Sheep numbers continue to fall

Sheep, beef cattle and deer numbers have fallen since 2007, while dairy cattle numbers have continued to rise, Statistics New Zealand said today. These results are from the provisional results of the 2008 Agricultural Production Survey.

In 2008, the national sheep flock was 12 percent lower than in 2007. At 34 million, it was less than half the 70 million recorded in 1982 when sheep numbers peaked.

Dairy cattle numbers continued to increase, reaching 5.6 million in 2008. Numbers in the national dairy herd were 6 percent higher than in 2007.

Beef cattle numbers, at 4.1 million, were 6 percent lower than in 2007 when there were 4.4 million head of cattle.

There were 1.2 million deer in 2008. Total deer numbers have fallen in recent years, and in 2008 were back to the level recorded in 1994.

There were 67,000 hectares of barley harvested during the year to 30 June 2008. This represents a 30 percent increase on the area harvested the previous year. The area of wheat harvested increased by 5 percent, to 42,500 hectares.