of running for state office.
“This is around the time when you usually figure out if you want to go through and be a state officer or you decide that area officer is your last run. I was unsure of where I wanted to go, but I knew I didn’t want to be done with FFA. I decided maybe it would be a good opportunity not only for me to make more friendships and connections, but also to give back to the program that allowed me to be able to do what I can do today,” Parr explained.
To read more, pick up a copy of the May issue of NTFR magazine. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
FFA is an organization made up of state associations, and at the helm of the Texas FFA is a team of 12 officers representing their respective areas within the Lone Star State. These individuals dedicate a year of their lives as they serve members, provide leadership, and work together with the state staff and board of directors to develop policy and lead the organization of over 177,000 members.
North Texas is represented by Area IV and Area IV, stretching from Wilbarger County to Bell County and from Runnels County to Grayson County. This year, those chosen to lead this great area are State President Isaac Hawkins Jr., Area IV, and State Vice President Weston Parr, Area V.
These young leaders share a drive to give back to the organization that has given to them as they work to support FFA members while preparing for a future in the agricultural industry.
From the 12 selected representatives, delegates elect a president and first vice president, with the remaining 10 serving as vice presidents from their respective area associations. The selection process consists of a popular vote by delegates at the state convention, which accounts for 40 percent of the decision, and a committee process that includes a written knowledge exam, worth 10 percent, and an interview, accounting for 50 percent. This year, after all was said and done, Hawkins was named this year’s Texas FFA President.
Hawkins grew up as part of a large, blended family with five sisters and three brothers. While he says he did not grow up in agriculture, his youth was spent outside fishing and doing all things outdoors with his father, whom he calls his best friend. As he entered Hirschi High School in Wichita Falls, Hawkins knew he wanted to be a vet but was unsure of what courses to take to set himself on that path.
“I signed up for ag principals just because they had animals in the description. The first day of class we talked about churning butter, and I went to my school counselor that same day and told her to change my schedule immediately, but she refused. She made me stay there,” Hawkins laughed. “Luckily, I had an incredible ag teacher, and she really helped me to fall in love with the program.”
To read more, pick up a copy of the May issue of NTFR magazine. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
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