in Counties in New Zealand

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 85, Issue 5, 15 November 1952, Page 387

in Counties in New Zealand

mainly to dairying, that the total percentage for sheep farming does not stand high.

Least Intensive Sheep Farming Counties The following list gives the counties, with their percentages in parentheses, where the number of holdings devoted to sheep farming is less than 10 per cent, of the total: Eden (0.0), Waimairi (1.2), Waimate West (1.8), Heathcote (1.9), Buller (2.2), Hauraki Plains (3.0), Waitemata (3.2), Taranaki (3.9), Mangonui (4.7), Whakatane (4.7), Egmont (4.7), Ohinemuri (5.0), Thames (5.7), Bay of Islands (5.7), Whangarei (5.9), Piako (6.0), Paparua (6.1) Hokianga (6.5), Hobson (6.9), Ellesmere (7.2), Franklin (7.5), Halswell (7.5), Tauranga (7.9), Whangaroa (8.4), Waikato (9.1), Stewart Island (9.1) Manukau (9.2), Opotiki (9.7), and Taupo (9.9). ' The table below groups the counties according to their percentages:—

i otais .. /tj az iz» Sheep farming is concentrated mainly in those districts and regions which are least suitable for dairying. There are two main exceptions to this fat-lamb farming on highly suitable dairy land and milk-production farms for town supply on land which is close to the supply centre, but which necessitates high-level supplementary feeding of stock. Dairying is much more . favoured than sheep farming throughout . New Zealand, because one-man farms cost appreciably less, require less working capital and practically no reserve for poor years, and can be successfully undertaken . with much less previous experience. Dairying is not normally practised in areas of very low rainfall' or on tussock < and danthonia hill country, and fat-lamb farming is not carried out on lowlying and poorly drained alluvial flats and swamp-lands. That the incidence of sheep farming is higher than that of dairy farming in high-rainfall areas such as the back country of Taranaki and adjoining uplands from Kawhia to Waimarino may be surprising to some. This region is known as the Western Uplands, and although there is an appreciable amount of dairying in it, sheep farming is more general except in Clifton County.

Sheep farming is often practised in combination with dairying in the North Island and with cropping, but less often with dairying, in the South Island. This tendency, together with the greatly increased use of dairy-type pasture land for fat-lamb production, makes it difficult to define closely areas of use for the two main types of farming.

Percentage range North Island South Island New Zealand Over 80 2 — 2 70 and under 80 . and 2 under 4 80 . 6 2 4 6 60 and under 70 . and 4 under 4 70 . 8 4 4 8 50 and under 60 . and 6 under 7 60 . 13 6 7 13 40 and under 50 . and 12 under 50 . 6 . 12 . 18 6 18 30 and under 40 . and 7 under 7 40 . 14 . 7 7 14 20 and under 30 . and 8 under 10 30 . 18 8 10 18 10 and under 20 . and . 13 under 7 20 . 20 .13 7 • 20 Under 10 .. 10 .. . 22 . 22 7 7 29 29