Cattle Group Says Sheep Industry is a Warning of What Could Happen

R-CALF United Stock Growers of America points to the domestic sheep industry as a warning as to what can happen to the US cattle industry. R-CALF CEO, Bill Bullard.

“And we've been looking at this for a decade and have been warning the cattle industry that the sheep industry is in fact, the canary in the coal mine. And we've shown how US production of lamb and mutton has been on a long-term decline. And at the same time, we've seen an absolute explosion of imported products coming in from foreign countries.”

As a result, our calf has filed a petition with the US trade Ambassador asking the ambassador to require an investigation under the Tariff Act of 1974.

“And it's called a global safeguard investigation. And in that investigation, what's necessary to be proved is that the imports were a substantial cause of serious injury to a US industry. And we believe that the sheep industry is just an absolute perfect example of why that Act was passed. And that's because we've seen our sheep industry just decimated we've seen a 62% decline in the number of sheep in our inventory. We have the smallest inventories in history right now in the United States. We've seen 60% of our full time sheep producers exit the industry.”

In the least, Bullard says they are seeking import restrictions such as tariffs, tariff rate quotas or a quantity related limitation.