Wool Unwanted: Sheep Farming Slashed in Rostov

In the sheep farming sector of the Rostov region, there was a sharp drop in livestock numbers by the end of 2025. This was announced at the regional Legislative Assembly (Zaksobraniye) by Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the Rostov region Alexei Vasilyev. According to him, the decline is linked to falling demand for wool.

«We see a big drop. This is because our main focus in sheep farming is wool production. But today, unfortunately, no matter how hard we try, wool is not in demand as it was in Soviet times,» Vasilyev said.

The ministry sees a way out in intensive sheep breeding for meat. According to the deputy minister, complexes in the Belokalitvinsky, Morozovsky and Milyutinsky districts are ready to supply enterprises with highly productive young stock for this purpose.

«Last year we were also working on it, there is a demand for meat sheep farming. We plan to switch to it. This will solve two problems — meat production and pasture shortage,» Vasilyev said.

According to Rostovstat (Rostov Regional Statistics Service), the number of sheep and goats in the Rostov region amounted to 486,400 head by the end of 2025. That is 37.5% less than a year earlier. At the same time, not so long ago, in 2019, the sheep population in the Rostov region almost reached 1.2 million head.