New Zealand-Lamb to Dairy.

NEW ZEALAND.

DAIRY BOOM.

The change from beef and lamb production in New Zealand, to dairy farming has seen 29% of farmers making the swap.

A report by the New Zealand Meat and Wool Board (MWNZ), confirms that 845,000 hectares have switched to dairy in the last year.

This movement in the industry, coupled with the unprecedented drought conditions, have caused a massive drop in sheep and lamb numbers.

The export ewe numbers will be only 3.6 million head for 2008-9, a drop of 42%, while beef cattle at 2.06 million head, is a drop of 60 %.

The biggest economic drop is in export lamb numbers, that will be 20.3 million head for the year a decline of 23%.

Lamb exports, are the back-bone of the NZ meat export industry.