Argentina: Santa Cruz producers suffer from an unbridled growth of the guanaco species and warn that there is a great job opportunity with its meat

To say that sheep farming in the province of Santa Cruz is in clear decline today is not a bold statement, far from it. If an x-ray is carried out on the stock of animals in that portion of the territory, the numbers show that from 2008 to date, the sheep stock fell by 35%, while the guanaco population increased by 400%, at least according to the statistics carried out by producers. “In Santa Cruz we had 8 million sheep heads. Last year there were a little more than 2 million, but this year we calculate that the count will give 1.8 million”, said the leader Miguel O'Byrne in June of this year, in a chat with Bichos de Campo. Thus, while the sheep reigned for more than a century in the southern region of the country, in Santa Cruz it was quickly displaced by the guanaco. According to this vision, today no less than 50% of the total worldwide stocks of this protected species are concentrated in that province. Among the main causes of this movement is climate change and the lack of ...