The number of livestock per hectare in Canterbury surged 42 per cent in the past 15 years as farms were converted from sheep to dairying, Stats NZ says.
The change reflected an increase in cattle numbers in Canterbury and a significant drop in the amount of land used for livestock in the region since 2003.
“There are more animals on less pastoral or grazing land,” agricultural production statistics manager Stuart Pitts said.
Although the region had traditionally been known for sheep farming, the livestock mix had changed and there were now far fewer sheep and many more dairy cows in Canterbury, he said.
In 2018, the region had about 4.4 million sheep – nearly half the eight million sheep there in 2003, figures released on Tuesday show.
However, the number of dairy cattle had more than doubled over the same period, from 560,000 in 2003 to about 1.3 million.
Canterbury had the equivalent of 7.8 stock units per hectare in 2018, compared with 5.5 per hectare in 2003. The region had about 15.3 million stock units in total, up 8 per cent from 14.2 million in 2003.
A stock unit is based on the annual feed needed for a 55kg ewe rearing a single lamb. A dairy cow is the equivalent of about seven ewes and is counted as seven stock units.
And while the national dairy herd appeared to have peaked, the number of dairy cows in Canterbury continued to edge up.
The number of dairy cattle nationally fell 2.2 per cent last year to about 6.4 million, the number of dairy cattle in Canterbury rose by 1 per cent.
Only Waikato had more dairy cattle, with 1.8 million last year. However, that was a 3 per cent drop on the previous year.
While Canterbury and some other regions in the South Island have seen more intensive farming of animals, the stock density in some North Island regions has fallen since 2003.
The biggest fall in stock units per hectare was in the Auckland region, down 25 per cent. While the amount of pastoral land had declined, the number of stock units had fallen even more.
The other notable decline was in the Hawke’s Bay region, with a 20 per cent drop in stock units per hectare between 2003 and 2018. Stock units in the region fell about two million to 5.3 million in the period.
“These falls in stocking density may reflect improved animal performance as farmers are now able to produce more from fewer animals,” Pitts said.
“For example, lambing rates have improved steadily over time, so farmers can get the same number of lambs with fewer ewes. Milk yields for dairy cows have also gone up.”
Waikato and Taranaki were the most intensively farmed regions, both had 13.7 stock units per hectare in 2018.
Nationally, beef cattle numbers were up 3 per cent from 2017 at about 3.7 million.
Manawatu-Wanganui had the most beef cattle (554,000, down 2 per cent), followed by Waikato (517,000, up 6 per cent), and Canterbury (512,000, up 10 per cent).
Nationally, the sheep flock remained relatively steady at about 27.3 million in 2018, down 1 per cent on 2017.
The regions with the most sheep – Manawatu-Wanganui (5.1 million, unchanged from 2017) and Otago (4.9 million, up 8 per cent) – helped offset a slight dip in Canterbury (4.4 million, down 1 per cent).
Source: Stuff
