In a letter from the National Sheep Industry Improvement Center (NSIIC), the American Sheep Industry Association (ASI) received confirmation that up to $10,000 will be granted to fund the "Price Insurance for Sheep: Livestock Risk Protection for Lamb (LRP-Lamb)" project.

ASI has been actively working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Risk Management Agency (RMA) to initiate a pilot program that would evaluate the effectiveness of lamb-price insurance for sheep producers of all-size operations and all geography. The proposal is a program to insure lamb prices against future declines.

"Sheep production has few to no risk-management tools available. Managing price volatility of lambs is a real need in the industry," commented Margaret Soulen Hinson, ASI executive board member and Idaho sheep producer, who has served as a point person on the LRP-Lamb project.

"We are encouraged that the sheep center is providing continued support of this project, which allows us to keep our development team together and moving forward," continued Soulen Hinson.

ASI also appreciated the center considering direct participation with our insurance partners in this project with the balance of the expenditures of this large scale initiative.

NSIIC and ASI will work to develop a "Letter of Conditions," as well as complete the necessary forms to formalize the execution of this grant program. This will be the second grant awarded by NSIIC to ASI for the development of this program which is vital to the entire industry.

"The board is offering this funding to help ASI in the ongoing efforts to further the LRP-Lamb," stated Jay Wilson, executive director for NSIIC. "Each voting member of the NSIIC board of directors is actively involved in the U.S. sheep or goat industry and feels this grant program is important for our industries."

Source: ASI Weekly
December 2, 2005

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