Jamie Mackay: The Country host on Beef + Lamb New Zealand's latest survey results

Beef + Lamb New Zealand has released its annual Stock Number Survey for the year ending 30 June 2025.

The data shows New Zealand’s total sheep numbers fell modestly by 1 percent, and beef cattle numbers rose 4.4 percent.  

The Country's Jamie Mackay explains further.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
The Rural Report on Hither Duper see Alan Drive.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Jamie mckaye, host of the Countries with us A Jamie
good a heather. So sheep numbers are down one percent,
beef cattles up nearly well, just over.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Four yeah, okay. And on the face of a fall
of one percent for the sheep number doesn't appear to
be too bad. But worryingly, the breeding is the ones
that produced the lambs have fallen by nearly two percent.
Here's the numbers either. We're now in this country only
have When I say only, we only have twenty three

(00:33):
point three million sheep. It's about exactly one third of
what we had in nineteen eighty two. There's about four
sheep to every one of us.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Now.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
Back in the nineteen sixties, the Holy Oak years, there
was thirty sheep to every one of us. So we've
seen a real decline and sheep numbers now beef and
lamb New Zealand. This is part of their annual stock
number survey. They're estimating that two point six million stock
units have been lost to a forestation since twenty seventeen.

(01:03):
And they're saying that despite the argument from some in
the forestry industry, or the carbon farming industry. A forestation
is responsible for seventy eight percent of the total reduction
in sheep and beef stock numbers since twenty seventeen. Heither
and that leads onto the story about what Federated farmers
are on about at the moment regarding the report back

(01:25):
to Parliament.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Yeah, they say the government isn't going far enough when
it comes to banning the pines taking over productive farmland.
What do they want the government to do?

Speaker 1 (01:33):
Well, go a bit further, be a bit tougher on
the legislation. I don't know whether and I suggested this
to Wayne Langthord, the President today on my show, whether
the forestry spokesman who's also the new sheep and beef
spokesman he took over from Toby Williams. I know that
you spoke to Toby. He was the guy and behind
to save our sheep campaign. Well, Richard Dawkins said, many

(01:55):
farmers will be feeling a total sense of betrayal. That
might be over egging it a week, but he did say,
looked there's one silver lining. They've tightened the rules around
the silly intent to plant tests. So what they were
saying when they announced these restrictions at the early December
last year was if you had some seedlings and you
could prove that you'd bought them or an invoice, you

(02:17):
could go ahead and plant. They're now saying tough. If
you had the seedlings seedlings with no land to plant
them on, that doesn't count as a clear intent to plant.
I think what our Federated farmers are disappointed about heather.
In fact, to quote them extremely disappointed, is that the
ban whole farm conversions only applies to land use capability

(02:39):
classes one to five. That's the good land. Okay, So
the fads are saying, in reality, that's only about twelve
percent of farm conversions were happening on that land. Anyhow,
Dawkins said two thirds of sheep and beef farms are
on classes six and seven land, that legislation doesn't apply
to them. They can go one hundred percent if they

(03:00):
want to. Federated farmers argue that every single farm in
the country should be subject to the same twenty five
percent carbon credit limit, no matter what it's l uc
rating is. So there you go. The Feds and the
foresters are fighting.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yeah very much. So Hey, thanks very much, Jamie, talk
to you again next week. That's Jamie mckaie, host of
the Country.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
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