Sheep numbers decline

New Zealand’s sheep numbers plummeted by almost a million last year, new data shows.

Figures from Stats NZ put the sheep population at 26 million for the year ended June 2020, a fall of 800,000 from the previous year and a far cry from the peak of 70 million sheep in 1982.

Stats NZ agricultural production statistics manager Ana Krpo said widespread drought conditions and feed shortages were a major factor in the 3 per cent fall.

‘‘Hawke’s Bay had the largest decrease. The total number of sheep fell by 12 per cent (346,000) from the previous year to a total of 2.5 million as at June last year.’’

Although the extreme weather played a part in the most recent decline, the national flock has been shrinking for almost 40 years.

Over the past 10 years alone, sheep numbers have fallen by 6.5 million, or 20 per cent. At ‘‘peak sheep’’ in 1982, New Zealand’s ratio of sheep to people was 22:1. That has now slumped to 5:1.

‘‘A strong contributing factor to the five-sheep-per-person metric was the increase in New Zealand’s population, from 3.2 million in 1982 to 5.1 million last year,’’ Krpo said.

While the value of sheepmeat exports is on the rise, reaching $4 billion in the year to June, the export value of wool continues to slide.

In 2012, wool exports were worth $880 million, but that almost halved to just $460m last year.

The national dairy herd is also in decline, falling by 7 per cent since numbers peaked at 6.7 million seven years ago.

There are now 6.2 million dairy cattle, down 1 per cent from 2020, but despite the smaller herd, export volumes have remained relatively steady over the past five years, Krpo said.

‘‘The annual value of dairy product exports increased to almost $16b in 2014 when international prices were high, before falling back to almost

$11b in 2016, and returning to

$16.6b for the year ended June

2020.’’

Total beef cattle numbers have remained steady, with little change between the June

2020 beef cattle total of 3.9 million and previous years.

Total beef exports were worth about $3.8b for the year ended June 2020, up from $3.3b in the year before.

At ‘‘peak sheep’’ in 1982, New Zealand’s ratio of sheep to people was 22:1. That has now slumped to 5:1.