Agricultural production statistics include results for key livestock, forestry, and arable crops.
Key facts
At 30 June 2025, the number of:
- dairy cattle was 5.7 million, down 1 percent from 2024
- beef cattle was 3.8 million, up 4 percent from 2024
- sheep was 23.3 million, down 1 percent from 2024
- deer was 712,000, no change from 2024.
| 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 |
| 2024 | 5837000 | 3679000 |
| 2025 | 5750000 | 3833000 |
| 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 |
| 2024 | 23583000 |
| 2025 | 23252000 |
| 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 |
| 2024 | 709000 |
| 2025 | 712000 |
During the year ended 30 June 2025, the area of:
- wheat harvested was 47,700 hectares, an increase of 3 percent from 2024
- barley harvested was 45,500 hectares, a decrease of 1 percent from 2024.
| Year to 30 June | Area harvested for wheat | Area harvested for barley |
| 2003 | 42600 | 63400 |
| 2004 | 39100 | 48500 |
| 2005 | 39400 | 49800 |
| 2006 | 38000 | 47100 |
| 2007 | 40500 | 51500 |
| 2008 | 42300 | 67400 |
| 2009 | 53900 | 77700 |
| 2010 | 54800 | 52300 |
| 2011 | 52600 | 64900 |
| 2012 | 54800 | 65700 |
| 2013 | 49200 | 61300 |
| 2014 | 47900 | 59300 |
| 2015 | 47700 | 64200 |
| 2016 | 49900 | 51900 |
| 2017 | 41100 | 42000 |
| 2018 | 41400 | 56300 |
| 2019 | 45000 | 55500 |
| 2020 | 45700 | 45100 |
| 2021 | 43500 | 44200 |
| 2022 | 42900 | 48200 |
| 2023 | 40500 | 50100 |
| 2024 | 46400 | 46200 |
| 2025 | 47700 | 45500 |
At 30 June 2025, New Zealand had 7.0 million hectares of grassland (excluding tussock), little change from the previous year.
| 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 |
| 2024 | 7056000 | 2042000 |
| 2025 | 7042000 | 1946000 |
Update to forestry data
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, especially in the 2016 to 2021 period, are planned.
National Exotic Forest Description as at 1 April 2025 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
Access data in Aotearoa Data Explorer
Aotearoa Data Explorer - Agriculture provides this data.
How to use Aotearoa Data Explorer contains video tutorials and a user guide.
Definitions and metadata
Agricultural production survey 2025 - DataInfo+ has information about this data, including general methodology about the collection, and data accuracy.
Agricultural production statistics - DataInfo+ provides general methodology used to produce agricultural statistics and related metadata.
Technical enquiries
Shannon McLeigh
[email protected]
ISSN 1178-0398
Next release
Agricultural production statistics: Year to June 2026 will be released in April 2027.
