American Sheep Magazine March 2026

4 DAYS

CONVENTION COVERAGE 2026

425 ATTENDEES 7+ AFFILIATED GROUPS MET ALONGSIDE ASI 1 KEYNOTE 40 PEOPLE ON INDUSTRY TOUR 2+ CAPITOL HILL PREP DAYS $21k RAISED AT ON-SITE RAMPAC AUCTION

Jeanne Carver of Shaniko Wool showcases a Team USA jacket alongside Make it With Wool (MIWW) members.

RENO 2026: INSIDE CONVENTION WEEK If you’re new here: welcome. If you’ve been coming for decades: welcome back to your annual mix of hard conversations, good laughs, and hallway problem-solving. ASI returned to Reno for the 2026 Annual Con vention, its first time back since 2015, with about half a dozen affiliated groups meeting alongside ASI to bring producers, research ers, extension specialists, USDA represen tatives, lamb & wool industry reps, animal health specialists, and many other partners into one room. It’s easy to take that for granted, but this convening doesn’t happen by accident. It takes work to create the space, schedule, and structure so these groups can meet, compare notes, and make progress in their own lanes while still moving the indus try forward together.

This year’s agenda hit the full spectrum: the opening session and industry-wide wel come reception set the tone, then the work kicked in: animal health and biosecurity, genetics and the push toward a scrapie-free future, policy and legislative strategy, and the ever-evolving wool conversation (from trace ability to the realities of U.S. processing). Across the next 30 pages, you’ll see what makes convention week worth it: the moments that moved the needle, the sessions that sparked debate, and the ideas that peo ple will take home and test, whether that’s a new approach to managing risk, a better way to talk about lamb with consumers, or a reminder that the industry’s best solutions usually come from the people living it.

150+ DONORS RECOGNIZED 10+ AWARDS PRESENTED

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