Stocking rate
What NZ farms actually carry
Stock units per hectare on New Zealand sheep and beef farms, by farm class and region — from 1.5 on high country to 10.5 on the best finishing land. These are real farms, not a model: B+LNZ Economic Service's Sheep & Beef Farm Survey — Quintile Analysis samples about 510 of them every year.
The reason this is worth a page is that the figures are otherwise buried in per-region PDFs. The reason it is worth trusting is that nobody modelled it.
How to read these
- Observed, not recommended. This is what a sample of farms carried in one year — on their own country, with their own management, feed buying and season. It is not a target, and it is not what your farm can carry.
- A stock unit is a feed measure, not an animal. One stock unit is roughly a 55 kg ewe rearing a single lamb — about 550 kg of dry matter a year. A cow is several. Two farms with the same SU/ha can look completely different.
- Class beats region. Hard hill and finishing country in the same district differ more than the same class does across the country — which is the whole point of the classes.
Class 1 — S.I. High Country
| Region | Stock units / ha |
|---|---|
| New Zealand Extensive run country at altitude — fine wool, breeding cows and deer. Published nationally, not by region. | 1.5 |
Class 2 — S.I. Hill Country
| Region | Stock units / ha |
|---|---|
| New Zealand Traditionally store-stock country, with a significant beef-cattle share. Published nationally. | 4.9 |
| Marlborough & Canterbury Traditionally store-stock country, with a significant beef-cattle share. | 4.6 |
Class 3 — N.I. Hard Hill Country
| Region | Stock units / ha |
|---|---|
| Northland, Waikato & Bay of Plenty Steep, or low-fertility soils. A good share of stock sold store. | 7.6 |
| East Coast Steep, or low-fertility soils. A good share of stock sold store. | 7.9 |
| Taranaki & Manawatū Steep, or low-fertility soils. A good share of stock sold store. | 8.2 |
Class 4 — N.I. Hill Country
| Region | Stock units / ha |
|---|---|
| Northland, Waikato & Bay of Plenty Easier contour or better fertility than hard hill. Most stock sold forward store or prime. | 8.7 |
| East Coast Easier contour or better fertility than hard hill. Most stock sold forward store or prime. | 8.9 |
| Taranaki & Manawatū Easier contour or better fertility than hard hill. Most stock sold forward store or prime. | 9.3 |
Class 5 — N.I. Finishing
| Region | Stock units / ha |
|---|---|
| Northland, Waikato & Bay of Plenty Easy contour with the potential for high production. Most stock finished; replacements often bought in. | 10.5 |
| East Coast Easy contour with the potential for high production. Most stock finished; replacements often bought in. | 9 |
| Taranaki & Manawatū Easy contour with the potential for high production. Most stock finished; replacements often bought in. | 10.4 |
Class 6 — S.I. Finishing–Breeding
| Region | Stock units / ha |
|---|---|
| Marlborough & Canterbury Breeding or trading finishing stock, sometimes with cash cropping. The dominant South Island class. | 8.4 |
| Otago & Southland Breeding or trading finishing stock, sometimes with cash cropping. Dryland — these farms report no irrigation. | 8.4 |
Class 7 — S.I. Finishing
| Region | Stock units / ha |
|---|---|
| Otago & Southland High-producing grassland with some cash crop. Dryland — these farms report no irrigation. | 10.5 |
Class 8 — S.I. Mixed Cropping & Finishing
| Region | Stock units / ha |
|---|---|
| Marlborough & Canterbury Canterbury Plains. Most revenue comes from grain and small seed, with stock finishing alongside. | 7.9 |
About a third of the effective area on these farms is cash crop, so this is not a pasture stocking rate — the stock are carried on the remaining ground, at a much higher rate per grazed hectare.
Where these come from
Every figure is the class mean from the B+LNZ Economic Service Sheep & Beef Farm Survey — Quintile Analysis, 2023-24 (final), publication P25005. A stratified random sample of about 500 farms; the survey has run since 1950. We quote the headline means only — B+LNZ publish far more per class, including the spread between the most and least profitable fifth of farms, lambing percentage, and production per hectare.
Your farm, not the average
A stocking rate is an outcome, not an input — what your country grew, and what you chose to carry on it. Our free tools work the other end: what a mob actually needs to eat, whether the feed you have delivers it, and how your region's pasture is growing this season against its own 30-year normal.