The number of sheep on the ranges of Montana and Wyoming has declined over the past decade.

But a few modest federal programs have helped the industry sustain itself, even increase a bit in Wyoming, and those who produce lamb and wool have enjoyed stable market prices in recent years.

Those federal programs are up for reauthorization in the 2007 Farm Bill being written by Congress, and sheep producers would like to see them continue.

And they want sheep designated as an official prescription for fighting weeds.

Sheep like those are raised by John Lehfeldt's family. They love leafy spurge and they're getting sleek this spring on the fresh vegetation responding to the generous rains.

"We can write our own ticket" this year, Lehfeldt said last week, referring to demand for his flocks. This year's landscape is the opposite of 2001, when he shipped his sheep to Towner, N.D., to eat weeds. The drought in Montana was so bad that year that even the weeds wouldn't grow.

"This year, we're quite in," Lehfeldt said. "Ourselves and six others have sheep on weeds."

Fresh leafy spurge has a protein content of 21 percent or greater, making it comparable to alfalfa hay. In addition to controlling weeds naturally, the animals fare well on the forage.

Prescribed grazing is the application of livestock foraging at a specific season, duration and intensity to accomplish vegetation management goals. Studies have demonstrated it is a promising tool to control noxious weeds.

An American Sheep Industry representative recently told Congress that cost-share programs could be directed to prescriptive grazing contracts that would provide both a feed source for sheep and a revenue stream for producers.

"Sheep are weed eaters," said Peter Orwick, executive vice president of the ASI in Denver. "We are asking that the conservation title of the Farm Bill include prescriptive grazing as a designated tool. That would be a new item."

Other woolly matters

Also on the request list for wool and lamb producers are higher loan deficiency payments, funding for the National Sheep Improvement Center and a retained ewe lamb incentive that was in effect in 2002-2004.

"We'd like the loan rate for wool set at $1.20 a pound. That figure is used in the formula as an incentive for producers to grade their wool for the export market," said Betty Sampsel of Stanford, president of the Montana Wool Growers Association.

At a $1.20 a pound loan rate, the cost would be about $20 million a year rather than the average $7 million a year under current law.

Wool is quality graded according to the size of the fiber. The thinner the fiber, the finer the wool, and the greater the price for wool processors.

"Producers that have fine wool would be encouraged to grade their wool with the higher loan rate," Sampsel said.

Since 2002, U.S. wool producers have substantially increased exports from about 20 percent of the annual clip (sheared wool) to 66 percent, Orwick said. Another 20 percent of the annual wool crop goes to military uniforms, he said.

The improvement center, initiated in the 1996 Farm Bill, provides grants and loans to industry groups for wool warehouses, slaughter and processing plants. The program would cost $20 million and would complete the $50 million authorized by the 1996 legislation.

"This is not for individuals," Sampsel said. "It has provided us with infrastructure to compete with New Zealand and Australia. Our requests are modest."

A U.S. Department of Agriculture program during 2002-2004 paid sheep producers to retain ewe lambs rather than send them to slaughter. That helped increase the national flock. The ASI would like to see that included in the Farm Bill this time.

The ewe lamb retention program was "very beneficial," according to Frank Moore of Douglas, Wyo. "It came at the right time."

Declining numbers over the past decade were very discouraging, he said.

"The program helped those who wanted to stay in business," Moore said. "It kept us at critical mass. Its real value was its results that helped rebuild.

"For those at the point of deciding to sell or keep a ewe lamb, it put it over on the keeper side," he said.

In Wyoming, sheep numbers have declined from 710,000 in 1998 to 460,000 on Jan. 1. However, the 2007 figure represented a 2 percent increase in sheep in the state from 2006.