Wyoming Wool Growers
Mull State Checkoff

CHEYENNE, Wyo. —(AP)— Wyoming wool growers may get an alternative way to raise promotional funds if a national checkoff program for producers fails next month.

Bryce Reece, director of the Wyoming Wool Growers Association, said 14 other states have their own sheep checkoff programs to raise promotional, educational and research money. He said his organization may consider a similar program if the national measure fails.

If approved, the national checkoff program would raise an estimated $13.5 million annually from a one-cent assessment on domestic and imported lamb. Also assessed would be domestic raw wool and imported wool and textiles.

The proposal has divided the industry. Opponents say producers cannot afford the measure because prices are low and predators continue to reduce sheep numbers around the country.

Reece said the lamb and wool industry is the only major agricultural commodity industry without such a checkoff program. He said the beef checkoff raises about $75 million a year while similar programs raise more than $50 million a year for the poultry industry and $40 million to promote pork.

"If lamb is left to fend for itself with no financing, we'll lose at the customer level," Reece said.

Reece said voter turnout for the national checkoff was lighter in Wyoming and throughout the nation on Oct. 1 than it was during the first vote in February, which was invalidated because of voting irregularities. The U.S. Agriculture Department is expected to announce the results of the latest vote next month.

Wyoming producers rejected the program by more than a two-to-one margin in February, but it passed 54 percent to 46 percent nationally before the results were voided.

Reece said if the checkoff proposal fails, the Denver-based American Sheep Industry Association would run out of funding by July.

He said the WWGA fears the loss of a national voice, but said a state checkoff program could help offset it.

"We'll be 94 years old next year, and my guys are planning for the centennial," he said. "We'll go on."