American Sheep Magazine March 2026

MEETING COVERAGE

LAMB COUNCIL UPDATE: PRODUCTIVITY, DEMAND, AND COLLABORATION

BY: TRAVIS W. HOFFMAN, PH.D., NDSU/UMN EXTENSION SHEEP SPECIALIST

Optimism was high, and the crowd was packed for the 2026 ASI Lamb Council on Friday morning of convention. Megan Wortman, ALB Executive Di rector, sparked the audience with a message of strong demand for American Lamb, and reinforcement that new dietary guidelines prioritize high quality nutrient rich proteins including red meat. Demand triumph is echoed by increases of both volume and dollar sales of American Lamb at retail in 2025. With productivity, consistency, and year-round availability as future hurdles our American Lamb Board is striving for progress via funding four research propos als, regional grazing and productivity workshops, and the exciting launch of SHEEPIQ.com, a hub for online sheep and lamb industry information.

Dr. Tom Murphy, USDA-Meat Animal Research Center reported on a previous research project evaluat ing breed impact on lamb flavor and sensory attributes. The 2015 National Lamb Quality Audit identified eating satisfaction as the primary driver of lamb con sumption. Rambouillet, South African Meat Merino and Suffolk progeny were evaluated. Rambouillet had greater roasted flavor, but also greater liver and green off-flavors. Further, the panel found 18 month-old wethers had improved tenderness, but also more liv er and green off-flavors than lamb harvested from 11 month-old wethers. Overall, the complexity of breed difference results for trained panelists were varied, and likely eating experience expectations would be negligi ble to consumers. Attendees had the opportunity to hear insight from a talented panel: David Fisher, Karissa Isaacs, Dan Lippert, and Nick Forrest, moderated by Dr. Travis Hoffman. The discussion of opportunities, challenges and innovation retrospectively looked back at the 2013 Lamb Industry Roadmap, and pro vided focus for next steps for American Lamb supply chain progress in the future. The four primary industry goals are: 1) Produc tivity Improvement, 2) Product Characteristics, 3) De mand Creation, and 4) Industry Collaboration. Discussion was diverse from improving produc tivity with production management to adding value of lambs merchandised through our marketing options. Our industry has evolved in the past 13 years with ex amples such as the emergence of solar grazing and the continued shift of lambs harvested at lighter weights. Our ASI Lamb Council audience completed a survey (n = 86), and identified the action steps with the highest impact: 1) Adopt value-based marketing, 2) Increased use of quantitative genetic selection, 3) Explore alter native market pathways, and 4) Build industry-wide communications effort. Our panelists agree that now is a great time to grow our domestic supply to ensure consistent year-round availability and recapture domes tic demand at foodservice, retail, and consumer plates. Eat American Lamb!

Dollar sales of American lamb were up

While volume sales increased 5.9%

year over year 9.4%

Dr. Tyler Cozzens, Livestock Marketing Informa tion Center, provided an overview of current economic conditions, forage and crop situations, and the supply and pricing trends for sheep and lambs in the United States. He noted that we have seen wool value increase in Fall 2025. In 2026, producers cashed checks from $225/cwt slaughter lambs and +$350/cwt non-tradi tional slaughter lambs, and we have the highest nation al lamb cutout value since July 2022. With compara tively lower carcass weights and the current conditions in both the sheep market and frozen lamb inventories, price support is expected for 2026. USDA reported a 1% U.S. sheep inventory increase, and Dr. Cozzens predicts a 2-5% increase of feeder lamb and 1-3% in crease in slaughter lamb prices for 2026. In Spring 2025, Superior Farms was awarded ALB funds for a Summer Digital Marketing Campaign focused toward Walmart and Kroger customers. Bob Mariano highlighted the American Lamb promotion that helped drive summer lamb sales on retail sites/ apps. Walmart promotion was a success, driving over $475,000 in sales of Marketside Lamb using sponsored product listings and Kroger Simple Truth Lamb adver tising of targeted digital coupons to loyalty shoppers generated $408,000 in total sales.

24