Sheep Industry News August 2025

President’s Notes BEN LEHFELDT ASI PRESIDENT

Budget Time

T hese past few months have been somewhat tenuous in terms of ASI’s financial picture for the future. The Farm Bill’s delays over the past two years have stretched the 2018 Farm Bill funding to the limit and even left us unfunded for the next fiscal year. Thankfully, the staff over the years has been able to create some obligated funds that proved essential in giving us a year’s cushion to continue advocacy on behalf of the industry. The July 4th signing of President Trump’s reconciliation bill included several Farm Bill priorities. With the help of ASI staff, our lobbyists, and sheep producers, many of the sheep industry’s priorities were included as well. Our funding for the Wool Trust was part of the bill and will provide funding through 2031. This serves as the baseline for all our ASI funding and is es sential to our organization. The National Sheep Improvement Center also received an increase in funding — from $2 million over five years to a new package of $3 million over five years. Lastly, because of our meetings over the last three to four years with House and Sen ate Agriculture staff, we were able to raise the Wool LDP payment on ungraded wool to 55 cents per pound from 40 cents per pound. Not everything that is normally included in the Farm Bill made it into the reconciliation bill, so we are very happy that some of our priorities were included in both the House and Senate versions of the bill. We were able to have ASI representatives in Washington, D.C., during June to help move these items forward and keep lamb and wool top of mind. While the Wool Trust is very important, we also focused on what can be done to curb imported lamb and continued meeting with Senate and House members to help lead our sheep industry charge. We met with the U.S. Trade Representative, along with many offices — including Senator Crapo, Senator Barrasso, Senator Lummis and Senator Daines. Along with these meetings in D.C., our legal team has been gathering financial data from four meat companies. I think it is essential that we continue to put pressure on imports through the Trump administration, legislative leaders, and our legal pro cess with the 201 case. Other staff members have been diligently preparing and adjusting budgets for approval by the Wool Council, ASI Executive Board, and our ASI Board of Directors. I am so pleased with the amount of work done by Rita and Peter’s staff to help more clearly break down the financials for our boards. I know that the Wool Council alone spent three sessions and over 11 hours on Zoom (one meeting lasting nearly until 11 p.m. EST). I really appreciate our volunteer leaders spending this personal time to help make sure we are efficiently utilizing our funds. The discussions regarding how to use our funds will continue in our July Executive Board meeting and ultimately be approved by the Board of Directors. Committee and council meetings covering various aspects of the sheep industry are essential opportunities for all stake holders to participate and engage actively. If you are a member of one of these groups, please make sure to join the upcoming conference calls. Our budget and priorities should be built from what results from these discussions. Starting now, we need to build the list to be included in the fiscal year 2026–2027 budget. Thanks to our ASI staff and all our volunteers in the sheep industry. Please reach out to your regional representatives on the Executive Board and the Board of Directors to learn more about our ASI budget. Also, feel free to reach out to me and the ASI staff with any further questions or concerns.

4 • Sheep Industry News • sheepusa.org