ALB hired a Sustainability Director and funded several new sustainability projects to promote the sheep industry’s commitment to sustainability, and to quantify and improve the industry’s environmental impacts.  ALB is working with Michigan State University (MSU) to evaluate the sheep industry’s environmental footprint including emissions estimates and to develop mitigation strategies and an emissions calculator.  

ALB also received a USDA Climate-Smart Commodities Grant to quantify the impacts of targeted sheep grazing in four pilot areas including a solar grazing site.   In year one, ALB will be working with multiple universities to measure and report carbon sequestration, soil health, and other associated benefits and ecosystem services provided by prescribed sheep grazing in CA, TX, MT, and NC.  The climate benefits of sheep grazing on these sites will be compared with the associated livestock emissions using the MSU model for evaluating the operation’s environmental footprint.

The grant also provides an opportunity for 150 sheep producers to enroll in the program to amplify the climate smart sheep practices and environmental data and metrics beyond the four pilot grazing sites.  Each enrolled producer will work with a Technical Assistance (TA) Provider to establish operational plans, implement recommended changes and organize farm data that will be needed to estimate emissions.  Producers enrolled in the program will be paid up to $7,000 to develop and implement climate-smart sheep management practices, and to measure and report emissions/LCA.The enrollment application will be live on September 1, 2024.  Producers will be notified by December 15, 2024 if they have been accepted and the program will begin January 1, 2025.  Producers will receive one-third of the payment upon completion of the contract and the remaining two-thirds once the TA validates that all implementation requirements have been met.  The review committee will select producer applicants based on factors such as geographic location, and type and size of operation.  In addition, half of the selected participants s will be small and/or historically underserved producers.