Sheep Will Not Graze U.S. Sheep Experiment Station This Summer

Sheep Will Not Graze U.S. Sheep Experiment Station This Summer

The University of Idaho (U of I) will forgo sheep grazing at the U.S. Sheep Experiment Station (USSES) this summer due to an ongoing lawsuit. This is the second consecutive year that sheep have not grazed in the Centennial Mountains.
I spoke with Cindy Siddoway whose family’s operates a sixth-generation sheep operation in Southern Idaho about this decision and what impacts it may have for the sheep industry. She explains that the U.S. Sheep Station which is nearly 100 years old and has data that far back — is critical to the industry.
Siddoway: “They can’t do the research. If they are truly going to do research thats part of it. So there won’t be any research in those upper elevations because they won’t be there. I don’t know how long that will continue, because it is in the courts.”
So why is the higher elevation important?
Siddoway: “There is research that can be done at those higher elevations. Just from a producer’s standpoint, we use those higher elevations to finish our lambs off because sheep graze upward — that is their tendencies. So as the range starts to dry up and you get into the late summer, the sheep move up to get the better feed. That’s just what happens. And so it puts the station at a disadvantage because they can’t graze those upper elevations where the best feed is in those later months towards the end of the summer. I don’t know if they have alternative grazing in place. In our own operation from a producer standpoint they are vital to Siddoway Sheep Company to have the upper elevation. We have some that go 11,000 feet up.”

 

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