A government backlog of approval of H2A immigrant workers by the U.S. Department of Labor is costing the sheep industry money and product. American Sheep Industry Association Executive Director Peter Orwick says they’ve been working on this problem voicing their concerns to the Labor Department, Department of Homeland Security and Congress since March 1.

He says those sheepherders under the H2A program are needed year around.

Orwick says each producer and state sheep association needs to weigh in on this and contact their members of Congress to push the administration and these agencies to solve this backlog problem.

Orwick says it’s particularly frustrating that last year the sheep industry went through a government rewrite of the rules they need to adhere to through the H2A program and now the government isn’t doing their job keeping up with the program.