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Story: Sheep farming

New Zealand farmers at a stock sale

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New Zealand farmers at a stock sale

Few New Zealanders now talk of farmers as ‘the backbone of the country’. But farmers are still a recognisable New Zealand type. Only one in seven New Zealanders now live in country areas, and only some of these are farmers, but the sturdy, pragmatic, independent farmer is still seen as embodying traditional Kiwi virtues.

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How to cite this page

Hugh Stringleman and Robert Peden, Sheep farming – The seasonal round, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/2490/new-zealand-farmers-at-a-stock-sale (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Hugh Stringleman and Robert Peden, published 3 March 2009, updated 1 March 2015.