N.Z.’s beef herd down 7 p.c.

Press, 9 June 1980, Page 2

N.Z.’s beef herd down 7 p.c.

PA Wellington Final statistics for the 1978-79 season show that New Zealand’s sheep flock increased but that cattle numbers dropped, beef cattle falling 7 per cent. The number of pigs fell, too.

.The figures, produced by the Statistics Department, put the total dairy herd for the year ended June 30, 1979, at 2,900,000, a drop of 0.4 per cent on the 1977-78 year, although the number of dairy cows and heifers in milk or in calf, two years old and over, increased 0.9 per cent from 2,020,000 to 2,039,000. The number of beef cattle dropped 7 per cent from 5,507,000 to 5,122,000. Beef cows and breeding heifers dropped 4.9 per cent between the two years — from 1,916,000 to 1,823,000. Sheep numbers rose 4.1 per cent from 61,278,000 to 63,791,000 and breeding ewes showed a similar increase,

up 4 per cent from 43.972,000 to 45,733,000. The total number of pigs dropped 6.3 per cent, from 473,000 to 443,000, and breeding sows dropped even further, at 52,000 down 7.1 per cent on the previous season’s figure of 56,000. Land-use figures show the number of holdings increased. 1-5 per cent between the two years, from 69,401 in 1977-78 to 70,452 in 1978-79.

Land planted in grass and lucerne increased 2 per cent to 9,325,000 ha, and fallow, nursery and crop land increased 4.6 per cent to 453,000 ha. Exotic tree plantations increased 4.9 per cent to 806,000 ha, but tussock and danthonia land used for grazing fell 5.3 per cent to 4,665,000 ha. Other land on holdings dropped 0.1 per cent to 5,982,000 ha. Total land on holdings also dropped marginally, down 0.1 per cent to 21,231,000 ha.