New Zealand is primarily an agricultural country. Sixty per cent of all its production, including nearly 100% of its exports, comes from farms and is produced by only 17% of the total labour force. Within the agricultural industry sheep farming is dominant. Wool provides between one-third and one-half of the total exports and lamb and mutton about one-sixth. Over 90% of the wool and lamb produced and about 50% of the mutton is exported.

The prominent place that wool occupies in New Zealand’s farming strikes any visitor from Britain. The wool cheque naturally exceeds the income from other sources on the sheep stations of the Southern Alps where Merino sheep are grazed, but on lower hill farms selling cast-for-age or surplus two-tooth ewes to fat-lamb breeding farms and store lambs to hogget fatteners the wool cheque is still usually more than half the income.