Concern about the economic impact of land-use changes in our farming sector

Beef and Lamb's stock number survey shows breeding ewes and beef cattle numbers are trending downwards.

Analysis also shows more than 200-thousand hectares of sheep and beef farms had been sold into forestry over the last five years.

Chief Insight Officer Julian Ashby says we need to consider what this will mean down the track.

He says 200-thousand hectares is equivalent to about five billion dollars of economic impact, so we're going to be feeling the impact of these stock number drops in the long term.