{"id":571458,"date":"2026-08-17T06:58:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T06:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/571458\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T06:58:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T06:58:11","slug":"beef-boom-pushes-up-nz-cattle-numbers-while-sheep-flock-continues-to-shrink-new-survey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/571458\/","title":{"rendered":"Beef boom pushes up NZ cattle numbers, while sheep flock continues to shrink – new survey"},"content":{"rendered":"

The number of farmed sheep in New Zealand continues to decline<\/a>, while a global boom for beef is driving up cattle numbers.<\/p>\n

It was estimated that Aotearoa had more than 22.7 million sheep and 3.96 million beef cattle, according to Beef and Lamb New Zealand’s latest stock numbers survey<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the year to June, sheep numbers fell an estimated 2 percent, while beef cattle numbers rose 3.3 percent.<\/p>\n

The industry group’s long-running survey combined livestock numbers from StatsNZ with a representative sample of livestock estimates from around 500 commercial sheep and beef farms.<\/p>\n

Chairperson and farmer Kate Acland said the 2025-2026 season was generally favourable for sheep and beef farmers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sheep and beef farmers, how was your 2025-26? Let us know monique.steele@rnz.co.nz<\/p>\n

There were strong livestock prices across beef particularly but also lamb, improved returns for wool, and good feed available for most, she said.<\/p>\n

“Good summer and autumn pasture growth supported stock condition, while stronger farm-gate returns enabled some farmers to increase fertiliser use, reduce debt, and strengthen their financial position.<\/p>\n

“However, conditions were more challenging in some areas, and high store livestock and input costs continued to pressure margins,” Acland said.<\/p>\n

Fewer sheep again, at 22.7 million<\/p>\n

The North Island’s sheep flock fell 3 percent to 11.14 million head in the year to June<\/a>, driven by a 6.3 percent drop in the Northland-Waikato-Bay of Plenty regions, considered as a whole.<\/p>\n

The flock in Taranaki-Manawat\u016b fell 2.5 percent, while the East Coast’s was down 1.6 percent.<\/p>\n

To the South Island, its flock fell 1.1 percent to 11.64 million sheep.<\/p>\n

Numbers were relatively stable in Marlborough-Canterbury, down 0.5 percent, as an increase in hoggets offset part of the decline in breeding ewes.<\/p>\n

Sheep numbers in Southland dropped 2.4 percent, while Otago’s fell 0.8 percent.<\/p>\n

Breeding ewe numbers fell nationwide by 1.9 percent or 268,000 head to 14.15 million, with hoggets down even further at 4.5 percent to 7.67 million head.<\/p>\n

The declining number of breeding ewes available could affect the next season’s lamb crop; however, it was forecast to be broadly stable at 19.75 million head, down just 0.3 percent, due to an estimated ewe lambing percentage of 132.3 percent.<\/p>\n

Acland said the final result would depend heavily on spring lambing conditions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The outlook for lambing and calving in spring was based on changes in breeding stock numbers, livestock condition and pregnancy scans.<\/p>\n

Beef estimates near 4-million mark again<\/p>\n

Beef numbers increased across both islands last year, the survey found.<\/p>\n

Nationally, it was the third consecutive year of increased beef numbers, reaching the latest peak of 3.96 million head in 2021, which was the highest level in the past decade.<\/p>\n

The survey showed there was a 3.2 percent increase in the North Island beef herd to 2.71 million head, in the year to June.<\/p>\n

Taranaki-Manawat\u016b recorded the largest North Island increase, up 6 percent, followed by East Coast, which grew 2.9 percent.<\/p>\n

The South Island beef cattle herd rose 3.6 percent to 1.25 million head, with a 6.7 percent increase in Southland believed to be driven by more weaners and trading cattle on finishing farms<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Acland said beef cattle rises were supported by strong returns, feed availability and farmers’ preference for trading and finishing cattle.<\/p>\n

“The world has an insatiable appetite for New Zealand beef, and these results show farmers are responding to strong market signals while continuing to produce high-quality red meat for discerning consumers around the globe.”<\/p>\n

She said the changes in livestock numbers reflected a longer-term structural shift in the livestock mix and land use.<\/p>\n

“Total sheep numbers have fallen 46 percent since 2000-01, from 42.26 million, while beef cattle were 5.6 percent below 2000-01 levels despite increasing in each of the past three years.<\/p>\n

“The long-term decline in sheep numbers reflects cumulative land-use change and changing farm policies, including dairy conversion, forestry and native planting, retirement of grazed land, urban development, and farmer decisions around labour, succession, and relative livestock returns.”<\/p>\n

Previous research by B+LNZ and the Meat Industry Association showed the red meat sector generated $48.7 billion in spending across the economy and supported one in every 20 jobs. It earned $12.8b in exports each year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The number of farmed sheep in New Zealand continues to decline, while a global boom for beef is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":571459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-571458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=571458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}