Idaho sheep and lamb death loss
USDA NASS Quick Stats annual Idaho sheep and lamb death loss and January 1 inventory, joined to NASS's irregular Idaho cause-of-death surveys (2016, 2018, 2023, 2025), which are funded by the Idaho Animal Damage Control Board and split losses between predator and non-predator causes.
Figures
Source: USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, Sheep and Lamb Death Loss surveys. Data period 2025. Published .
| Measure | Value | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Sheep and lamb deaths2025 | 15,000 head | 2025 |
| Sheep and lamb inventory, January 12025 | 235,000 head | 2025 |
Pages built on this dataset
Publisher
- Organization
- USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service
- Publisher’s dataset
- Sheep and Lamb Death Loss surveys
- File or API used
- https://quickstats.nass.usda.gov/
- Methodology
- https://quickstats.nass.usda.gov/
Coverage
- Geography
- Idaho
- Time coverage
- 1988-2025 (annual totals); 2016, 2018, 2023, 2025 (cause surveys)
- Update frequency
- Annual (Quick Stats totals); irregular, at intervals of several years (cause surveys)
- Published
- 2026
- Retrieved
- September 8, 2026
- License of the records
- Public domain. U.S. federal government work; USDA NASS survey data are not subject to copyright.
- Rows
- 204 observations, 1988-2025
Measures
| Measure | What it measures | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| Sheep and lamb deaths | Sheep (excluding lambs) plus lambs lost to all causes in the calendar year, after docking, as NASS Quick Stats publishes it. | head |
| Sheep and lamb inventory, January 1 | Sheep and lambs on hand January 1 of the year, from NASS Quick Stats. | head |
| Sheep and lamb death loss by cause | Sheep and lamb deaths (including lambs lost before docking) attributed to each cause, exactly as NASS names it in the Idaho cause-of-death survey for that year. Published only for survey years 2016, 2018, 2023 and 2025. | head |
| Value of sheep and lamb death loss by cause | Dollar value of sheep and lamb losses attributed to each cause, as published by the NASS Idaho cause-of-death survey (the source reports thousands of dollars; this is that figure multiplied by 1,000). Published only for survey years 2016, 2018, 2023 and 2025. | usd |
Caveats
- The annual series counts lamb deaths after docking only; cause surveys also count pre-docking losses, so a survey total runs higher (22,000 versus 15,000 in 2025).
- Cause surveys are irregular, not annual; only 2016, 2018, 2023 and 2025 are published for Idaho.
- Wolves are a separate category in 2016, 2018 and 2023; in 2025 NASS folds them into 'Other/Unknown Predators' with bobcats, not a fall to zero.
- NASS states that 'Unknown Causes', 25.5 percent of 2025 deaths, may include some predator loss.
- NASS rounds each cause to the nearest 100 and does not force totals to reconcile; a residual is not assigned its own category.
- Understand Idaho pulls the annual totals through USDA's Quick Stats programmatic API, which requires a registration key; the interactive tool at quickstats.nass.usda.gov needs no key and returns the same figures. The cause surveys instead come from standalone PDF reports on the Idaho publications page linked above, which Quick Stats does not carry.
How to cite
Understand Idaho, “Sheep and Lamb Death Loss surveys”, compiled from USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, Sheep and Lamb Death Loss surveys. Retrieved September 8, 2026. https://understandidaho.com/data/nass-sheep-death-loss/.
Cite USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service directly for the figures themselves.
This page was last updated .