New Zealand: Sheep herd drops to historic low

The trend of declining sheep in New Zealand, which has been going on for several decades, will continue this year. At least that's what the current stock estimate by industry organization Beef + Lamb New Zealand (B+LNZ) suggests, based on a survey of over 500 commercial sheep farmers.

As of June 30, 2021, there were still about 25.83 million sheep left in the country; this is 200,000 heads or 0.8% less than a year earlier. This means that although the decline was weaker than in previous years, it eventually continued.

Drought led to early slaughter

Over the past decade, New Zealand has lost a total of 5.3 million or 17% of sheep; the peak was reached in 1982, when about 70 million animals were kept on New Zealand farms. According to experts, the recent decline in numbers was caused not so much by low prices, which have fallen from the peaks of 2020, but are still above average. Rather, producers in parts of the country have been struggling with drought since the second half of 2020, leading to feed shortages and early slaughter, according to an industry association.

According to the B+LNZ livestock survey, at the end of June 2021, the number of sheep decreased by 0.5% year on year to 16.48 million HEAD. According to the study, the condition of the ewes is normal to good, and the percentage of pregnancies is higher than in the previous year. The industry association estimates that the number of lambs born in the spring in the southern hemisphere will increase by 1.6% to 23.25 million compared to the previous season.

The number of beef cattle has increased

B+LNZ also said that according to the study, the number of beef cattle was increased by about 100,000 head, or 2.5%, to 3.98 million head by farmers. This means that the trend of annual increase in livestock, which began in 2017, has continued in this sector.

And this fact will be taken into account when preparing the monthly analytical report Meatinfo.ru