The growing economic significance of dairy farming in the Clutha District has been highlighted in agricultural statistics prepared by the Clutha Agricultural Development Board.
In a report, the board said: "The dominant place of dairy is now established", even though in August 2009 there were just 217 dairy platforms compared with 1512 sheep farms, 150 beef and 66 sheep and beef cattle farms.
The growth in dairying in the district was pronounced, with 170 dairy farms in 2002 and 212 in 2007-08, with a corresponding rise of 15% in the number of dairy cows over that period to 111,662.
In the seven years to August 2009, the report's authors estimate there had been a 28% increase in the number of dairy farms in the district.
Beef cattle numbers actually increased 3% between 2002 and 2007 to 96,166, and sheep numbers fell just 0.2% to 2.510 million.
The Clutha Agricultural Development Board report gathered information from a variety of national and local sources, and it estimated 20% of the district's farmers were dairying and 75% were predominantly sheep farmers.
The report highlights the financial disparity between sheep and beef farming and dairying.
The gross farm income of Clutha district dairy farmers in 2007-08 was estimated at $313.3 million and for all forms of sheep and beef farmers it was $189.5 million.
Farm surpluses for dairy farmers in 2007-08 were estimated at $98.9 million and for sheep and beef farmers $50.39 million.
Clutha sheep farms are more productive than the New Zealand average, with an average lambing percentage in 2007 of 128% (New Zealand average 123%).
The average size of a herd was 495 cows and the average-sized farm was 176ha at a stocking rate of 2.82 cows a hectare, 3.5% higher than in Southland.
Average production on Clutha farms was 175,745kg of milk solids a herd, or 1013kg/ms per hectare or 358kg/ms per cow.
The report said production per hectare was similar to farms in Southland but when measured per cow, it was 5% less.
Fluctuating venison prices has affected the number of deer farmers.
The number grew from 45 in 2002 to 228 in 2007 and it was 101 at present.
An estimated 30% of those derived 80% of their income from deer.
In 2007, it was estimated there were 46,000 deer farmed in the district compared with 53,400 in 2002.
Forestry remained a key industry with 28% of Otago's forestry resource in the Clutha district, that area growing 50% in the last 20 years in what was the district's most significant land use change.
Nearly three-quarters of the 82,700ha was radiata pine and 23% douglas fir with the balance eucalyptus and cypress.
In addition to four large investors in forestry, an estimated 37% of the resource was owned in holdings of less than 1000ha.
Studies have shown 28% of the resource was grown farms.
The annual Clutha harvest was between 1.4 million and 1.5 million cu m, of which 1 million to 1.1 million cu m was processed locally with the balanced chipped or sold in logs.
There were an estimated 30 farms involved in cereal cropping in the district covering an area of 2600ha, but the report said the area planted varied each year.
It was increasingly being underpinned by demand for grain and whole crop silage from the dairy sector, but demand for land from dairying was also squeezing the area devoted to cropping.