Agricultural production statistics include results for key livestock, forestry, and arable crops.
Key facts
At 30 June 2023, the number of:
- beef cattle was 3.7 million, down 4 percent from 2022
- sheep was 24.4 million, down 3 percent from 2022
- dairy cattle was 5.9 million, down 1 percent from 2022
- deer was 742,000, down 7 percent from 2022.
During the year ended 30 June 2023, the area of:
- wheat harvested was 40,500 hectares, a decrease of 6 percent from 2022
- barley harvested was 50,100 hectares, an increase of 4 percent from 2022.
There was a total of 13.2 million hectares of land engaged in agricultural activity at 30 June 2023, with little change from the previous year.
There was a total of 1.8 million hectares of forestry land at 30 June 2023, an increase of 2 percent (34,000 hectares) from the previous year.
| At 30 June | Total dairy cattle | Total beef cattle |
| 2002 | 5162000 | 4491000 |
| 2003 | 5102000 | 4627000 |
| 2004 | 5152000 | 4447000 |
| 2005 | 5087000 | 4424000 |
| 2006 | 5170000 | 4439000 |
| 2007 | 5261000 | 4394000 |
| 2008 | 5578000 | 4137000 |
| 2009 | 5861000 | 4101000 |
| 2010 | 5915000 | 3949000 |
| 2011 | 6175000 | 3846000 |
| 2012 | 6446000 | 3734000 |
| 2013 | 6484000 | 3699000 |
| 2014 | 6698000 | 3670000 |
| 2015 | 6486000 | 3547000 |
| 2016 | 6619000 | 3533000 |
| 2017 | 6530000 | 3616000 |
| 2018 | 6386000 | 3721000 |
| 2019 | 6261000 | 3890000 |
| 2020 | 6200000 | 3883000 |
| 2021 | 6185000 | 3965000 |
| 2022 | 5930000 | 3821000 |
| 2023 | 5885000 | 3654000 |
| At 30 June | Total sheep |
| 2002 | 39572000 |
| 2003 | 39552000 |
| 2004 | 39271000 |
| 2005 | 39880000 |
| 2006 | 40082000 |
| 2007 | 38460000 |
| 2008 | 34088000 |
| 2009 | 32384000 |
| 2010 | 32563000 |
| 2011 | 31132000 |
| 2012 | 31263000 |
| 2013 | 30787000 |
| 2014 | 29803000 |
| 2015 | 29121000 |
| 2016 | 27584000 |
| 2017 | 27527000 |
| 2018 | 27296000 |
| 2019 | 26822000 |
| 2020 | 26029000 |
| 2021 | 25733000 |
| 2022 | 25133000 |
| 2023 | 24359000 |
| At 30 June | Total deer |
| 2002 | 1648000 |
| 2003 | 1689000 |
| 2004 | 1757000 |
| 2005 | 1705000 |
| 2006 | 1587000 |
| 2007 | 1396000 |
| 2008 | 1223000 |
| 2009 | 1146000 |
| 2010 | 1123000 |
| 2011 | 1089000 |
| 2012 | 1061000 |
| 2013 | 1028000 |
| 2014 | 958000 |
| 2015 | 900000 |
| 2016 | 835000 |
| 2017 | 836000 |
| 2018 | 851000 |
| 2019 | 810000 |
| 2020 | 833000 |
| 2021 | 814000 |
| 2022 | 794000 |
| 2023 | 742000 |
| At 30 June | Total grassland (excluding tussock) | Total tussock |
| 2002 | 8243000 | 3322000 |
| 2003 | 8115000 | 3273000 |
| 2004 | 8378000 | 3030000 |
| 2005 | 8242000 | 2982000 |
| 2006 | 8144000 | 2769000 |
| 2007 | 8086000 | 2900000 |
| 2008 | 8004000 | 2849000 |
| 2009 | 8038000 | 2910000 |
| 2010 | 8010000 | 2828000 |
| 2011 | 8011000 | 2818000 |
| 2012 | 7888000 | 2741000 |
| 2013 | 7835000 | 2653000 |
| 2014 | 7865000 | 2594000 |
| 2015 | 7754000 | 2413000 |
| 2016 | 7675000 | 2331000 |
| 2017 | 7694000 | 2392000 |
| 2018 | 7549000 | 2360000 |
| 2019 | 7448000 | 2277000 |
| 2020 | 7380000 | 2173000 |
| 2021 | 7352000 | 2133000 |
| 2022 | 7082000 | 2060000 |
| 2023 | 7069000 | 2050000 |
| At 30 June | Total stock units |
| 2010 | 88199000 |
| 2011 | 87893000 |
| 2012 | 89184000 |
| 2013 | 88559000 |
| 2014 | 88835000 |
| 2015 | 86025000 |
| 2016 | 85473000 |
| 2017 | 84905000 |
| 2018 | 84498000 |
| 2019 | 84101000 |
| 2020 | 83099000 |
| 2021 | 83148000 |
| 2022 | 79984000 |
| 2023 | 78011000 |
Response rates and data quality
The final overall response rate for the Agricultural Production Survey 2023 was 70 percent. This was a lower response rate compared with the target response rate of 84 percent. This has resulted in some higher sample errors and imputation levels than previous surveys.
Revisions to previously published data
Stats NZ has updated livestock numbers for the Agricultural production statistics: Year to June 2022 (final) (released on 22 May 2023). Updates have been made to the following 2022 data:
- sheep, beef, and dairy cattle numbers
- poultry numbers
- other changes in regional totals.
During the Agricultural Production Census 2022 collection and again for the Agricultural Production Survey 2023 collection, Stats NZ received additional data from the National Exotic Forest Description (NEFD). This data related to forest not previously included in the Agricultural Production Survey/Census. Revisions to previous land use and forestry statistics are planned.
National Exotic Forest Description 2023 is the latest NEFD report of the national exotic forest.
More data
Use Infoshare to access the agriculture time series:
Subject category: Industry sectors
Group: Agriculture – AGR
NZ.Stat also has data about agriculture:
Livestock numbers by regional council
Definitions and metadata
Agricultural production survey 2023 (final) – DataInfo+ has information about this data, including general methodology about the collection, and data accuracy.
Agriculture production statistics – DataInfo+ provides general methodology used to produce agricultural statistics and related metadata.
Technical enquiries
Mark Williamson
021 218 7147
[email protected]
ISSN 1178-0398
Next release
Agricultural production statistics: Year to June 2024 (provisional) will be released on 5 December 2024.
