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Story: Arable farming

Wheat harvest, Canterbury

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Wheat harvest, Canterbury

A field of wheat is harvested on the Canterbury Plains. Traditionally, Canterbury, Otago and Southland have been the main cropping regions in New Zealand. Arable crops are grown as part of a rotation that includes cereal cash crops (wheat, barley and oats), followed by crops and pasture to feed livestock. Wheat is mostly grown for human consumption.

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Natural Sciences Image Library of New Zealand

Reference: Ag4801Rbt.jpg

by G. R. Roberts

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How to cite this page

Sue Zydenbos, Arable farming – 19th-century arable farming, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/17561/wheat-harvest-canterbury (accessed 11 June 2026).

Story by Sue Zydenbos, published 1 March 2009.

Comments

V I PORTER
15 July 2017
I'mua curious about the NZ wheat harvesting process. Can someone please tell me about this?