Lamb is one of my favorite meats, but I haven't seen anything at the store that wasn't from New Zealand in years.Sheep don’t make money like they used to. No value for wool (unless it’s merino wool which it’s not) and shearing is a big expense. Only profitable product is lamb meat.
So the sheep operators probably made out ok and now don’t have to deal with sheep.
On a side if we can cut demand for lamb chops it could spur more sheep closures and give Bighorn sheep a chance with reducing contact and disease transmission.