Sheep, Beef, Deer and Wool farming
Workforce Demographics
- Around two thirds of the Shearing service workforce identify as Māori, which is the highest across all of Muka Tangata industries.
- The Sheep, Beef, Deer, and Wool industry has the oldest workforce across Muka Tangata industries. Since 2019 over one fifth of the workforce are aged 65 years or older, reflecting the owner-operator nature of farming.
- Over half the workforce for the Sheep, Beef, Deer, and Wool industries live in the North Island, with nearly one-fifth of Sheep and Beef Farming workers living in the Canterbury region.
Workforce dataset (size and demographics) 
Source: Stats NZ Integrated Data Infrastructure
In these charts, we provide two benchmarks for reference: 'agriculture, forestry and fishing' which covers all industries involved in growing crops, raising animals, growing and harvesting timber, and harvesting fish and other animals from farms or their natural habitats, and a benchmark for 'all industries' which includes every industry group in New Zealand.