A further 100 sheep farmers are expected to sell off their flocks and tap into what they see as the more lucrative dairy industry by the beginning of next season.
But Beef and Lamb New Zealand's Economic Service says the number of dairy conversions is slowing down after a surge over the past three years
The service's executive director, Rob Davison, says it is well down form the 300 or so conversions of a couple of years ago, but it is too early to say whether the slowdown is due to higher lamb prices.
Mr Davison says further dairy conversions will come at a cost to the sheep industry which is predicting its lowest lamb slaughter figure in 50 years.
He says revised lamb production figures for the current season show a nearly 8% drop on earlier forecasts to 19.3 million head.
