Beef cattle are the standout - among reducing livestock populations over the past decade

Stats NZ reveals numbers of sheep have dropped by six-million - dairy cows are down 850-thousand, and we have 250-thousand fewer deer - compared to 2014.

But beef cattle have stayed static on about 3.7 million.

In other data, our grassland's reduced 809-thousand hectares, and kiwifruit areas grew by three-and-a-half thousand hectares.