The colors on this map indicate the areas of high sheep production in the USA, with the states shown in grey having low sheep production or no data to report.

The chart shows that most of the USA sheep production comes from colder western states that have low humidity, and may have less forage per acre.

Why is there is no significant sheep production in the Southeastern USA, which is warm, humid, and has excellent forage?

Could it be that the warm and humid conditions in the Southeastern USA produces a worm infestation that makes large commercial sheep operations using non-parasite resistant sheep breeds impractical?

Let's determine the average sheep flock size for each state:

How does Rainfall Affect Sheep Production?

The Barber's pole worm is considered the most damaging to sheep production, and it must have moisture to infect sheep.

Barber's pole worm (Haemonchus contortus) is a roundworm parasite of sheep, and depends on moisture to hatch.

The worms are up to 1 inch long and occur in the abomasum or fourth stomach of sheep and goats. Female worms have a red and white striped appearance, hence the name ‘barber's pole’.

Adult worms lay eggs which pass out in the feces of the host.

Barber's pole worms are the highest egg producers of all sheep worms. The eggs hatch within a few days and microscopic larvae emerge.

The worms migrate in films of moisture on to the pasture, where they will crawl up the grass stalks to be ingested by sheep. Dry conditions can slow or eliminate the ability of the worms to infect sheep.

In the sheep’s gut, the larvae develop into adult worms in about three weeks.

Climatic conditions determine where barber's pole worms occur and when they are most prevalent. The development of eggs and larvae is limited to areas and seasons where pastures are moist during the warm months of the year.

 

Shearing sheep is an example of a yearly labor cost.

Shearing sheep is labor intensive, and is the reason why many sheep operations use hair sheep, as they do not need to be sheared.

But shearing sheep, regardless of the time spent, is only once a year and outside labor can be contracted with large labor force to scale to any size operation, which does not affect flock size.

Using outside labor for shearing lets the price of labor to be negotiated with other competitive bidders. And the shearing process produces wool, which pays for the labor cost.

Vaccinating genetically inferior sheep to help them survive is also a once or twice a year process. Vaccinating sheep yearly, a few at a time, can scale up for large sheep flock sizes.

In comparison, the weekly FAMACHA testing and drenching with dewormer must be performed each week, which requires a fixed labor cost.

The cost of labor for testing and deworming sheep will drain the resources of any small operator that has a flock of even 100 sheep.

That is why I believe sheep farms in the Eastern USA have a average limit of around of 30 sheep in their flock.

And it is a "hard limit", as without weekly deworming and drenching almost every sheep operation in the humid Eastern USA could fail and your investment would be lost.

St. Croix Sheep May Be the Solution for Building Large, Sustainable Sheep Flocks in the Eastern USA.

The St. Croix Sheep I raise have no real labor cost. St. Croix Sheep are:

• 100% Worm Resistant, and need no FAMACHA Testing or Deworming.
• Do not need Shearing, as they are Hair Sheep.
• They do not require Vaccination.
• They do not require hoof trimming
• They lamb without assistance and do not need a lambing pen.
• They are cold hardy for Tennessee, and can be raised without a barn.
• They can be caught by hand, and do not require a sheep chute.

Note: Some St. Croix producers do use dewormers and vaccines to boost productivity by letting all of their sheep survive, which allows individuals with these negative traits to pass their genetics through the flock. They should let Nature cull the unfit, and not use chemicals.