Islam said farmers were always making decisions about the “most profitable use” of their land, which was likely a key driver behind the decline in sheep numbers.
The data shows deer numbers had the biggest fall of all livestock, dropping about 26% to a total of about 709,000 deer.
Dairy cattle also fell by about 13%, or 860,000 cattle over the 10-year period; the national herd is now 5.8 million.
Bucking the trend of falling livestock, however, were beef cattle, holding steady about 3.7 million.
It comes as the country’s grassland area dropped about 10% over the same time.
“This drop in grassland coincides with large decreases in livestock being farmed on that land,” Islam said.
Beef + Lamb New Zealand chief executive Alan Thomson said the rise in pine forests was driving the decline in sheep.
“Key to that is the recent land use change driven by afforestation,” Thomson said.
“So we’ve seen whole sheep and beef farms converted into forestry for carbon credits.”
Poor returns on wool were also a contributing factor, though there were some “green shoots” starting to show.
Global beef demand reaching a 30-year high was also a factor, especially as supply from the United States was “at an all-time low”.
“The price has gone ahead of sheep, so there’s been a modest conversion of sheep to cattle because of that market signal, but by far the biggest issue is these farms being converted into carbon forestry.”
Thomson said sheep and beef farming was “vital”.
“In terms of rural economies, rural communities thriving, it’s absolutely critical we maintain a thriving sheep sector.”
He said there had been a “substantial lift” in sheep meat price in recent months, and recent Government policies relating to wool and farm-to-forest conversions were helping provide great certainty for the industry.
- RNZ
