"Drought and dairy expansion have slashed the size of the national sheep flock by 2.8 percent - down to 33.14 million from 34.09 million a year ago.
This is equivalent to just 7.6 sheep for each person in New Zealand - a long way from the 1982 peak of 22 per head of population when there were 70.3 million sheep.
Changes in land use - such as the current dairy boom - have meant the land used for sheep farming has been slashed since Government subsidies for sheep were axed in 1984."
No excuse for anymore sheep jokes now.....'cause there just simply aint enough to go around.
