For close to 150 years, the sheep industry was the backbone of New Zealand’s economy and numbers boomed — peaking in 1982 when there were more than 70 million sheep and just 3.2 million people.

New Zealand sheep farmers are fighting to stop the loss of pasture to fast-spreading pine plantations, which earn government subsidies to soak up carbon emissions.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The vast number of sheep in New Zealand relative to the country’s scant human population has long been the subject of jokes aimed at New Zealanders abroad. It ...

Farmers try something new. In 2023, Stats NZ, a government agency, said New Zealand in 2022 dipped below five sheep per person for the first time.